Written and reviewed by Bc. Petr Kučera, MSc., MBA
This article brings together official information from OpenAI, what the first Czech and international advertisers have published, and our own reading of who a test makes sense for. For every number we state the source, the sample and the author’s interest, and we say so when the author sells ChatGPT advertising or a related tool.
The industry rules follow OpenAI Ad Policies version 1.6, dated 10 September 2026. Since March 2026 they have changed six times, from v1.0 to v1.6, so the list of industries reflects the state as of this article’s date. Check the numbers, limits and policies again before you launch.
the ad appears below the answer, labeled and set apart from it. It is selected based on the conversation context and the advertiser’s context hints, not keywords. Advertisers see only aggregated metrics, not queries or conversations.
| Question | Status as of 29 September 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the ad shown? | Below the end of the ChatGPT answer, labeled as sponsored | OpenAI |
| Who sees ads? | Adult users of Free and Go, including logged-out users | OpenAI |
| Who does not see ads? | Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, Edu; people under 18; temporary chats; ChatGPT Atlas during the test | OpenAI |
| Personalization in the EEA and Switzerland? | None; ads are selected based on the current conversation, approximate location and language | OpenAI |
| What does reporting show? | Only aggregated metrics: impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, CPM and conversions | OpenAI |
| How is targeting set? | Context hints at ad group level: guidance, not keywords | OpenAI |
| What kind of auction? | Second-price auction weighted by relevance | OpenAI |
| How are you billed? | CPM, CPC or conversion optimization; no payment per conversion | OpenAI |
| Account structure? | Campaign, then ad group, then ad | OpenAI |
| Which formats? | Text card; product feed ads in the Czech Republic not delivered as of 24 September 2026; Sponsored Agents in limited alpha for selected advertisers | OpenAI, RUJZL |
New to paid advertising? Start with our guide to how PPC campaigns work. It covers the general principles of auctions, bids and conversion tracking.
OpenAI’s help center puts it this way: “Ads can appear below the end of a response. Ads are clearly labeled as sponsored.” Below one answer there can be one or more ad units, and one unit can carry items from one or more advertisers (“one or more ad units … one or more items from an advertiser, or multiple advertisers”) (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
Proof that it works in Czech, too, comes from the agency RUJZL, which published a screenshot of its own ad with a Czech headline displayed below a ChatGPT answer.
Ads are shown to users of the Free and Go plans, including people who are not logged in. Users of Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu see no ads, and neither do accounts of people under 18 (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
Temporary Chats carry no ads, and neither does ChatGPT Atlas during the test. Free users can switch to Ads-Free. In exchange, they get lower message limits and lose some tools, such as image generation and deep research (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
OpenAI declares that ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers and are always kept separate and labeled (“Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you… Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.”) (OpenAI, Our approach to advertising). This is a declaration, not an independent audit.
According to OpenAI, an ad is a paid placement, not a recommendation of the advertiser or its product: “seeing an ad doesn’t mean OpenAI endorses or recommends the advertiser.” By default, ChatGPT itself has no access to the ads a user is shown (“By default, ChatGPT can’t see the ads shown to you”). Users can choose Hide ad, Report ad, About this ad or Ask ChatGPT (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
A later section covers whether paid ads make a brand mention in the answer more likely, and how paid and unpaid recommendations differ.
In the EEA and Switzerland, ads are not personalized for now. They are selected based on the current conversation, approximate location and language (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
Turning off ad personalization does not turn off ads. Ads are then selected only by the context of the current chat (“you will still see ads based on the context of your current chat thread”) (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT). What that means for custom audiences is covered in the section on what works in the Czech Republic.
Advertisers receive aggregated information that does not identify anyone. They have no access to users’ chats, history or memory. Users have the About this ad and Ask ChatGPT options (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
You will not see the specific queries or conversations in which your ad appeared. OpenAI reports only aggregated impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, CPM and conversions.
Digichef also reports that geographic reporting is limited to country level, with no report on queries or conversation topics. Its account used the Czech interface (Digichef).
Context hints are guidance, not keywords. They do not guarantee that your ad will be shown, and you cannot use them to exclude anything (OpenAI, Write context hints).
You write context hints at ad group level. OpenAI asks for “a clear, natural phrase focused on one idea rather than a list of disconnected keywords.” Hints are not targeting rules. They do not guarantee impressions, and they do not set geography, scheduling or exclusions (OpenAI, Write context hints). How hints performed in published campaigns is covered in the section on results.
According to OpenAI, it is a second-price auction weighted by relevance (“relevance-weighted, second-price auction”) (OpenAI, The basics).
There are three campaign goals. The Views objective uses CPM billing, per thousand impressions; the Clicks objective uses CPC billing, per click. Conversions optimizes for conversions and bills per click, or per impression for eligible advertisers. There is no payment per conversion (“Ads are not billed per conversion”) (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
The account structure runs from campaign to ad group to ad. OpenAI recommends several ad groups per campaign so you can test different topics, value propositions or messages (OpenAI, Quickstart; OpenAI, Create campaigns).
The text format is called chat_card. Its hard API limits are a title of 3 to 50 characters and a description of up to 100 characters. OpenAI recommends a title of 16 to 24 characters and a description of 32 to 48 characters (OpenAI, API reference; OpenAI, Bulk upload checklist).
