Ads in LLMs: What’s Happening And What It Means For Brands

Advertising in large language models has shifted from speculation to reality. OpenAI has begun rolling out ads inside ChatGPT (OpenAI) – and for brands thinking about where AI fits into their paid media strategy, it’s worth paying attention.

Where things stand

The rollout is controlled and selective. Ads are currently shown only to logged-in users on ChatGPT’s free tier and lower-tier Go subscription in the US, with paid tiers remaining ad-free (OpenAI Help Center). Entry to the early pilot requires significant minimum spend (reported at around $200,000), and CPMs are said to be notably higher than many traditional digital channels (Financial Times).

In terms of format, OpenAI is being careful: ads are clearly labelled, visually separate from responses, and placed below them rather than embedded within. Users can dismiss ads, delete ad-related history, and adjust personalisation settings (Search Engine Land). OpenAI has been explicit that ads do not influence what ChatGPT writes.

Why it matters

ChatGPT sits at the intersection of search, research and decision-making. That makes it a genuinely high-intent environment, one where ads could be powerful for upper-funnel visibility and product discovery in a way that traditional search hasn’t always delivered.

That said, it’s worth being clear about what this isn’t yet. It’s not a self-serve channel. It’s not global. And the audience currently exposed to ads is limited to free and lower-tier users. For now, this is an enterprise-level play attracting major advertisers and agency holding groups.

The wider LLM ecosystem is also watching closely. Some competitors are explicitly rejecting ads to differentiate on trust and neutrality (The Verge), which tells you something about how central user confidence is to this space.

What to expect next

As the pilot matures, we’d anticipate broader geographic availability, more accessible entry points for advertisers, and new challenges around measurement and attribution in conversational environments. OpenAI has signalled it will explore additional formats and targeting models as it learns from early performance.
LLM advertising is in its early, high-value stage. The brands best placed to benefit will be the ones building familiarity with the channel now, before it scales.

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