OpenAI to launch ChatGPT ads in 31 European markets next week

OpenAI announced on Monday that ChatGPT Ads will go live across 31 European markets beginning August 24, marking the largest single expansion of its six-month-old advertising business. The rollout covers Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Ireland, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, and Switzerland, among others.openai+1

The expansion comes as OpenAI seeks to monetize its free user base, which accounts for more than 80 percent of ChatGPT's over one billion monthly users.finance.yahoo

How the Ads Will Work

Ads will appear only to users on the Free and Go plans, priced at roughly €7 per month in Europe. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education subscribers will not see ads. Users on the free tier can opt out of ads entirely in exchange for reduced daily message limits.trendingtopics

OpenAI stated that ads will be "always clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT's answers" and that "advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides." Advertisers will not have access to users' chat histories, and conversation data will not be shared with brands, according to Dave Dugan, OpenAI's vice president of ads.openai+1

For the European launch, ad targeting will be contextual rather than personalized — drawing on the current conversation topic, approximate location, device type, time of day, and language. Past chats and stored memories will not be used at launch. Personalized ads will follow only after users actively opt in, a staged approach designed to comply with GDPR requirements.digiday+1

Access and Measurement

Advertisers will initially need to book through OpenAI's Ads Solutions team, agency partners including Publicis, Omnicom ↘ 0.61%, WPP ↘ 0.79%, Havas, and Dentsu, or technology partners. Self-service access through the Ads Manager is expected later this summer.digiday+1

Separately, OpenAI has integrated AppsFlyer into its ads platform to enable mobile attribution for the first time. More than 40 brands, including Grubhub, are testing the ability to track app installs, in-app purchases, and subscriptions resulting from ChatGPT ad exposure.marketscale

The Business Case

OpenAI began testing ads in the United States in February and has since expanded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. The company has told investors it expects $100 billion in revenue within four years — a target Digiday noted took Meta ↘ 0.39% 17 years to reach.digiday

"There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all European audience — and that's precisely what makes the region so dynamic," Dugan said in a statement. "We look forward to meeting that bar."digiday