You can target these platforms: Android app, Android web, Desktop web, iOS app and iOS web. The campaign start and end dates define the period in which the ads are eligible for delivery (OpenAI, Create campaigns).
Product feed ads are an existing format, but as of 24 September 2026 they were not being delivered in the Czech Republic. More on that in the section on what works in the Czech Republic. With Sponsored Agents, a click takes the user into a conversation with the brand’s AI agent. OpenAI has been testing them since 16 September 2026 with selected advertisers in the USA, and there is no public performance data yet. The format is a limited alpha for selected advertisers and OpenAI is not accepting applications (OpenAI, Sponsored Agents). So do not count on it for a Czech self-serve account.
advertising started in February 2026 as an expensive pilot in the USA with a high minimum commitment. Self-serve buying followed in the USA in May and in Europe at the end of August. Ads appeared in the Czech Republic in late August, and as of this article’s date Ads Manager is still in Beta.
The minimum commitment of USD 250,000, later USD 50,000, applied only to the pilot (Digiday). The self-serve Ads Manager has no such commitment. What counts there is the daily minimum, covered in the pricing section.
OpenAI launched the self-serve Ads Manager in the USA on 5 May 2026 (Similarweb) and in Europe on 31 August 2026 (OpenAI). The European announcement mentions 31 markets but does not name the Czech Republic (OpenAI). The availability list, however, shows the Czech Republic as “Available”, and your company must be based in a country on the list (OpenAI, Ads Manager availability).
According to the OpenAI help center, Ads Manager is available in 63 countries (OpenAI, Ads Manager availability). New accounts may at first be limited to their home country (OpenAI, Troubleshooting).
By 8 June 2026, the number of weekly active advertisers grew from 2,585 to 3,770, and the USA accounted for 71.6% of impressions, according to Similarweb. Similarweb sells advertising data.
the minimum is CZK 350 a day for an account billed in CZK, and the smallest 30-day test comes to roughly CZK 10,500. In the first Czech campaigns, sources reporting in CZK put the click price anywhere from a few Czech korunas to roughly CZK 40. OpenAI has no performance benchmarks for ChatGPT Ads yet, and the recommended USD 3 to 5 per click is not a Czech price. In the Czech campaigns described so far, a bid that was too low meant zero delivery, not just lower volume; in the French and British campaigns described, even low bids delivered, but in some US campaigns they did not.
The daily minimum depends on the account currency: CZK 350, EUR 15 or USD 25 (OpenAI, Create campaigns).
The daily budget works as an average over seven days. On a single day the campaign can spend up to twice the daily budget, and over seven days at most seven times the daily budget (OpenAI, Create campaigns). The budget week runs from Sunday to Saturday in your account’s time zone. If you use up the week’s budget early, delivery may stop until the next week, even though the campaign stays active (OpenAI, Create campaigns).
At the minimum of CZK 350 a day, a single day can cost up to CZK 700 and seven days at most CZK 2,450. The smallest 30-day test comes to roughly CZK 10,500. These are our own calculations (350 × 2, 350 × 7 and 350 × 30) based on the OpenAI help center.
| Period at CZK 350 a day | Amount |
|---|---|
| One day, at most 2× | up to CZK 700 |
| Seven days, at most 7× | up to CZK 2,450 |
| Smallest test, 30 days (30×) | roughly CZK 10,500 |
The official table of minimums lists CZK 350, and the account currency cannot be changed once the account is created (OpenAI, Create campaigns). Yet as of 24 September 2026, the agency RUJZL wrote that billing was in euros and “CZK is not available yet” (RUJZL). Digichef gives a minimum daily budget of EUR 15 for Czech accounts (Digichef). Public sources do not show what applies to a new account today, so check the currency in the sign-up form.
With CPM, you pay per thousand impressions; with CPC, per click. Conversion optimization is billed as oCPC, or as oCPM for eligible advertisers. You do not pay for the conversion itself (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
Self-serve accounts pay by card. Eligible advertisers managed by OpenAI’s sales team may be invoiced instead (“Invoice billing”). Self-serve billing works in arrears: spend accumulates, and your card is charged when you reach the payment threshold or at the end of the month (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
After you add a card, your bank may show a temporary authorization hold. It is not a payment. The settings page shows the expected amount, and the hold can stay visible for 8 days or longer (OpenAI, Billing and payment). Practitioners (Proficio, Kaplan) report a hold of USD 100 (Proficio, Jakub Kaplan). On 4 September 2026, the user alchemist.inc from India described the same experience on the OpenAI Community forum: right after adding a card, an authorization hold of around USD 100 appeared (“~USD 100 authorisation hold appeared immediately”) (OpenAI Community). Officially the amount varies; USD 100 is what practitioners have seen, not a rule.
