9 February 2026 · Test launch in the USA
OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT for signed-in adult users of the free version and the Go plan in the United States.
CHATGPT ADS · CZECH REPUBLIC
ChatGPT has ads. When they make sense and when not.
Since 24 August 2026, Czech users see ads in ChatGPT, and since 31 August Czech companies can apply to buy them. Access runs in beta, and OpenAI approves advertisers gradually. A billion people a week ask, compare and decide in ChatGPT. Ads step into exactly that moment.
A new ad platform. Czechia is in the first wave.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, launched its own ad platform, ChatGPT Ads. It works on a similar principle to the ad systems of Google and Meta: a company pays for its offer to appear to people interested in the topic. What is new is where the ad appears: directly in a conversation with ChatGPT, which a Deloitte survey ranks as the most used AI tool among Czechs too. It reached Europe at the end of August 2026, and Czechia is in the first wave.
Spring 2026 · Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and self-serve launch in the USA
The pilot expanded to other English-speaking countries. In the spring, OpenAI opened the Ads Manager buying tool to all US companies and removed the minimum spend entirely; it had been 200,000 dollars at the start of the pilot and had since fallen to 50,000.
Summer 2026 · United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea
Gradual rollout in more large markets, initially through agencies and the OpenAI sales team.
24 August 2026 · Ads go live in Czechia
OpenAI called it its largest expansion to date: 31 European markets at once, all 27 EU countries including the Czech Republic plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. From this day, Czech users of free ChatGPT and the Go plan see ads.
31 August 2026 · Buying opens to Czech companies
OpenAI opened the self-serve Ads Manager in beta to companies registered in European countries including Czechia. It also announced that the ads business had reached a revenue run rate of 1 billion dollars in roughly 200 days since launch.
A channel is only as good as its audience.
An ad channel is only as good as its audience. Here are three documented numbers that make ChatGPT a relevant space for Czech companies.
1 billion people a week
Around a billion people use ChatGPT every week, and the vast majority of them are on the free version or the cheap Go plan, which is exactly where ads appear.
56% of Czechs have tried ChatGPT
According to an Ipsos survey from December 2025, 56 percent of Czechs had tried ChatGPT, half as many again as a year earlier. According to the Czech Statistical Office, a third of the population over 16 used generative AI tools in 2025.
Young people ask AI before they search
According to a 2026 Deloitte survey, AI chatbots are the most common first place Czechs aged 15 to 24 look for information. Traditional search engines have fallen to third place with them.
Six things about the mechanism. None of them technical.
Six things you need to know about the mechanism. None requires technical knowledge, but each decides whether the ad earns money.
Where the ad appears
As a separate card labelled "Sponsored" below the ChatGPT answer. It is never part of the answer itself and does not influence it. OpenAI keeps the ad system separate from the system that writes answers.
Who sees the ads
Only users of the free version and the Go plan. Subscribers to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and education plans do not see ads. Ads are not shown to users under 18 or in sensitive conversations, for example about personal or mental health.
How ads are targeted
No keywords or demographic targeting. The advertiser describes in plain language the kinds of conversations where the offer is useful (context hints), and the system matches the ad to conversations with a similar topic and intent. Targeting is geographic on top of that, from a whole country down to a postcode.
Privacy in Europe
In the EU, ads run without personalisation for now: the ad is selected based on the content of the ongoing conversation, approximate location and language. Chat history and stored memories are not used. The advertiser never sees conversation content and only receives aggregate numbers on impressions and clicks.
Two ad formats
A text card with a headline of up to 50 characters, a description of up to 100 characters and a square image. The second format is product cards generated from a shop data feed, showing the product price and rating.
How the winner is picked
By a relevance-weighted auction: the highest bid does not win automatically. What wins is the combination of the bid and how well the ad and the landing page match the conversation. A more relevant ad can beat a more expensive bid and pay less. Google uses the same principle under the name Ad Rank.
The auction sets the price. A frame for your budget.
Prices come from official OpenAI documentation and published experience of the first agencies, converted at the Czech National Bank rate from the end of August 2026 (20.80 CZK per dollar). Payment is in dollars, and the auction sets the actual click price; the numbers below are an indicative frame.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Payment model | Per click (CPC) or per thousand impressions (CPM). Three campaign objectives: reach, clicks, conversions. |
| Recommended bid per click | 3 to 5 dollars, roughly 62 to 104 CZK. Below 3 dollars the system barely delivers ads. |
| Observed click prices | Agencies report an average of 2 to 5 dollars (42 to 104 CZK) across industries from the first campaigns. |
| Minimum daily budget | 25 dollars per campaign, roughly 520 CZK per day. The daily budget works as a seven-day average; on a single day it can spend up to double. |
| A meaningful first test | Industry guides recommend a budget that brings at least 50 conversions, typically tens of thousands of CZK over 3 to 4 weeks. A smaller test does not produce readable data. |
| Measuring results | A measurement pixel on the website (the same principle as Meta and Google), server-side conversion tracking (Conversions API) and UTM parameters for Google Analytics. Reporting shows impressions, clicks, spend, CTR (the share of impressions that led to a click) and conversions. |
On Instagram people entertain themselves, in Google they search. They ask ChatGPT for advice.
