When you see an ad, it is always clearly labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the organic answer,
OpenAI stated as the company rolled out advertising to users in South Africa and 25 other countries. OpenAI is expanding ads on its free and cheapest paid ChatGPT subscription tiers to 26 additional countries, notifying users via email about updated privacy policies and self-service ad management platforms.
OpenAI Expands Advertising to South Africa and 25 Additional Markets
The rollout brings ChatGPT Ads to 89 countries globally, reaching the milestone less than 200 days after the feature first entered testing in the United States in February 2026. Business News South Africa reported that the programme expanded to South Africa on 21 October, granting local businesses access to the Ads Manager self-service platform where campaigns are built and managed by card payment. By August 2026, the advertising initiative had already achieved an annualized revenue run rate of $1 billion across tens of thousands of advertisers.
Under the updated policy terms, advertisements appear exclusively on ChatGPT Free and Go plans. Premium tiers including ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Business, and Education remain entirely ad-free. According to OpenAI, ads do not influence conversational responses generated by the platform. Personalization relies strictly on information contained within the ChatGPT ecosystem, such as user interaction history and immediate conversational context, ensuring that external advertisers never gain direct access to private chat histories, memories, or personal user details.
Retailers Use Ads Manager to Draft and Pay Campaigns
Business News South Africa noted that participating businesses access Ads Manager at ads.openai.com using existing ChatGPT credentials to draft campaigns, upload collateral, and pay via credit card. OpenAI reviews every submitted campaign prior to publication. Early global participants include major retailers such as Newegg, Best Buy, Lowe’s, and VistaPrint. Alec Shao, performance marketing manager at Newegg, stated that the objective is to be part of the conversation when someone is researching what to buy.
Billing operates on an accrual threshold model where credit cards are charged automatically once unpaid advertising spend reaches predetermined limits. Initial account thresholds start at low amounts, and businesses must ensure their permanent country, currency, and time zone settings are correct during initial setup, as these parameters cannot be modified later.
OpenAI Restricts Ads for Minors and Provides Privacy Settings
OpenAI maintains strict behavioral boundaries regarding minor accounts and audience targeting. The system automatically restricts ads on accounts identified as belonging to users under 18 years of age based on account-level age data and predictive metrics. Logged-out experiences feature general-audience advertising only, restricting mature-content promotions to eligible logged-in users.
Users retain full control over their advertising experience through dedicated settings pages where ad personalization can be managed or adjusted. Advertisers receive only aggregated performance metrics, such as total views and click counts, preserving user confidentiality across all supported tiers.
Related reading