Published on October 14, 2026 · The mitza.es team
OpenAI began showing ads in ChatGPT in 31 European markets, Spain among them, on August 24, 2026. At first, advertising was only possible through partner agencies and OpenAI's sales team; on August 31 it opened the self-serve ad manager, still in beta, to businesses registered in those markets. For an SME or a freelancer this means a campaign can now be created, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so without preparation.
How it works: bidding per click or per reach
The advertiser signs up, chooses an objective and a budget, prepares the ads and reviews the results in a dedicated manager. There are two payment models: by reach, billed per impression (CPM), and by clicks (CPC). According to Blog du Modérateur, most campaigns use clicks or goal-based optimization. OpenAI recommends starting with a maximum bid of $3 to $5 per click, although the bid is not what you end up paying, which depends on each campaign.
In self-serve there is no minimum budget. In the US pilot phase, however, a commitment of $200,000 was required, which later dropped to $50,000 and was finally eliminated. The manager reports impressions, clicks, spend and conversions, but it's worth remembering that impressions and clicks only measure attention: what matters is how much each customer you win actually costs.
Who sees the ads and where they appear
According to OpenAI's help center, ads are only shown on the Free and Go plans. People on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu don't see advertising, and neither do accounts that OpenAI considers to belong to users under 18. Ads are labeled and kept separate from the answer, and OpenAI says they run on systems separate from the chat model, so advertisers can't influence what ChatGPT replies.
Placement depends on the topic and intent of the conversation, the ad's content and the landing page. The topics the advertiser specifies are indicative: they don't work as exact keywords and don't guarantee that the ad will appear.
Limits in Europe worth knowing
- Targeting in Europe is contextual only: neither conversation history nor the user's memory is used to personalize the ad.
- Not every business or every ad is accepted. Self-serve requires the category to be eligible and reviews the creatives; early guidelines mention exclusions such as politics or gambling, and advise avoiding health topics.
- “Sponsored Agents”, where the user chats with the advertiser's assistant after clicking the ad, remain limited to selected advertisers in the US.
- The manager is still in beta, so formats, rules and prices may change.
Is it right for an SME?
It depends on the type of customer. It makes more sense for businesses whose customers do their research before buying: consultancies, professional services, products that need explaining, business software or local services with very specific inquiries. It's less reasonable for low-value impulse purchases or if you can't measure what happens after the click. As one of the experts cited by Autónomos y Emprendedor puts it, how useful it turns out to be will depend on the cost of the ads.
The most sensible approach is to treat it as a small, time-limited test, comparing the cost per customer with what you already get from other channels, rather than as a replacement for what already works.
What to prepare before spending a euro
An ad in ChatGPT takes the user to a page of yours, and that page decides whether the click becomes a customer. Before investing, check that the landing page answers what the person was asking in the conversation, that it loads quickly on mobile and that you have analytics and conversion tracking set up. If you already advertise on search engines, compare the result with your SEM campaigns, which capture searches with a very clear purchase intent.
And don't forget that advertising is only part of the story: AI assistants also recommend businesses without ads, which is why it pays to work on your organic presence in them. We explain it in how AI search engines are taking traffic from Google and on our page about AI search engine optimization.