The key difference is the moment in which the ad reaches the person. On Instagram they scroll and entertain themselves, in Google they search, in ChatGPT they describe their situation and want a recommendation. The closer the ad is to the decision, the fewer people you need to reach to make a sale.
| Criterion | ChatGPT Ads | Google Ads (search) | Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the ad meets the customer | In a conversation with an AI assistant, at the moment when the person asks, compares and decides | In search results, when the person actively searches | In the feed and stories, when the person scrolls and entertains themselves |
| User intent | High · describes the whole situation and wants a recommendation | High · enters a specific query | Low · the ad must catch attention and creates the demand first |
| How targeting works | By describing relevant conversations (context hints) plus geography, with no keywords or demographics | By keywords and their match types | By audience demographics, interests and behaviour |
| Advertiser competition | Low for now; the platform is a few months old and most Czech companies do not know about it | Very high; auctions have been bid up for years | High; prices have risen for years |
| Formats and tools | Two formats and basic management for now; the platform is in beta and adds features fast | Dozens of formats, mature automation | Dozens of formats, mature automation |
| Audience in Czechia | Most ChatGPT users (only the free version and Go see ads) | Practically the whole internet population | Most of the internet population, though younger cohorts are moving elsewhere |
The practical conclusion: ChatGPT Ads replaces neither Facebook nor Google; it adds a third moment that could not be bought before. When a customer asks "recommend a reliable company for a bathroom renovation in Brno" or "which accounting software is best for a limited company with ten employees", no ad used to be there. Now there can be one, and because the platform is new, whoever starts first is there almost alone for now.
Who it is for, and who not.
A simple sense check: a click costs roughly 42 to 104 CZK. If your average order or inquiry value times your website conversion rate covers that amount, the channel is worth testing. For very cheap low-margin goods it does not pay off.
Where it makes the most sense
E-shops and consumer brands, home and business services, travel and experiences, education and digital products, B2B software. Generally, industries where people take advice on their choice and where the order or inquiry value covers a click costing tens of CZK.
Not available yet
Financial services, healthcare and legal services require manual approval and are practically not approved outside the USA for now. Fully banned are gambling, alcohol, tobacco, dating and adult content, cryptocurrencies, debt-relief services and political advertising.
A smart workaround: next door to a banned category
Banning a category does not cancel demand in conversations. Debt questions show mortgage refinancing; cocktail questions show bar glassware and equipment. If you sit next to a banned category, you can reach an audience competitors cannot touch.
Five steps. Measurement comes before the first crown.
Five steps from zero to the first campaign. The setup itself takes hours; account approval and system learning take weeks. The order is binding: measurement comes before the first crown spent.
Step 1 · Set up a business account
On ads.openai.com, a company seated in the EU registers and passes verification. Access runs in beta; OpenAI approves advertisers gradually and reviews ad content.
Step 2 · Set up measurement before you spend a crown
The OpenAI measurement pixel belongs on the website, and UTM parameters belong in every ad link, so visits from ChatGPT are visible in Google Analytics too. Without measurement you cannot tell what works.
Step 3 · Describe conversations, not keywords
Write context hints as a scenario: "a company looks for accounting software and compares options for 10 employees", not as a list of words. The landing page must speak the same language as the described conversation; a generic homepage reliably kills results.
Step 4 · Launch a small clicks campaign
A first campaign with the Clicks objective, a bid of 3 to 5 dollars per click and several ad groups by conversation topic. A conversions campaign makes sense only after data accumulates.
Step 5 · Evaluate by weeks and change one thing at a time
Do not touch the campaign in the first week; the system learns. Then change only one variable at a time, or you will not know what caused the change in results. Read results in seven-day windows, not by days.
Four mistakes that cost money.
They come from published experience of the first advertisers. All four lead to the same end: the company spends the test budget, learns nothing and writes the channel off.
A generic homepage as the landing page
Landing page relevance is a direct part of the auction. An ad leading to a generic homepage pays more per click and delivers less.
A bid set too low
A bid below 3 dollars per click means the ad barely shows. A test with too low a bid leads to the false conclusion that the platform does not work.
Judging after two days
Budgets work as seven-day averages and the system learns in the first days. A campaign switched off after the weekend never got a chance.
Launching without conversion tracking
Without the pixel and UTM parameters, only the click count remains. On its own it never says whether the ad earns money.
