OpenAI said on Monday that its ChatGPT advertising business has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days after launch. The company described the milestone as proof of a diversified business model as it prepares for a planned 2027 initial public offering and works to justify a valuation reportedly above $850 billion.
ChatGPT ads are now live in more than 40 countries. OpenAI is expanding self-serve ad buying to India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, with India receiving ads last week as one of ChatGPT’s largest markets. Fifty brands joined the India rollout, with agency partnerships including WPP and Omnicom. A self-serve ad manager for Indian marketers opens September 4 with a daily minimum budget of roughly $7.60.
Ads appear for users on the free tier and the Go subscription plan. OpenAI says ads are clearly labeled and do not influence how ChatGPT generates answers, and advertisers cannot see users’ private conversations. The company added cost-per-click pricing earlier this year and removed a $50,000 minimum spend requirement when it opened its self-serve Ads Manager to all U.S. businesses.
OpenAI is targeting $2.5 billion in advertising revenue for the current year and is tracking toward total annualized revenue above $40 billion. The company reported $6.7 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up from $5.7 billion in the prior quarter. OpenAI posted a net loss of $38.5 billion in 2025 on $13.07 billion in revenue. Rival Anthropic has mocked OpenAI’s advertising push, including in its first Super Bowl campaign, while OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman previously called mixing ads and AI “uniquely unsettling.”
