OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Ads, its advertising platform, in India, with more than 50 brands expected to begin advertising on ChatGPT this week.
The ads will initially be available to logged-in adults using the free and Go tiers, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education subscriptions will remain ad-free. OpenAI said advertising will help support continued investment in free and lower-cost access to AI tools.
WPP and Omnicom will be OpenAI’s first agency partners for ChatGPT Ads in India. The agencies will support brands with strategy, creative, measurement, brand safety and campaign execution as the advertising ecosystem launches in the country.
OpenAI said the model will not be exclusive to the two agencies and that it will continue working with other partners.
Self-serve access to ChatGPT Ads Manager is scheduled to open in India on September 4, allowing businesses of all sizes to advertise on the platform, with daily budgets starting at ₹725.
“India is one of the most dynamic markets in the world for how people use ChatGPT to learn, build, and discover,” said Dave Dugan, vice-president and head of global ads solutions at OpenAI.
He said weekly active users in India have doubled year-on-year, with users increasingly using ChatGPT to ask questions, explore options and weigh trade-offs rather than simply conduct searches.
“With ChatGPT Ads, businesses of every size can introduce themselves at relevant, high-context moments when decisions are beginning to take shape,” Dugan added.
Ads will appear below a ChatGPT response when there is a relevant sponsored product or service. OpenAI said they will be clearly labelled as sponsored and visually separated from ChatGPT’s response.
The company said advertisers will not have access to users’ chats, chat history, memories or personal details, and that it does not sell user data to advertisers. Advertisers will instead receive aggregate campaign-performance information such as impressions and clicks.
OpenAI is also maintaining a separation between advertising and its answers. Ads will not influence ChatGPT’s responses, it said.
Users will be able to dismiss ads, provide feedback, understand why an advertisement was shown, manage advertising personalisation and clear data used for advertising.
Ads will not be shown on accounts belonging to people who identify themselves, or are predicted, to be under 18. They will also not be eligible to appear alongside sensitive or regulated topics including mental health and politics. OpenAI said its advertising policies will continue to address scams, misleading claims and other harmful content.
