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How to advertise in AI assistants: what is live now

Four cables plug into one large answer card from different places: a red-tagged ad card, two search cards, a shopping bag.
Published on
October 26, 2026

Key point. You can advertise in four AI assistants today: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot and Amazon's shopping assistant. ChatGPT is the only one with its own sign-up and its own minimum budget: $25 a day in the US, the standard minimum on OpenAI's Daily budgets page (verified October 22, 2026). The other three use the ad accounts you may already have.

Four AI assistants sell ads you can buy today, and each one starts in a different place. ChatGPT has its own self-serve Ads Manager. Google and Microsoft place ads from your ordinary search and shopping campaigns next to or inside their AI answers. Amazon adds sponsored prompts to its shopping assistant for U.S. sellers.

Programs like these change every few weeks. ChatGPT ads went from a U.S. test in February 2026 to 89 countries in October. So this guide sticks to what each company's own pages say, with the date each page was read.

Which AI assistants sell ads right now?

Four AI assistants sell ads right now to ordinary businesses, as of October 21, 2026:

  • ChatGPT. Live in 89 countries. Ads show to users on the Free and Go plans; OpenAI's help center says "Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads."
  • Google AI Overviews. Ads can show above or below AI Overviews in more than 200 markets, and inside them in English in 12 countries, including the United States and Canada.
  • Google AI Mode. Still a test in the United States, with new ad formats being tried since May 2026.
  • Microsoft Copilot. Ads from eligible Microsoft Advertising campaigns show in Copilot's answers.
  • Amazon. Sponsored prompts in the shopping assistant that Amazon renamed from Rufus to Alexa for Shopping, for U.S. sellers.

Some assistants sell no ads at all. Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub says "Your Gemini Apps chats are not being used to show you ads." Anthropic has said Claude will stay ad-free. Perplexity's help center says advertisers "cannot pay to list their products" in its shopping results, and press reports say it stopped selling its sponsored questions. X said in 2025 that ads would come to Grok answers, but its advertising documentation lists no Grok placement yet. Meta has not opened ads inside Meta AI; on its October 21, 2026 earnings call it listed advertising among the ways it plans to earn from its AI products, with revenue expected from 2027.

How do I start advertising on ChatGPT?

To start advertising on ChatGPT, sign up at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI account. OpenAI's account setup guide walks through four steps:

  1. Choose Login or Sign up and use the OpenAI account you already use for ChatGPT.
  2. Enter your website. Ads Manager uses it to draft a first ad, which you can edit.
  3. Enter your business name, country, currency and time zone. Check them carefully: OpenAI says these three "cannot be changed after account creation."
  4. Add a card in Billing. Campaigns do not run until billing is set up and the ads pass review.

Self-serve is only open to businesses whose billed legal entity sits in a supported country. OpenAI's availability list showed 89 countries on October 21, 2026, Canada and the United States among them. A new account may at first advertise only in its home country: OpenAI's campaign guide says it can add other supported countries once identity verification is approved and it has spent a required amount at home. Larger advertisers can ask for sales support through a form on the same site.

Which ad formats can you buy in ChatGPT?

Most advertisers buy one format in ChatGPT today: a sponsored unit below the answer, with your name, logo, headline, description, image and landing page. Retailers can also run product ads from a product feed in Ads Manager; OpenAI's product feed guide says those products appear in ads only and "will not appear in organic ChatGPT conversations." Two newer formats are not open to everyone: a visual ad shown while ChatGPT generates an image, which OpenAI's help center says is in testing, and Sponsored Agents, ads that open a chat with a business's AI representative, which are in a limited alpha that is "not accepting early access requests" (both verified October 21, 2026).

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

ChatGPT ads cost as little as $25 a day in the US, and each view or click is priced in an auction. OpenAI's basics page says it "supports impression and valid-click billing": you pick a maximum price per 1,000 views or per click. For click campaigns, OpenAI recommends starting with a maximum bid of $3 to $5 per click.

OpenAI's budget page says "The standard minimum for the US in USD is $25" a day, and a daily budget is an average over seven days, so one day can spend up to twice that. Accounts billed in other currencies have their own minimums in OpenAI's campaign guide, for example 25 Canadian dollars, 15 pounds or 15 euros a day. The six-figure commitments reported in the press for the first pilot in early 2026 no longer apply to self-serve accounts. In October 2026, the ads site also offered new advertisers "$500 ad credit on us when you spend $500" (verified October 22, 2026); promotions like that change, so check the current offer.

One setting deserves attention before you launch. OpenAI's creative enhancements page says that from October 31, 2026 the feature is on by default (verified October 26, 2026). It can rewrite your headline and description, translate them, and send people to a different page on your site, and the rewritten ads "can run automatically without requiring you to review or approve each version." If your industry needs approved wording, turn it off in Ads Manager.

How do I get my ads into Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode?

To get your ads into Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, run ordinary Search, Shopping or Performance Max campaigns: you do not buy AI Overviews separately. Google's help page on ads and AI Overviews says text and Shopping ads "from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible to show within the AI Overviews." To be matched, Search campaigns need broad match or AI Max. You cannot target the placement, you cannot opt out, and Google "currently doesn't offer segmented reporting" for ads inside AI Overviews; they are counted as Top Ads.

AI Mode works the same way, with more testing. At Google Marketing Live 2026, Google said it was testing two new formats, Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, both labeled "Sponsored," and told advertisers to prepare with AI Max for Search, AI Max for Shopping and Performance Max. If you sell products, a clean Merchant Center feed is part of the same work.

How do I advertise in Microsoft Copilot?