The Czech data come from the first text campaigns of September 2026, with small samples, and from authors who often sell ChatGPT advertising or courses on it. Read the figures as a range with a stated origin, not as a price list.
| Source | Period and sample | CPC | Caveats and author’s interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLACEMENT (Jakub Herrmann) | 5 client accounts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 1 to 15 September 2026: 106,000 impressions, 1,844 clicks, 15 conversions, CTR 0.7 to 4.7% | CZK 3 to 39 | The author himself: “Observations, not statistics.” PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising (agency, webinar on 8 October 2026) |
| PLACEMENT, two published campaigns | 1 to 17 September: 802 clicks, CTR over 4.5%, 8 conversions at CZK 280 to 314 each | CZK 3.05 on average | PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising |
| Jiří Navrátil | Own campaign for PPC services, 1 to 9 September 2026: 5,394 impressions, 69 clicks, CTR 1.28%, spend EUR 89.20, 0 conversions, bid EUR 2.50 | EUR 1.29 | He does not treat the figures as a price list |
| RUJZL | First days: 3,525 impressions and 40 clicks; one day: 1,671 impressions and 23 clicks, CTR 1.4% | EUR 0.70; on that day paid EUR 0.72 | |
| Jindřich Fáborský (AI First) | Two accounts; CTR around 1% | Average CZK 9 and CZK 24; daily swings of CZK 3 to 43 | Sells a course on the topic; in his words, analytics are “almost nonexistent so far” |
| Barbora Nemravová | Managed accounts; CPM EUR 5 to 20 | EUR 0.5 to 2 | She calls it an “early read” |
| Lucie Thiemlová (Srovname.cz) | Sample not stated | EUR 0.5 to 1 | In her view, fairly high |
| Advisio (Václav Sliž) | “from early experience”, sample not stated | CZK 15 to 30 | |
| DigiChef (David Janoušek) | No sample | “around EUR 1” | |
| Petra Vetrovská | Travel content website, first 6 days | CZK 1.49 | Numbers available only in an image |
From these data we derive three values. For PLACEMENT, overall CTR comes to 1.74% and the click-to-conversion rate to 0.81% (1,844 / 106,000 and 15 / 1,844) (PLACEMENT). For RUJZL, CTR over the first days comes to 1.13% (40 / 3,525) (RUJZL).
PLACEMENT reports service conversions costing CZK 148 to 300 and an ecommerce order costing around CZK 1,250. PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising services.
Overall, in the first Czech text campaigns of September 2026, published CZK sources put the paid click price at roughly CZK 1.5 to 39. On individual days, one account paid up to CZK 43. Among EUR sources, a click mostly cost EUR 0.5 to 1.3, which is about CZK 12 to 32. Barbora Nemravová’s managed accounts went up to EUR 2. The CZK equivalent is our own conversion (0.5 × 24.35 and 1.3 × 24.35) of figures from RUJZL and the other sources in the table. Digichef adds that in the Czech Republic a click costs around EUR 1 depending on the category, while US sources quote USD 2 to 5 (Digichef).
in the first Czech campaigns, sources reporting in CZK put the click price anywhere from a few Czech korunas to roughly CZK 40. The largest sample with a published average price, 802 clicks across two PLACEMENT campaigns, came out at CZK 3. This is neither a price list nor a benchmark (PLACEMENT).
Czech blogs have repeated a CPC range of CZK 62 to 103. According to Filip Farník, the original source does not confirm it, and measured samples contradict it. Do not treat that range as a Czech click price.
For a breakdown of individual Czech accounts down to the last number, see our separate article on ChatGPT advertising in the Czech Republic.
OpenAI recommends a starting maximum CPC of USD 3 to 5. The figure is oriented to the US market, makes no regional distinction and is not a Czech price. The price you actually pay comes from a second-price auction weighted by relevance (OpenAI, The basics). Brooke Osmundson of Search Engine Journal points this out: “A USD 3 to 5 starting bid becomes a USD 3 to 5 ‘benchmark,’ even though OpenAI has published no such benchmark.” (Search Engine Journal).
OpenAI itself says that ChatGPT Ads does not yet have performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries or campaign types (OpenAI, FAQ). The numbers below are therefore data points published by individual companies, not a market average.
| Metric and dataset | Range | Median, or why there is none | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CTR, 24 published campaigns outside the Czech Republic | 0.35 to 7.9% | 1.25%, unweighted median of published points, not a typical market value | Synter and others |
| CTR, same set without Brazil, Taiwan, India and Germany (19 points) | 0.35 to 7.9% | 1.1%, unweighted median of published points | Journal du Net and others |
| CPC, 15 campaigns paid in US dollars, mostly in the USA | USD 0.76 to 14.8 | USD 4.41, unweighted median of published points | Opascope and others |
| CPC, 10 European campaigns (2026) | EUR 0.16 to 2.68 | Range only, because the median depends on the method | Premium Online and others |
The chart ranks 24 published CTR data points from lowest to highest. We calculated the median ourselves (Synter).
Four of the five highest CTRs come from outside English-speaking markets: Kalyvox FR at 4.83%, upGrowth in India at 4.25%, growthhackers.tw at 3.85% and Koko in Brazil at 3.30%. Leave out Koko, growthhackers.tw, upGrowth, ahead and attractivemedia, and 19 points remain, with a median of 1.1% (Journal du Net).
The CPC set in US dollars has 15 published data points (Opascope).
| Source | CPC |
|---|---|
| StubGroup case | USD 0.76 |
| Performics | USD 1.28 |
| Opascope | USD 1.72 |
| VanValin | USD 1.83 |
| Scopic | USD 2.74 |
| Whole Whale | USD 3.02 |
| Workshop | USD 3.14 |
| CTC | USD 4.41 |
| InterTeam | USD 5.0 |
| Q1Media | USD 5.0 |
| Symphonic | USD 9.0 |
| Nakora USA | USD 9.4 |
| Synter USA | USD 10.62 |
| Grow My Ads | USD 13.0 |
| Nakora enterprise | USD 14.8 |
The European CPC set in euros has 10 published data points (Premium Online).
