OpenAI is accelerating its push into advertising on ChatGPT by cutting ad rates, targeting small and midsize businesses, and hiring talent from Meta, according to a report by The Information.
The number of advertisers on the platform has roughly tripled to about 60,000 between late August and early October, according to New Street Research. Ads now run in more than 60 countries. One agency founder told The Information that business software clients are paying around $5 per click on ChatGPT ads, compared with $30 to $50 on Google for similar campaigns.
OpenAI said in late August that its ad business had reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch. The company had projected $2.4 billion in advertising revenue for 2026 to investors, a target it is currently expected to miss.
The advertising team has grown to roughly 140 people, with nearly half hired between July and September. Meta is the largest single source of those hires. Ad chief Dave Dugan, who previously spent 12 years at Meta, has reorganized sales into industry verticals and a dedicated agency team, mirroring structures used by established platforms.
OpenAI is also recruiting agency partners to turn experimental ChatGPT ads into recurring media buys. The company has opened self-serve tools, introduced cost-per-click bidding, and expanded measurement partnerships. Early performance data cited by OpenAI includes lower cost-per-acquisition results for some advertisers compared with paid search benchmarks.
The moves reflect OpenAI’s effort to turn advertising into a meaningful revenue stream alongside subscriptions and enterprise products, while building the sales infrastructure needed to compete for media budgets at scale.
Source: The Information
