On August 31, 2026, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT Ads had reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in under 200 days from launch, and that its self-service Ads Manager was opening the same day to eligible advertisers across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa. As of September 3, OpenAI’s help centre lists 52 countries where self-service access is available. This page records where ChatGPT ads can be bought, through which route, and the date each market or capability was announced. It is refreshed in place; the change log at the bottom records each update.
We have written about ChatGPT Ads ten times since January, one post per launch or feature. Those posts remain the detail for each step and are linked from the rows below. This ledger is the page to cite for the current state.
- 01Self-service is now the default route in 52 countries.OpenAI’s help centre lists 52 countries as available for Ads Manager on September 3, 2026, spanning North America, most of Europe, the Gulf and North Africa, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Larger advertisers still have a sales route.
- 02The run rate is OpenAI’s figure, and it is annualised.$1 billion annualised means the most recent period’s revenue multiplied out to a year, not $1 billion earned. OpenAI states it was reached in under 200 days and that tens of thousands of advertisers use the platform.
- 03The buying model moved from CPM to outcomes in six months.January’s launch carried a $60 CPM and a $200,000 minimum through managed sales. By August, OpenAI says CPC and outcome-optimised bidding account for the majority of campaigns and Pixel and Conversions API underpin measurement.
- 04The list will grow; this page is where the rows land.OpenAI says its next phase brings more markets, formats, objectives and buying options. Countries marked coming soon or absent from the help centre list are not yet self-serve, whatever a reseller says.
01 — The datasetThe rollout ledger, January to September 2026.
| Date | Markets | What changed | Buying route | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | United States | Ads introduced for Free and $8 Go users; no ads for under-18s or paid tiers; $60 CPM and $200,000 minimum reported | Managed sales | Launch guide, pricing and targeting |
| Mar 2026 | United States | New formats: sponsored answer cards, product spotlight units, sidebar placements; $100M annualised revenue reported in six weeks | Managed sales, partners | Platform update, $100M milestone |
| Apr 17, 2026 (reported) | Australia, New Zealand, Canada | First multi-country expansion, on Free and Go tiers | Managed sales, partners | AU, NZ, CA primer |
| May 2026 | United States | Ads Manager introduced, opening the platform to small and medium businesses (OpenAI, Aug 31 post); StackAdapt drops its minimum to $0 | Self-service begins | Network minimums |
| Jun 5, 2026 | Existing markets | Conversion-optimised CPA bidding activated; Pixel and Conversions API stack | All routes | CPA bidding |
| Jun 6, 2026 | United Kingdom | First European market; interest registration only, no self-service at launch | Managed sales | UK launch |
| Jun 2026 | Existing markets | Ad Tools Terms: Audience Tools for first-party custom audiences, Creative Tools for generated and localised creative; Criteo cuts its minimum from $50,000 to $10,000 | All routes | Advertiser toolkit |
| Jul 2026 | Existing markets | Native reporting documented as impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, CPM and a single Conversions metric; referrer stripping undercounts clicks in analytics | All routes | Attribution playbook |
| Aug 31, 2026 | Europe, India, Middle East, North Africa; North America already open | $1B annualised run rate in under 200 days; self-service Ads Manager opens across the listed regions; 40+ countries via sales and partners; 50+ technology and measurement partners; CPC and outcome bidding now the majority of campaigns | Self-service, sales, partners | OpenAI announcement |
| Sep 3, 2026 (read) | 52 countries | Help centre availability list read and recorded in full in the next section | Self-service | Ads Manager availability |
02 — AvailabilityThe 52 self-service countries, by region.
OpenAI’s help centre publishes a single table of countries and their self-service status. On September 3, 2026 every listed country was marked “Available”; the page notes that a country marked “Coming Soon” or not listed has no self-service access yet, and that advertisers there can register an account to be notified. Grouped by region for scanning, the list is:
| Region | Count | Countries |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 3 | Canada, Mexico, United States |
| South America | 1 | Brazil |
| Europe (EU, EEA, UK, Switzerland) | 32 | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
| Middle East | 7 | Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar |
| North Africa | 4 | Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia |
| Asia-Pacific | 5 | Australia, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand |
Two absences are worth noting for planners. No country in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia or Latin America other than Brazil and Mexico is on the list, and China, Russia and Turkey are not either. Ireland is listed, Israel is not. These are the gaps OpenAI’s “more markets” line refers to, and they are the rows most likely to be added next.
