OpenAI’s advertising arm has crossed a $1B annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days, the company said Monday, turning a once-avoided business line into a real pillar ahead of its IPO.
ChatGPT Ads started as a US pilot earlier this year, and OpenAI says the business now makes up a “material share” of revenue. Small and medium businesses are a growing part of the advertiser base, helped by the self-serve Ads Manager tool, which went live for buyers in India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa on Monday after launching in the United States.
The pace is striking. In April, the US pilot was already running at $100M annualized within six weeks of launch. Ads currently appear on ChatGPT’s free tier and its lower-priced Go plan.
The milestone lands as OpenAI courts investors ahead of a much-anticipated public listing. The company frames advertising as one leg of a diversified model alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise contracts and usage-based APIs.
It is a reversal for a firm whose CEO once called AI advertising “uniquely unsettling.” Sam Altman said in 2024 that he viewed ads as a last resort for the business model. Now they are a growth line OpenAI is scaling in public, expanding advertiser access market by market.
