The advertising business within ChatGPT has rapidly transformed from an experiment into a significant source of income. OpenAI announced that its advertising product reached annual revenue of $1 billion in less than 200 days, placing ChatGPT among the fastest-growing advertising platforms in technology history. In connection with this achievement, the company is opening up self-service services for new markets, despite increased scrutiny from European regulators.
Initially, ChatGPT's advertising business operated on a managed sales model, relying on agencies and technology partners to attract advertisers. This model has scaled significantly: the product is now available in over 40 countries and supported by an ecosystem of more than 50 technology and measurement partners. Reports indicate that tens of thousands of advertisers use the system to run campaigns.
The turning point was the introduction of Ads Manager—a self-service tool that allowed small and medium-sized businesses to purchase ads directly, bypassing the need for a managed contract. OpenAI claims that small and medium-sized businesses already constitute a substantial portion of total advertising revenue, and advertisers outside the US are contributing an increasing share of this volume, with some of the largest clients running simultaneous campaigns in different countries.
The next phase of expansion is underway: Ads Manager access is now open in India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Businesses in these regions, which previously could only advertise in ChatGPT through partner or managed channels, can now independently create an account and launch a campaign.
How advertisements actually work
The core mechanism is based on dialogue context. The OpenAI system analyzes the topic the user is currently discussing with ChatGPT and selects a relevant advertisement. The idea is that users often approach ChatGPT at the decision-making stage—whether comparing purchases, planning renovations, or researching career opportunities. Depending on the country and user settings, targeting may rely not only on the current conversation but also on the user's general interests and ChatGPT usage.
OpenAI states that advertisements are clearly labeled and visually separated from ChatGPT's actual responses, insisting that advertising does not influence the information provided by the assistant. Advertisers do not have access to private conversations, and users maintain control over how personalization is applied. Regarding measurement, the platform now supports cost-per-click bidding and results optimization, pixel integrations, and Conversions API for tracking outcomes, as well as tools like product feeds and audience targeting similar to mature industry advertising platforms.
Increased EU oversight
The timing of this expansion is notable because it coincides with heightened regulatory attention in one of the regions gaining self-service access. The European Commission classified ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act. This status is assigned to a service that demonstrates an average monthly audience of at least 45 million users in the EU. Similar designations have been given to Reddit and Roblox.
This classification is important because it designates ChatGPT as a hybrid service—an artificial intelligence system that also functions as a search engine, retrieving information from the internet in response to queries. Such a classification imposes an additional set of obligations on top of existing general rules, including requirements for assessing and mitigating systemic risks related to illegal content, harm to minors, mental and physical well-being of users, protection of legitimate rights, as well as threats to elections and public safety. OpenAI has four months from notification to comply, setting a deadline of January 2027. Oversight will be conducted jointly by the European Commission and the Irish Digital Services Coordinator, reflecting OpenAI's legal basis for operations in the EU.
A high-ranking Commission official noted that these designations subject platforms to closer examination due to their reach and influence in the EU, adding that the Commission will continue to apply the same threshold to other relevant services in the future. In total, the bloc has designated 28 very large platforms and search engines under the DSA.
What's next
OpenAI reports that internal metrics for user trust and ad relevance remained stable during the rollout, although it does not publish supporting data. As proof of format effectiveness, the company cites early results from advertisers, including a claimed threefold return on ad spend for one e-commerce client and a majority new client rate for another partner.
The company plans further geographical expansion, the introduction of new ad formats and bidding options, as well as unspecified 'more native' ways for businesses to interact with users within dialogues. Whether growth continues at the current pace may depend on both Brussels and Silicon Valley. Since ChatGPT's advertising business is entering new markets, the EU compliance clock is running in parallel, reminding that scaling an advertising platform within conversational AI entails a different level of regulatory attention than a traditional ad network.