In the pilot, Similarweb reported an overall CTR of 0.68%, with the top quartile at around 1%. The figure comes from a slide that Search Engine Roundtable picked up on 5 May 2026.
Two examples show why CPC alone is not enough:
US figures such as USD 3 to 5 or USD 4.41 are not Czech prices. For results from other markets in detail, read our separate overview of ChatGPT Ads results abroad.
Several described campaigns, Czech and international, got no delivery at all with a bid that was too low. There is no universal minimum bid.
80 client reviewsbid_too_low) is “guidance, not a serving restriction”. The warning does not appear for 24 hours after you edit an ad group, so its absence does not prove that your bid is competitive (OpenAI, Troubleshooting).The bid is not the only reason for silence, though. Synter describes how one topic took 74% of US impressions, while another ad group got a single impression in the UK in 9 days: “No bid fixes a conversation that is not happening.” (Synter). Delivery also tends to come in bursts: Synter recorded a jump of 45,419 impressions in one day, and Enablers saw thousands of impressions per hour and then nothing (Enablers).
the OpenAI Ad Policies v1.6 distinguish only between the USA and “outside the USA”. The Czech Republic therefore falls under the ban on ads for health, financial and legal services. A dental clinic, a bank or a lawyer cannot advertise as of the article’s date. Ads from a product feed were not being delivered in the Czech Republic as of 24 September 2026. You will find the full version of the rules with examples in our separate article on advertising in ChatGPT in the Czech Republic.
The current version is OpenAI Ad Policies version 1.6, dated 10 September 2026. In the initial phase, ads are “primarily limited to consumer segments”: household goods and supplies, lifestyle, local services, travel and experiences, entertainment, digital products and education (OpenAI, Ad Policies). Since March 2026 the policies have changed six times (v1.0 to v1.6), so the overview below applies as of the article’s date (OpenAI, Ad Policies).
Source of the table: OpenAI Ad Policies v1.6. The middle column lists the policies for the USA. Outside the USA, ads for health services and financial services are “generally prohibited” and ads for legal services are “currently prohibited” (OpenAI, Ad Policies).
a dental clinic in the Czech Republic cannot advertise in ChatGPT today, even though dentistry is allowed case by case in the USA. For an online pharmacy, RUJZL received the message that the “industry does not meet the requirements” (RUJZL), and according to the agency, the appeal link did not work (RUJZL).
Even an allowed ad will not appear in sensitive conversations, such as those about mental or personal health, emotional dependence or other sensitive situations. Example topics include politics, weapons and self-harm, and the policies list 19 categories in total (OpenAI, Ad Policies).
Both the creative and the landing page must fall into an allowed category. OpenAI reviews the advertiser (business verification), the creative together with the landing page, and the placement, mostly automatically with human oversight. If the landing page cannot be checked, the ad will not run (OpenAI, Ad policies). Since version 1.6, OpenAI also reserves the right to refuse an ad because of its “business interests or competitive position” (OpenAI, Ad Policies).
OpenAI requires you to allow the OAI-AdsBot crawler (“You must allow OAI-AdsBot”) and recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot. A robots.txt block stops crawling immediately, and Cloudflare or Akamai may return 403 responses to the crawler. The IP ranges are listed at openai.com/adsbot.json. After you open access, you may need to re-upload the ads or have them reviewed again. For feeds, OAI-SearchBot must also be able to reach the image URLs (OpenAI, Crawlers).
As of 24 September 2026, feed ads were not being delivered in the Czech Republic. RUJZL had been uploading a feed with over 40,000 products since 4 September and had zero impressions for three weeks, while a control text campaign in the same account was running. On 24 September, OpenAI support confirmed to RUJZL that their feed was correct and 43,000 products were in the index, but that the country is restricted and the ads are not shown in the Czech Republic yet (RUJZL).
According to Shoptet, feeds for a number of online stores are still empty or contain few products because OpenAI has yet to fully open product matching in Europe. OpenAI’s documentation does not mention a Czech restriction, but it does not publish a list of countries for product ads either. According to Shoptet support, the feed address is /openai/export/products.jsonl.gz (Shoptet). MarkMedia and Conviu also say product ads cannot be launched in the Czech Republic, and Marketing Makers says feeds rarely get going (MarkMedia).
If you are preparing a feed in advance, note that feed items expire after two weeks, so the feed has to refresh automatically via URL or SFTP (OpenAI, Product feeds).
For campaigns targeting the EEA and Switzerland, OpenAI recommends not using custom audiences until personalization becomes available. To be included, an audience needs at least 25,000 matched users (OpenAI, Create campaigns).
several decisions you make when creating the account cannot be undone. Business verification can take up to 7 business days, and the OpenAI pixel starts with consent set to “true”. So get conversion tracking ready before you launch your first campaign. We cover the process step by step in a separate guide to launching ChatGPT Ads.
