ChatGPT now shows ads below its answers. Businesses book these ChatGPT ads in the ChatGPT Ads Manager, and companies based in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries can set up campaigns themselves. For online shops, one campaign type stands out: ads built from a product feed, where image, title, price and link come straight from your catalog. This post explains how the ads work, what you can buy and how your products get into campaigns.
How ads in ChatGPT work
The ad appears below the answer and is labeled as an ad. It doesn't change the answer itself. According to OpenAI's help article on ads in ChatGPT (new tab):
- Who sees them: only users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu are ad-free, and so are accounts under 18 and Temporary Chats.
- How they are chosen: by the context of the conversation, by the ad itself (landing page, title, copy) and by the advertiser's hints and targeting.
- In the EEA and Switzerland: no personalized ads, contextual ones only.
- Where not: no ads next to sensitive topics such as health, mental health or politics.
For a shop, that means your ad shows when someone talks about something your offer fits, not because a particular keyword came up.
What you can buy in the Ads Manager
The Ads Manager at ads.openai.com (new tab) is self-serve. Whether you can advertise depends on where the billed company is based; Germany, Austria and Switzerland are on OpenAI's list of available countries (new tab). New accounts may at first advertise only in their home country.
According to the developer docs on bidding and budgets (new tab), you pick one of three objectives:
| Objective | Billed | Bid |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | per impression | fixed bid |
| Clicks | per click | fixed bid or "Maximize clicks" |
| Conversions | per click | fixed bid or "Maximize conversions" |
Conversions need events from your website, for example through the Measurement Pixel, an image tag or the Conversions API. You set the budget daily or for the lifetime of the campaign, not both. There is a daily minimum, and it depends on your account currency.
Instead of keywords you add context hints: they describe products, use cases or needs that the ad and landing page don't fully cover. OpenAI (new tab) says plainly that they are not exact-match keywords.
ChatGPT product feed ads: your catalog as ads
In a product feed campaign you don't write every ad yourself. You give OpenAI your catalog as a file, and the ads are built from the products.
- Where: in Ads Manager under Tools → Feeds → Create feed. You upload the file (CSV or TXT), enter a hosted URL that OpenAI fetches, or deliver it by SFTP.
- Which format: OpenAI's product format (new tab), not Google Shopping's. Nine fields are required:
item_id,title,description,url,brand,seller_name,image_url(JPEG or PNG),availabilityandpricewritten as79.99 EUR. Each variant is its own row with a sharedgroup_idand its options invariant_dict. - How fresh: items expire after two weeks. In practice that means an address OpenAI fetches regularly rather than a one-off upload.
- What the ad looks like: per ad group you pick the products with filters (brand, category, price …) and set one template with placeholders such as
{{brand}},{{product.title}}and{{product.price}}. Image and landing page come from the product. - Where it runs: targeting is by country only.
Two limits come with it. During the beta, OpenAI uses products from an Ads Manager feed for ads only, not in regular answers. And the docs (new tab) list product feed access for the account as a prerequisite: OpenAI decides whether product feed campaigns are enabled for your account and your market.
How InsightHub builds the ChatGPT feed
The InsightHub Product Feed Manager builds the file in OpenAI's format from your synced WooCommerce or Shopify products. You don't need a feed plugin for it: the file is made on InsightHub's servers, not on your shop's web server. With WooCommerce, the InsightHub plugin syncs the products.
- Under Marketing → Product Feeds, click New feed and pick the ChatGPT (OpenAI) tile.
- Basics: name, format TSV (the default; TXT or CSV work too), language, currency and whether all products or only those in stock go in.
- Fields: the columns carry OpenAI's names and come prefilled; required fields are marked.
- Defaults: Seller (shop name and shop address are already filled in for new feeds), Returns and ChatGPT ads: all products, none, or all except those matching rules. Plus UTM parameters for the product links.
- Check + publish: Check feed builds the feed and checks every product. Images must be reachable over https, otherwise the product stays out; formats other than JPEG or PNG give a note. Below that, the first rows as OpenAI reads them and the address to copy.
- Enter the address in Ads Manager under Tools → Feeds → Create feed as a hosted URL. For SFTP, choose delivery to a server and leave the folder empty.
Each variant gets its own row with a shared group, its options in variant_dict. To keep a single product out of the ads, switch off For ChatGPT ads on that product; it stays in the file. The feed is rebuilt after every product sync. And if you set campaign tracking in Ads Manager, it overrides UTM parameters of the same name from the feed. Every setting is described in the help on product feeds (new tab).
Business Hub: the same file for your business profile
With the Business Hub (new tab) (beta), businesses can claim and maintain their profile in ChatGPT, including a product feed in OpenAI's specification. According to OpenAI, a feed does not guarantee that ChatGPT recommends your products. You enter the address of your InsightHub feed there as the product feed. If a feed should serve only the profile, set ChatGPT ads to none.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a feed plugin?
No. InsightHub builds the file on its servers, not on your shop's web server. With WooCommerce, the InsightHub plugin syncs the products; Shopify needs no plugin.
Can I use the same feed as for Google Shopping?
No. OpenAI uses its own file format with its own column names. InsightHub builds the Google Shopping feed and the ChatGPT feed from the same synced products, each in its own format.
What do ChatGPT ads cost?
You pay per impression or per click and set the budget yourself, daily or for the whole campaign. There is a daily minimum; it depends on your account currency, and Ads Manager shows the amount.
Do all ChatGPT users see ads?
No. Only users on the Free and Go plans see ads. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu are ad-free, and so are accounts under 18 and Temporary Chats.
What you can do now
- Create an Ads Manager account and check whether product feed access is enabled for it.
- Build the ChatGPT feed and review it with Check feed before OpenAI fetches it.
- Start a campaign with a limited budget and measure conversions before you scale up.