To advertise in Microsoft Copilot, use an ordinary Microsoft Advertising account. Microsoft's help page on ads in Copilot says "all eligible campaign and ad types are automatically opted in" and that advertisers cannot opt out. Eligible ads include Search ads with a logo, Shopping and Performance Max product ads, and multimedia ads, so adding a logo to your Search ads is the one setup step people miss. Pricing is the campaign's own auction. The same page says Microsoft "does not currently support specific metrics for ads served in Copilot," so you will not see Copilot as its own line in reports.

How do I advertise in Amazon's shopping assistant?

To advertise in Amazon's shopping assistant, run Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands campaigns. Amazon adds sponsored prompts to them: short suggested questions on product pages and in search results that can open a conversation in the assistant. Amazon's announcement says they reached general availability in the U.S. on March 25, 2026, that Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns "will be automatically enrolled," and that clicks are charged within your existing cost-per-click bids. A Prompts report shows impressions, clicks, spend and sales for each prompt. You need an Amazon Ads account and a Professional selling account to start.

How do I measure ads inside AI answers?

Measuring ads inside AI answers takes your own tracking, because ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft report little about them. ChatGPT's Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average cost and conversions, and supports tracking parameters on your landing pages. Google and Microsoft fold AI placements into their normal reports. So build your own view:

  • Put tracking parameters (UTMs) on every ad's landing page, with the platform and the placement in them.
  • Send AI ad traffic to pages that answer the question the ad was matched to, not to your home page.
  • Compare against the same questions asked in each assistant without ads: are you already cited in the answer?

Should you buy ads or work on being cited?

Most small businesses should work on being cited first and buy ads second. Every one of these ads is labeled as sponsored and kept apart from the assistant's own answer, and OpenAI says advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT gives. If the assistant already names you in the answer, a small ad budget can test whether the extra visibility pays. If it names a competitor instead, the ad competes with the answer the buyer just read. Our wider guide to paid ads in AI covers the evidence and the risks, such as competitors buying ads on your brand comparisons.

Frequently asked questions

Can I advertise in ChatGPT from Canada?

Yes. OpenAI's Ads Manager availability list showed Canada as available for self-serve on October 21, 2026, and the minimum daily budget for an account billed in Canadian dollars is CAD 25. The business that is billed must be based in a listed country, and you choose your country, currency and time zone when you open the account. Those three settings cannot be changed later, so pick them before you start. A new account may at first reach only people in its home country.

Is there a minimum spend for ChatGPT ads?

There is no upfront commitment for self-serve accounts. OpenAI's Daily budgets page sets a standard minimum daily budget of $25 in the United States, averaged over a 7-day period (verified October 22, 2026). Early pilot advertisers in 2026 faced much larger commitments, according to press reports, but those terms applied to the invitation-only test, not to today's self-serve accounts.

Do I need a separate campaign for ads in Google's AI Overviews?

No. Google places ads from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns in AI Overviews when they match the query and the overview's content. Search campaigns need broad match or AI Max to qualify. You cannot target or exclude the placement, and Google does not report it separately.

Can I advertise in Gemini, Claude or Perplexity?

Not inside the assistants themselves. Google says Gemini app chats are not being used to show ads, Anthropic has said Claude will remain ad-free, and Perplexity says advertisers cannot pay for placement in its shopping results. You can still reach people who use them through ordinary search and social ads.

Work with us

If you want a team to get your company named inside AI answers, our managed AEO services do that work with you: Book a call. If you would rather see where you stand first, Lenz gives you a free analysis of how ChatGPT and Gemini answer questions about your market: Get the free report.

How this page was made

Dr. Mehrdad Mehrbod wrote this page with the help of an AI writing assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic), working from each company's own advertising and help pages, which were read on October 21, 2026. OpenAI's budget, bidding and ad-credit pages were read again on October 22, 2026, and every OpenAI page cited here on October 26, 2026. Soroush Mehri reviewed the page, and Dr. Mehrdad Mehrbod approved it for publication.

Sources

  • OpenAI, "ChatGPT Ads expands to 26 new countries as over 100,000 advertisers have used the platform", October 21, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: openai.com
  • OpenAI Help Center, "Ads in ChatGPT", "Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics", "Ads Manager Account Setup", "Ads Manager Availability", "Daily budgets", "Create Campaigns for ChatGPT Ads", "Create Campaigns from Product Feeds", "Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads" and "Creative enhancements for ChatGPT Ads", verified October 21, 2026 ("Daily budgets" and "Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics" again October 22, 2026): help.openai.com
  • Meta, "Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call" transcript, October 21, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: investor.atmeta.com
  • OpenAI Ads, "Advertise in ChatGPT", verified October 22, 2026: ads.openai.com
  • Google Ads Help, "About ads and AI Overviews", verified October 21, 2026: support.google.com
  • Google, "A new generation of ads for the AI era of Search", May 20, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: blog.google
  • Google, Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, verified October 21, 2026: support.google.com
  • Microsoft Advertising, "About ads in Copilot", last updated June 19, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: learn.microsoft.com
  • Amazon Ads, "Sponsored Products prompts and Sponsored Brands prompts", March 10, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: advertising.amazon.com
  • Amazon, "Meet Alexa for Shopping", May 13, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: aboutamazon.com
  • Perplexity Help Center, "What is Instant Buy?", August 29, 2026, verified October 21, 2026: perplexity.ai
Dr. Med Mehrbod
Written byDr. Mehrdad "Med" MehrbodCo-Founder and Chief Product Officer

Known professionally as Dr. Med with 12+ years of experience implementing AI products. Strategic advisor to multiple successful founders including a unicorn, US patent holder. Ex-SOTI, UC Berkeley PhD.

Soroush Mehri
Reviewed bySoroush MehriCo-Founder and Chief AI Officer

Ex-Microsoft. 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, MSc from Université de Montréal (Mila). US patent holder.