You cannot change a campaign’s goal after you create it; for a different goal, you need a new campaign. The account’s country, currency and time zone cannot be changed after setup either (OpenAI, Create campaigns). Clone always produces a new campaign with a different goal or a different supported billing model (OpenAI, Create campaigns). The account help page confirms this for the country or region, currency and time zone: “cannot be changed after account creation” (OpenAI, Account setup).
You create the account at ads.openai.com. OpenAI recommends signing in with an existing OpenAI account “tied to your work email” (OpenAI, Account setup; OpenAI, Quickstart).
Business verification can take up to 7 business days. If your industry, ad or domain was rejected and the rejection can be appealed, an appeal is the fastest route. If you cannot appeal, or your appeal is still undecided after 7 days, contact OpenAI support at the address listed in the help center (OpenAI, Onboarding troubleshooting). Proficio reports that getting the account ready took 5 to 7 days (Proficio).
A domain is approved only if “your advertiser identity matches your provided domain”. An unverified account may not get its ads delivered (OpenAI, Onboarding troubleshooting; OpenAI, FAQ).
OpenAI runs four separate processes: account verification, account approval, ad review and delivery (OpenAI, Onboarding troubleshooting). If you later change the Brand Name, the brand goes through review again and your ads are paused until it is approved (OpenAI, Account setup).
The card should match the account’s country and company. A card issued in another country may fail (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
According to the Shoptet blog, Jakub Herrmann (PLACEMENT.cz) saw an ad approved in roughly seven hours. Filip Stollar (Kontext.so) said the OpenAI team had recommended having “at least 50 variants/creatives”. Both are individual experiences, not official rules (Shoptet blog). PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising.
If a new campaign shows no confirmed delivery and there is no obvious obstacle, OpenAI recommends waiting at least 24 hours before reporting zero delivery. If you see a hard error or a clear payment or review obstacle, contact support right away (OpenAI, Troubleshooting).
In Tomáš Khoder’s experience, a campaign created in the interface defaulted to the USA, and there is no test mode. He selected 834 of 5,803 products based on return (Tomáš Khoder). Check the country targeting manually.
Location exclusion exists (excluded_locations, up to 2,500 IDs), and exclusion takes precedence over inclusion. But excluding other countries on its own does not limit delivery (“Excluding other countries alone does not restrict delivery”). New product campaigns can target only at country level (OpenAI, Campaign targeting; OpenAI, Create campaigns).
The OpenAI pixel starts with consent set to “true” until your website sets it to “false”. Without that adjustment, on a Czech website it would track conversions even before the visitor makes a choice in the cookie banner (OpenAI, Measurement pixel). The documentation says so directly: “The Pixel initializes consent to true by default unless you set it to false or the Pixel finds a stored denial”. The fix is to call oaiq("consent", false) before init and switch to true once the visitor consents. Calling consent false deletes both cookies (OpenAI, Measurement pixel).
You can track conversions with the oaiq pixel and with the Conversions API at bzr.openai.com/v1/events. For deduplication, the pixel’s event_id and the CAPI id must carry the same value (OpenAI, Conversion tracking, OpenAI, Conversions API). Why server-side conversion tracking pays off in PPC is explained in our article on the benefits of server-side tracking.
oppref and the Conversions goalThe oppref parameter sits at the end of the landing page URL, and the pixel stores it in the first-party __oppref cookie for 30 days. Each new oppref restarts that period. The __obref cookie lasts 365 days. The Conversions API does not pick up oppref automatically, so you have to capture it and send it yourself (OpenAI, Measurement pixel, OpenAI, Conversion measurement).
A campaign optimized for conversions needs exactly one standard event. A custom event cannot be used for this goal yet (“not currently supported for the Conversion optimization objective”) (OpenAI, Conversion tracking, OpenAI, Conversion-optimized campaigns). OpenAI does not give a specific number of conversions you need before choosing the Conversions goal. It advises judging performance “over enough volume” before major changes to bids, budgets or creative, and it has no recommended bid for this goal yet (“There is no recommended bid amount at this time”) (OpenAI, Conversion-optimized campaigns).
four published comparisons of conversion rate against Google Ads for the same advertiser came out worse for ChatGPT. Positive comparisons on other metrics were published mostly by companies that sell ChatGPT advertising. At StubGroup, a cheaper lead did not bring a cheaper customer, and for John Porrini it brought no revenue. E-commerce ROAS values in the published cases come from platform or tool attribution, not from verified revenue. The tests were mostly short.
As of 29 September 2026, we have collected 49 international cases published under the authors’ own names, from the USA, other English-speaking markets, Europe, Brazil, Taiwan and India. Another 47 experiences come from discussions on Reddit, Hacker News and the OpenAI Community. The case count is our own, and the cases include Andy Brice. Here you get only an overview; the details are in our separate article on ChatGPT Ads results abroad.
| Advertiser and source | ChatGPT click-to-conversion | Google Ads click-to-conversion | Other metrics (ChatGPT / Google) | Author’s interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Brice, same advertiser and period | 0.46% | 5.3% | Visit 7 s / 20 s | Does not sell the channel |
| John Horn, StubGroup (MarTech, 11 August 2026), same website | 0.21% | 3.71% | Engagement 17 s / 41 s; CPC across industries USD 2 to 5 | PPC agency; sells advertising in ChatGPT |
| Falia, Canada, B2B, same client and period | 0.9% | 5.95% | ||
| StubGroup, case study (Dario Roca), one B2B compliance client, 30 days | 0.8% | 6.64% | CPC USD 0.76 / USD 10.46; lead USD 92.21 / USD 157.57 | Sells ChatGPT advertising |
At StubGroup, the lead from ChatGPT was cheaper, but leads from Google turned into customers “at a significantly higher rate”, so a customer came out cheaper through Google. With other clients, Roca usually sees CPC closer to USD 3 to 5 (StubGroup).
