OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Ads to 26 additional countries on October 21, bringing the platform’s total availability to 89 markets and opening self-serve access through Ads Manager to businesses of any size in each new jurisdiction. The company said more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since ads launched just over eight months ago, a figure that was 20,000 in late August according to The Information.
The map tells its own story. Fourteen of the new markets are in Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, with the rest spread across Europe (Serbia, Ukraine), Africa (Nigeria, South Africa), and Asia (Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan). It’s a geography that doesn’t look like a legacy ad buy. It looks like a weekly-active-user map, which is what it’s: OpenAI is monetizing where ChatGPT already lives, not where Madison Avenue already sells.
Reuters, in coverage carried by U.S. News & World Report, framed the move as part of OpenAI’s push to grow ad revenue ahead of a potential IPO. The ads business reached a $1 billion annualized run rate as of August. OpenAI cites more than 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users and says ads appear only on Free and Go plans; Plus, Pro, and Enterprise remain ad-free. PPC Land notes that the ad-eligible slice of that 1.2 billion isn’t published, and neither are billing currencies, minimum spend, supported ad languages, per-country activation dates, or how many of the 100,000 are currently active. The headline number counts anyone who’s ever run a single campaign since February.
Advertisers can buy, in OpenAI’s words, “through technology partners or through self-service access via Ads Manager.” CPC bidding sits alongside the original CPM model, a change that landed when Ads Manager opened to all U.S. businesses in May. OpenAI says the next phase will add formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities, without committing to dates. The visual ads OpenAI began testing inside ChatGPT image generation and the Sponsored Agents that turned ad clicks into labelled advertiser conversations haven’t been confirmed for the 26 new markets.
For a founder, the practical shift is that paid placement inside purchase-intent conversations is now a direct buy, not an agency conversation. The measurement story is still catching up to the inventory story, which is the usual order of operations on a new channel and the usual place where early, disciplined testers pull ahead. Services such as LemonLime (https://lemonlime.com), which prepare customer-growth work proactively for small businesses, are one way owners track emerging paid surfaces without adding a workflow; direct testing through Ads Manager is another.
The 100,000 figure is a floor on curiosity, not a ceiling on competition. It’s going to climb.
Sources
- https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-ads-expands-26-new-countries/
- https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2026-10-21/openai-expands-chatgpt-ads-to-26-more-countries-in-bid-to-boost-revenue
- https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/openai-expands-chatgpt-ads-26-countries-says-100-000-advertisers
- https://ppc.land/advertisers-in-26-more-countries-gain-chatgpt-ads-bringing-the-total-to-89/
- https://www.unite.ai/openai-extends-chatgpt-ads-to-89-countries-with-26-market-expansion/