ChatGPT ads reach 89 countries, and the rewrite date just moved

On October 21, OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Ads to 26 more countries, bringing the total to 89. The list adds 14 more Latin American countries, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru among them, plus markets such as Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Advertisers there can buy through technology partners or on their own in Ads Manager.

The bigger numbers are how many people use ChatGPT and how many advertisers have already tried it. OpenAI says more than 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week, and over 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns in the just over eight months since ads launched. Both figures are OpenAI's own, not an outside audit, so read them as the company's scoreboard.

Ads still show only on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise stay ad free, and OpenAI's advertiser guide adds that ads skip Business plans and accounts identified as belonging to users under 18. So if your ideal customer pays for Pro, they won't see your ad there.

In our October 21 edition, we covered creative enhancements. ChatGPT can rewrite your headline and description, translate your ad, resize images and send the click to a different page on your site, without asking you to approve each version. At the time, OpenAI's help article said they would turn on for new and existing campaigns on Thursday, October 29.

Over the weekend, the help article was updated. It now says the switch flips on Thursday, October 31, 2026. One small problem: October 31, 2026 is a Saturday. So either the day or the date is off, and OpenAI hasn't said which. We've all sent that email.

The rest of the article reads the same. Account and campaign opt-outs you already set are kept, campaign settings beat your account default, and there is still no preview of every variation before it runs.

For anyone weighing a first test, OpenAI's advertiser basics are more useful than the press release. Ads sit below ChatGPT's answer and carry your name, logo, headline, description, image and landing page. You can buy views, clicks or conversions, and for click campaigns OpenAI suggests starting with a maximum bid of $3 to $5 per click.

Targeting works through context hints: you describe the topics and conversations where your offer fits. OpenAI says these are not exact-match keywords and don't guarantee delivery, so write them like context, not like a Google Ads keyword list.

A few tracking details save headaches. UTM tags on your landing page URLs carry through on clicks, so ChatGPT traffic shows up in the analytics you already use. OpenAI's ad review crawlers also visit landing pages with those tags, which can look like paid visits in your reports even though they aren't billed. Spend numbers can also lag 7 to 8 hours, so a $0 halfway through the day may just be late reporting.

On October 5, OpenAI announced a visual ad format that appears while Free and Go users generate images, with US testing set to start later in October with a first group of advertisers. The same post added measurement partners, including Hightouch, Tealium, LiveRamp, AppsFlyer and Triple Whale, plus geo-based lift tests with Haus, Measured and WorkMagic.

OpenAI also shared early partner results. DV Rockerbox reported that WeightWatchers' attributed cost per acquisition on ChatGPT Ads came in 15.3% below its blended paid search benchmark. That's one brand, measured by one partner, published by the platform selling the ads. Interesting, but still one result. The October 21 post says more formats, objectives, buying options and measurement come next.

Want help deciding whether ChatGPT ads fit your budget, or setting up a first test with clean tracking? Talk to our founders below. See you in the next edition.