Positive comparisons come mostly from agencies and vendors that manage ChatGPT advertising or sell tools for it. In all four comparisons above, ChatGPT had a lower conversion rate; this is our own summary of the published cases (StubGroup and others). That is still not enough for a general conclusion that ChatGPT converts worse or better than Google.
Comparisons with Google Ads on metrics other than conversion rate (cost per lead, MQL, CPC) are mixed and cannot be added up. The positive ones come mostly from InterTeam, Nakora, Intelegencia and StubGroup, all of which offer ChatGPT advertising. At StubGroup, a cheaper lead did not bring a cheaper customer, and for Porrini it brought no revenue. This is our own summary of the cases (John Porrini and the sources above). At Intelegencia, the improvement came together with a change in approach, not just with a longer test.
The ROAS figures from Opascope, Common Thread Collective, PromptMarketing and Ryan VanValin reflect platform or tool attribution, not verified revenue. Koko reports return based on closed contracts. None of the orders or margins have been independently verified.
| Source | Sample | CPC and CTR | ROAS or return, as reported | Author’s interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opascope (Alex Thilén) | USD 60,000, 15 days, revenue about USD 89,000 | CPC USD 1.72 | ROAS 1.49×, daily 0.2× to 2.9× | Opascope sells advertising |
| Common Thread Collective | Online store with orders over USD 1,000; spend USD 9,620 over 34 days | CTR 0.94%, CPC USD 4.41 | ROAS 3.3× to 6.8×, depending on the attribution model | CTC sells advertising |
| PromptMarketing | Online store in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France; EUR 1,003 | CTR 2.41%, CPC EUR 0.44; 96% of clicks on mobile | Attributed value 3.0×, which the authors themselves call unverified revenue | PromptMarketing sells advertising |
| Ryan VanValin | Small online store, first week | CPC USD 1.83, CTR 1.75% | ROAS 5.53, driven by a single large order | |
| Agência Koko | Brazil, info product; 7 to 14 August 2026; 151,334 impressions, 4,996 clicks, BRL 3,690.85 spend | CTR 3.30%, CPC BRL 0.74 | Contracts BRL 4,936.08; return 1.34 | Koko sells advertising |
PromptMarketing puts it this way: “We report what the platform measures and state what that does and does not prove.” (PromptMarketing).
At Koko, the dashboard showed 0 conversions while there were 3 real sales, because oppref was not passed on to Hotmart, a third-party checkout (Koko). Cash received in the period was BRL 1,875.55, about 0.51 per real spent; that is our own calculation of 1,875.55 / 3,690.85. Koko sells advertising (Koko).
Karel Huk, a Czech managing a US account (about USD 33,000 over 4 months), reports that conversion-optimized bidding cut CPC by 69% and a product feed click was 43% cheaper than a text ad click. Huk offers account management, and this is a US experience, not a Czech one (Karel Huk).
In the initial phase, OpenAI’s policies focus mainly on consumer segments such as lifestyle, home and local services (OpenAI, Ad Policies). That matches the areas where the first positive signals appeared.
At Workshop Digital, hints phrased like keywords reached a CTR of 1.2%, conversational ones 0.9% (Workshop Digital). Both the test described in MarTech and Workshop Digital’s own data showed keyword-style hints getting more delivery than full questions (MarTech). These data are not enough to generalize from.
Max Thilén of Opascope reports over 1,500 launched ads. In one account, 9% of the ads brought in 80% of revenue, and one hint per ad group improved ROAS by 52% (Max Thilén). Opascope sells advertising, and the ROAS is platform-attributed.
Hints may look like keywords, but according to OpenAI they are not keywords, and you cannot use them for exclusions (OpenAI, Write context hints).
On Reddit, ten accounts reported CTRs of 0.57 to 3.5%, half of them up to 1%. Thirteen accounts most often reported CPCs of USD 3 to 5; the median of USD 4.2 is our own calculation. These are anonymous, unverified claims, not a benchmark (Reddit, r/PPC).
Most tests ran for days to weeks. The longest published test with a cost curve is Intelegencia’s, at six months. Time alone did not bring the improvement; Intelegencia also changed its approach along the way (Intelegencia).
clicks in the interface and visits in your analytics can differ. Conversion data is reported with a delay and may include view-through and modeled conversions. A gap does not automatically mean an error or fraud; for some advertisers, the numbers matched. We cover how to set up conversion tracking in a separate guide to launching ChatGPT Ads.