We launch the campaign when the numbers work.
We deploy ChatGPT advertising as part of broader AI work in companies: we train teams, adopt AI into operations and manage campaigns where they make economic sense. If your numbers do not work, we say so before launch, not after the budget is spent.
Setup and launch
We set up the account, deploy measurement, write the context hints and the ads, and launch a first campaign built on data, not on estimates. Pricing by scope, on request.
Ongoing management and optimisation
The platform changes by the week: new formats, new rules, new measurement options. We keep tuning the campaigns, and once a month you get a plain-language report on what the ads brought.
Training your team
If you want to run campaigns yourself, we teach your team to operate the platform: from context hints through budgets to reading results. It follows on from our AI training for companies.
Where the numbers come from.
All figures on this page come from official OpenAI materials and cited reporting, Czech statistics from Ipsos, Czech Statistical Office and Deloitte surveys. The status reflects 1 September 2026; the platform evolves fast, and current terms are always in Ads Manager and the OpenAI help center.
- OpenAI · Testing ads in ChatGPT · official announcement with ongoing updates
- OpenAI · ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe · expansion to 31 European markets
- OpenAI Help Center · Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics · formats, pricing, auction, measurement
- OpenAI Help Center · Ads Manager Availability · self-serve availability by country
- OpenAI · Ad policies · allowed, restricted and prohibited categories
- Forbes · OpenAI Hits $1 Billion Run Rate With ChatGPT Ads In Just 200 Days (31 August 2026)
- Digiday · OpenAI takes ChatGPT ads into Europe · details of the European launch and the GDPR regime
- Search Engine Land · How to run ChatGPT ads · lessons and pricing from the first campaigns (August 2026)
- Ipsos · 56% of Czechs have tried ChatGPT · survey, December 2025
- Czech Statistical Office · A third of the population uses artificial intelligence · ICT survey 2025
- Deloitte · TMT Highlights Czech Republic 2026 · AI in the everyday life of Czechs
What companies ask before the first campaign.
Will paying ChatGPT users see ads too?
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No. Ads appear only on the free version and the cheap Go plan. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and education subscriptions stay ad-free. Ads also do not appear in temporary chats or for users under 18.
Do ads influence the answers ChatGPT gives?
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No. OpenAI keeps answers and ads as separate systems. An ad is always labelled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. Paying for a better mention inside the answer itself is not possible.
Will the advertiser see what I write to ChatGPT?
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No. Advertisers have no access to conversations, history or personal user data. They only receive aggregate statistics, for example the number of impressions and clicks on their ad.
How much money do we need to start?
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The technical minimum is 25 dollars a day per campaign, roughly 520 CZK. In practice, plan for a budget that brings at least 50 conversions in 3 to 4 weeks, typically tens of thousands of CZK. A smaller test does not generate enough data to decide whether to continue the channel.
Does ChatGPT advertising work in Czech, and can we target Czechia only?
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Yes. Targeting works geographically from a whole country down to a postcode, so a campaign can run on the Czech Republic only. In Europe, the ad is selected based on the content and language of the ongoing conversation, so a Czech conversation pairs with Czech ads.
We are a bank, an insurer or a clinic. Can we advertise?
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Practically not yet. Financial services, healthcare and legal services require manual approval of each advertiser, and OpenAI generally does not allow them outside the USA for now. The rules change by the month, though, and categories open gradually.
Is it compliant with the GDPR?
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OpenAI launched European ads in a non-personalised regime: targeting uses only the ongoing conversation, approximate location and language, with no chat history or stored memories. It plans personalised ads only as a second step based on explicit user consent. For this regime it published separate European privacy rules on 14 August 2026.
How long does it take a campaign to get going?
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The account passes company verification and every ad passes content review. European self-serve has run in beta since 31 August 2026, so approval speed is still settling. In the USA, account approval in the beta phase took up to two weeks. Count on days to weeks, not hours.
Will ChatGPT advertising replace Facebook and Google?
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No, it complements them. ChatGPT captures the moment when a person asks for advice and decides, which differs both from feed scrolling and from searching. The advantage is low competition for now: auctions are not bid up and a Czech company meets a minimum of competitors there today. The downside is a young platform with limited formats and measurement.
Why start now instead of waiting for the platform to mature?
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Because of the competition that is still to come. Auctions are not bid up today because most companies do not know about the platform yet, and agencies report clicks at 2 to 5 dollars from the first campaigns. OpenAI is expanding the system fast and targets 2.5 billion dollars in ad revenue this year, so advertisers will keep coming. Whoever starts earlier collects data and experience ahead of time.
FIRST STEP
Find out whether it pays off for you.
Tell us in an inquiry about your industry and average order value. We calculate whether ChatGPT advertising makes sense for your numbers and propose a first campaign. We reply within two business days at office@ciad.cz.