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ChatGPT will show ads while images generate

OpenAI is opening a visual ad slot during image generation in the US this month, with new conversion and attribution partners.

By Alexandre S. , 02:30 UTC

ChatGPT is getting a new ad format that runs while a user waits for an image, OpenAI announced on Monday 5 October 2026. The trial starts later this month in the US with a first group of advertisers. The ads show products, products in use or the experiences they lead to, are labelled, and sit apart from the image being made. OpenAI says ads do not shape ChatGPT’s answers.

Retro-futurist illustration: a striped sunset over a grid horizon under a starry sky, with a phone standing on the horizon.
Drawn by adtestbench from “Building advertising for the way people use AI”,

The same post widens the measurement side. Hightouch, Tealium and LiveRamp can pass conversion data to OpenAI, ten attribution firms including AppsFlyer, Northbeam and Triple Whale join the programme, and DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science run brand-suitability pilots. OpenAI puts ChatGPT’s weekly reach at 1.2 billion people. The post does not say which plans will see the new ads.

BleepingComputer reports that the outside partners will not see private conversations. Quartz places the format in a wider push: ChatGPT ads reached India in August and now run in 38 countries, and it cites a DV Rockerbox figure putting WeightWatchers’ cost per acquisition there 15.3% below its paid-search benchmark.

For media buyers, image generation becomes a visual placement with its own attribution stack, opening first to a short list of US advertisers.

Sources

  1. OpenAI: Building advertising for the way people use AI. Checked
  2. BleepingComputer: OpenAI will show visual ads in ChatGPT while you generate images. Checked
  3. Quartz: OpenAI testing visual ads in ChatGPT image generation. Checked

Alexandre S.

Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.

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