ChatGPT ads now open to local service businesses

ChatGPT is now allowing U.S. businesses of all sizes to purchase advertisements directly. 

What’s happening: Through a new self-serve Ads Manager, businesses can create and manage their own ad campaigns on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, the company announced this week. 

• Ads will appear in consumers’ conversations but will be distinct from organic answers.
• The rollout is still in the early stages, with a focus on businesses targeting a limited set of consumer categories, including local services, parent company OpenAI specified. 

Of note: A representative for OpenAI didn’t return a request for comment about how it will prioritize and rank local service businesses. 

Why it matters: ChatGPT announced its foray into advertising in January, but initially, it worked only with advertising agencies and businesses that could spend $50,000 or more — on a cost-per-thousand impressions basis. 

• “That matters because many ChatGPT conversations are active and decision-oriented,” OpenAI wrote in this week’s announcement. “In those moments, a click can be a meaningful signal that an ad was relevant and helped someone move forward. Advertisers are only charged based on a click outcome.”

Go deeper: The company also launched an expanded suite of measurement tools so “advertisers can better understand what happens after someone engages with an ad, such as a purchase, lead, sign-up, or other meaningful action,” it said. 

The big picture: Google sees over five trillion searches a year, while ChatGPT, by comparison, was receiving 2.5 billion “prompts” per day in July 2025 — roughly 18 percent of Google’s search volume on an annualized basis.