Clicks and visits may differ. OpenAI lists the reasons: page loading, redirects, cookie consent, browser blocking, UTM parameters and time zone (OpenAI, Measure results).
| Advertiser | OpenAI platform data | Own analytics | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleverly (Nicholas Verity), B2B lead generation | 57 clicks | Fewer than 20 visits in Google Analytics, 0 conversions | Cleverly |
| Symphonic Digital | 53 clicks | 35 visits in GA4, one unfinished form | Symphonic Digital |
| Carlo Siebert (OMR, B2B company, US client), about USD 10,000, “it did not pay off” | 36 conversion events | Only 2 actual inquiries, both verifiably not from ChatGPT | OMR |
| PLACEMENT | 4 purchases | 1 purchase in analytics; in two of five accounts, conversions not confirmed in GA4 | PLACEMENT |
| Andy Brice | Clicks close to the Google Analytics count | Bots ruled out as the main cause of weak results | Andy Brice |
PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising. Andy Brice and Whole Whale are examples where the numbers matched: at Whole Whale, clicks roughly matched GA4 sessions (Whole Whale). A gap is therefore not a rule.
You can choose a click attribution window of 7, 14 or 30 days. Older Czech articles said “a fixed 30 days”; that no longer holds (OpenAI, Measure results).
With a 1-day view-through window, the total also includes conversions after an impression. With a 0-day window, it counts only conversions after a click. The report may include modeled conversions (OpenAI, Conversion measurement).
Conversion data is reported with a delay of 24 to 48 hours, and spend is reported with a delay of roughly 7 to 8 hours (OpenAI, Measure results). The default conversion column attributes conversions to the time of the ad event, while the “Conversions (by conv. time)” column attributes them to the time of the conversion (OpenAI, Measure results).
Impressions, clicks and CTR refresh roughly every 15 minutes. A paused ad can keep running and costing money for up to 24 hours (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
Links from ChatGPT Search automatically carry utm_source=chatgpt.com (OpenAI, Publishers FAQ). We recommend tagging paid clicks with your own UTM parameters, including utm_medium=cpc, so you can separate them from unpaid traffic. That is our recommendation, not an OpenAI rule.
In its default channel grouping, GA4 puts recognized referrals from AI assistants into the AI Assistant channel (Google Analytics).
According to MarkMedia, Shoptet on its own does not track ChatGPT Ads conversions; you need Google Tag Manager.
PLACEMENT reports that nights cost twice as much and, in some accounts, eat up half the budget. In one account, CPC fell by 57% within a week, but several things were changed at the same time (PLACEMENT). PLACEMENT sells ChatGPT advertising.
the ad sits below the answer, and the two available measurements, SE Ranking’s one-day measurement in the USA and Nile’s comparison of 91 pairs (both companies sell AI visibility tracking), did not find that ads bring a mention in the answer. For Brice and Octolens, unpaid recommendations in the answer did better than paid clicks, and Q1Media reports a higher conversion rate for unpaid traffic from ChatGPT. Whole Whale saw no big difference. Visibility in ChatGPT search depends mainly on access for the OAI-SearchBot crawler. How to get into ChatGPT answers without paying is covered in our separate article on AI SEO.
Both measurements are limited by sample and period, and both companies have a financial interest in the topic. So do not read them as an absolute rule.
On 28 July 2026, Seer Interactive reported that the share of ads matching the topic had fallen from 50% to 38%. The average match score was 3.29 out of 5, and ads appeared with 77% of the answers in their tracker. Seer is an agency (Seer Interactive).
Rose Samaras of Reaudit.io ran client prompts for 90 days and recorded 54 ads from 29 advertisers. Of those ads, 39% had nothing to do with the question. In food and beverage export, 0% were relevant; in consumer audio, 9 of 15 advertisers came from outside the industry. The author says this is her own test sample, not a market rate. Reaudit sells brand tracking in AI search (Rose Samaras).
OAI-SearchBot is what determines visibility in ChatGPT search. Sites that block it do not appear in ChatGPT search answers, except at most as navigational links. GPTBot controls only the use of content for training, and blocking it does not affect visibility in ChatGPT search (OpenAI, Bots).
OAI-AdsBot checks ad landing pages. OpenAI may use their content to judge ad relevance, but does not train models on this data (OpenAI, Bots).
Links from ChatGPT Search carry utm_source=chatgpt.com, so you can find these visits in your analytics. A mention without a click, however, cannot be captured by your own measurement (OpenAI, Publishers FAQ).
For Google’s AI features, regular SEO applies: indexing, technical accessibility and useful original content. Google does not require any special AI optimization (Google Search Central).
Newer positive numbers come from vendors or use a different baseline. There is no independent consensus, and the Kaiser and Schulze data end in July 2025 (Kaiser and Schulze). Our summary: you cannot state as a fact that AI traffic converts better than organic search.
Ahrefs analyzed 75,000 brands. Visibility in AI Overviews correlated (Spearman) at 0.664 with brand mentions, 0.218 with backlinks and 0.216 with paid branded traffic. Correlation does not prove causation, and Ahrefs sells SEO tools (Ahrefs).
Two tools are already available:
An agency that sells “AI SEO” as a separate package is selling repackaged SEO. What makes sense is a technical accessibility audit (bots, firewall, indexing), content and PR work, and measurement in Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and with UTM parameters (Google Search Central).
ChatGPT advertising is a test today, not a channel you can rely on to drive conversions, and anyone selling it as a replacement for Google Ads is getting ahead of the data. It makes sense where Google Ads or Sklik already runs with reliable conversion tracking and where you can afford to lose roughly CZK 10,500 in the first month. If you do not have conversion tracking set up even in Google, you will learn nothing from ChatGPT and should not put money there. How Google Ads and Sklik fit into the mix is covered in our article on PPC advertising in 2025.