03 — BuyingThe three ways to buy.
OpenAI describes three routes, and they arrived in reverse order of accessibility. The first was managed sales through the OpenAI Ads Solutions team, which is how the January launch worked and which remains the route for “larger advertisers with more complex needs.” The second is the agency and technology partner network, which OpenAI says now exceeds 50 partners; the compression of partner minimums from $250,000 to zero in the first half of the year is recorded in the June row above. The third is self-service through Ads Manager, introduced in the US in May and extended to the regions above on August 31. OpenAI credits self-service with making small and medium businesses “a material share of the business.”
Per OpenAI’s August 31 post: CPC and outcome-optimised bidding account for the majority of campaigns; Pixel and Conversions API are the measurement foundation; product feeds, platform and geographic targeting and custom audiences are available. Ads are labelled and separate from answers, advertising does not influence answers, advertisers do not receive access to conversations, and users can control personalisation. The two outcome examples OpenAI gives, a 3× return on ad spend over 28 days and more than 80% of ad-driven traffic being new customers, are single-advertiser anecdotes and are reported here as such.
04 — InterpretationReading the run rate.
An annualised run rate takes the most recent period’s revenue and multiplies it out to twelve months. It is a rate, not a total, and it is the standard way a fast-growing ad business describes itself because it flatters growth; the same platform reported $100 million on the same basis in March. What the sequence does establish is the slope: from $100 million to $1 billion in about five months, over a period in which the addressable base went from the United States to more than 40 countries and the buying route went from a $200,000 minimum to a self-service form.
For a media planner the useful reading is that the channel has crossed from pilot to platform. OpenAI’s own next-phase list, “more markets and additional formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities,” is the roadmap for future rows on this page. The measurement caveats in our attribution playbook still apply, and the question of how ads inside AI answers compare with search and social as a channel is the subject of our census of where AI products buy attention now.
05 — MethodMethodology and change log.
Primary sources are OpenAI’s own announcements and help centre; dates marked “reported” come from tier-one coverage recorded in our earlier posts at the time.
- What was collected
- Every ChatGPT Ads market opening, buying-route change and capability launch we have recorded since January 2026, plus the full self-service country list.
- Sources
- OpenAI, “A milestone in expanding access to AI” (August 31, 2026); OpenAI help centre, “Ads Manager Availability”; our ten dated posts from January 27 to July 18, 2026, each of which cites its own primary.
- As-of date
- The country list and partner counts were read on September 3, 2026. The page is dated to September 1 for the week it covers; the collection date is stated here and not restated elsewhere.
- Units
- Revenue is annualised run rate as OpenAI states it. Country counts are rows marked “Available” on the help centre table. Regional grouping is ours.
- Exclusions
- Countries reachable only through managed sales or partners are not enumerated, because OpenAI publishes a count (“over 40”) but not a list. Pricing figures from January are as reported at the time and may not reflect current rate cards.
- Known limitations
- OpenAI’s outcome examples are single-advertiser anecdotes. The May Ads Manager date is OpenAI’s retrospective statement; our March post had anticipated April.
- Change log
- September 3, 2026: first publication with the August 31 expansion and the 52-country list.
06 — ConclusionOne page, refreshed in place.
ChatGPT Ads is now a self-service channel in 52 countries with a stated $1 billion run rate. This page is where the next market lands.
Eight months separate a US-only, $200,000-minimum pilot from a self-service platform across North America, Europe, the Gulf, North Africa, India and the Pacific. The pace is the story, and the rows above are the evidence, each dated to its source.
When OpenAI adds a market or a format, it will be added here with a date and a source, and the change log will say so. Cite this page for the current state and the linked posts for the detail of each step.