The channel belongs to the consideration stage, not to purchase. Obility rates it as a way to build awareness (Obility), and Lucie Thiemlová places it closer to consideration (Lucie Thiemlová). Czech online stores also have to reckon with product ads not being delivered as of 24 September 2026 (RUJZL).
Four comparisons for the same advertisers show a worse conversion rate for ChatGPT: Andy Brice, MarTech, Falia and StubGroup. At StubGroup, ChatGPT brought cheaper leads, but Google leads turned into customers at a much higher rate. Positive results on other metrics come mainly from companies that sell the advertising. Our view: Google captures demand that already exists, while ChatGPT comes in earlier in the decision. It does not replace search, so do not fund it out of your Google Ads budget.
Andy Brice and Octolens got more results from unpaid recommendations (Andy Brice, Octolens), while Whole Whale saw only a small difference (Whole Whale). Over one day in the USA, SE Ranking found the advertiser only rarely among the sources of the answer (SE Ranking), and across 91 pairs Nile found that ads did not raise the chance of a mention (Nile). Both SE Ranking and Nile sell AI visibility services. Our view for a small budget: work on being mentioned in the answer first, and run an ad test after that.
There is little data, and the results contradict each other. Nakora reports sign-ups 51.6% cheaper than on Meta (Nakora), while Marketing Makers found B2C results more expensive than on Facebook (Marketing Makers). PLACEMENT says some accounts are cheaper than Sklik and Bing, but gives no numbers (PLACEMENT). Do not move budget from Meta or Sklik to ChatGPT until you have numbers you can verify.
oppref (OpenAI, Measurement pixel). Tagging paid clicks with your own UTM parameters is our recommendation.As of 29 September 2026, the following is not publicly available: an official bid floor, an SLA for ad review, a list of countries for product ads, language targeting, dayparting, a larger Czech sample of conversions and CPA, and a position from a Czech or European authority on the OpenAI pixel.
The policies have changed six times since March 2026, and Ads Manager is still in Beta. We recommend checking the numbers and rules again before every major step and comparing them with this article.
ChatGPT Ads are ads that can appear below the end of a ChatGPT answer, labeled as sponsored and set apart from the answer (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT). They can reach adult users of the Free and Go plans. You pay by CPM, by CPC or with conversion optimization, not for the conversion itself (OpenAI, Billing and payment).
Ads can be shown to adult users of Free and Go, including adults who are logged out. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu, users under 18 and temporary chats get no ads. Free users can switch to an ad-free version in exchange for lower limits (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
OpenAI declares that ads do not influence the answer and that showing an ad is not a recommendation of the advertiser (OpenAI, Our approach; OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT). This is a declaration, not an independent audit. According to SE Ranking, over a single day in the USA the advertiser appeared only rarely among the sources above its own ad, and according to Nile, ads did not raise the chance of a mention across 91 pairs. Both companies, however, sell AI visibility tracking.
On a CZK account, the minimum is CZK 350 a day, so the smallest 30-day test comes to roughly CZK 10,500 (OpenAI, Create campaigns). In the first Czech campaigns, CZK sources report anywhere from a few Czech korunas up to roughly CZK 40 per click; that is neither a price list nor a benchmark (PLACEMENT).
Yes. Ads have been shown in the Czech Republic since roughly 24 August 2026 through OpenAI partners (RUJZL), and OpenAI launched the self-serve Ads Manager in Europe on 31 August 2026 (OpenAI). The availability list shows the Czech Republic as “Available” (OpenAI). New accounts may at first be limited to their home country (OpenAI, Troubleshooting).
No, not as of 29 September 2026. Outside the USA, ads for health and financial services are generally prohibited and ads for legal services are currently prohibited, and the Czech Republic falls under the ban (OpenAI, Ad Policies). A dental clinic in the Czech Republic cannot advertise, even though the policies allow dentistry case by case in the USA (OpenAI, Ad Policies).
No. Advertisers see no queries or conversations, only aggregated impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, CPM and conversions. They have no access to chats, history or memory (OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT).
The available data does not support that claim. Four comparisons for the same advertisers show a worse conversion rate for ChatGPT (Andy Brice, MarTech, Falia, StubGroup). Positive results on other metrics come mostly from companies that sell ChatGPT advertising. The sample is small, so no general conclusion can be drawn.
Proficio writes “A two-week test will show nothing”, and RUJZL plans for 30 days and a few hundred clicks (Proficio, RUJZL). Most published tests were short, and the longest published test with a cost curve ran for six months (Intelegencia). Duration alone does not improve results; what you change during the test matters too.
Wondering whether a ChatGPT ad test makes sense in your case, and want conversion tracking ready before the first click? Get in touch and we will go through it together before you launch. For what we do in PPC, see the overview of our PPC services.
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About the author
Bc. Petr Kučera, MSc., MBA
CEO & Performance Strategist, PPC ONE
Petr discovered the power of performance campaigns back in 2011, and they have been an inseparable part of his professional life ever since. His edge comes from working with more than a hundred companies.
Data verified as of 29/09/2026.