Yes, ChatGPT ads are live in Australia. OpenAI started showing ads to Australian users on the Free and Go plans from 16 April 2026, and an Australian business can now buy them itself through OpenAI’s Ads Manager, with a minimum daily budget of A$25. The ads sit below ChatGPT’s answer, are labelled as sponsored, and OpenAI says they do not change what the answer says.
That matters most if you run a law firm (legal services can not be advertised on ChatGPT outside the US), a building company, or any business already paying Google for clicks. Below we set out what OpenAI has published, then what we measured on 24 September 2026: what Google charges for the searches where ChatGPT recommends businesses free, whether sponsored units turned up in real answers, and how fast Australian interest is growing.
Key findings
- OpenAI began rolling out ads to Free and Go users in Australia on 16 April 2026. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans have no ads.
- The minimum daily budget for an Australian dollar ad account is A$25, and OpenAI suggests starting cost per click bids at US$3 to US$5.
- Legal services ads are banned outside the US, so Australian law firms can not buy them. Health and financial services are generally banned outside the US too.
- In our 24-question study on 24 September 2026, ChatGPT named an average of 5.6 businesses per buying question without anyone paying. Google’s median cost per click for the matching searches was US$15.82.
- Australian Google searches for “chatgpt ads” went from 110 a month in August 2025 to 2,400 in August 2026, peaking at 3,600 in June.
What are ChatGPT ads?
They are paid placements that appear underneath a ChatGPT answer when the conversation matches something an advertiser sells. Each ad has the advertiser’s name and logo, a headline, a short description, an image and a link. One or more ad units can appear below a response.
The important part is where the ad sits. It is not inside the answer. If you ask for a good plumber in Brisbane, the plumbers ChatGPT names are chosen the same way they were before ads existed. A plumber who pays OpenAI can appear in a labelled box below that reply, but can not buy a place in the list. OpenAI’s Ads in ChatGPT help article says ads run on separate systems from the chat model and advertisers “have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT’s responses.”
So there are now two ways to be seen in ChatGPT: the organic recommendation, which you earn through reviews, listings and your website, and the sponsored box underneath, which you pay for. If you already run Google Ads campaigns for your business, this will feel familiar. It is the same split as organic and sponsored results on Google, except the organic part is a written answer.
OpenAI is also testing Sponsored Agents, where someone who clicks an ad can chat with an AI version of the business. As of September 2026 that is limited to selected US advertisers.
Timeline: from a US test to Australia
Every date here comes from OpenAI’s own posts and release notes unless we say otherwise.
- 16 January 2026: OpenAI published its advertising principles and said testing would start in the US.
- 9 February 2026: the US test began for logged-in adults on Free and Go.
- 26 March 2026: OpenAI said pilots in Canada, Australia and New Zealand would follow “in the coming weeks.”
- 16 April 2026: the ChatGPT release notes record the rollout to Free and Go users in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
- May 2026: self-serve Ads Manager opened to US advertisers of all sizes, as reported by Digiday on 7 May.
- 11 August 2026: ads launched in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.
- 31 August 2026: OpenAI said the ads business had reached a US$1 billion annualised revenue run rate across more than 40 countries.
- 16 September 2026: OpenAI announced Sponsored Agents (US only) and campaign tools inside ChatGPT, HubSpot and Shopify.
OpenAI keeps each update at the top of its original Testing ads in ChatGPT post.
Can I advertise on ChatGPT in Australia?
For most Australian businesses, yes. OpenAI’s Ads Manager availability page listed Australia as “Available” for self-service when we checked on 24 September 2026. The legal entity that advertises and gets billed must be based in an available country, so an Australian company signs up at ads.openai.com directly.
It is not instant. You enter your business details, pass an identity check, then wait in a review queue while OpenAI checks that what you sell is allowed. After approval you add your logo, billing details and a credit card. OpenAI also says some new accounts can only advertise in their home country at first. If you use an agency, each business needs its own account, and in the setup flow inside ChatGPT the business creates the account and then invites the agency.
Which businesses are allowed?
OpenAI’s ad policies, updated 10 September 2026, say that for now ads are mainly limited to household and consumer goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products and education. The rules that matter most in Australia:
- Legal services: “Ads for legal services outside of the US are currently prohibited.” An Australian family law or personal injury firm can not buy these ads.
- Health and financial services: generally prohibited outside the US, which in practice shuts out most dental clinics, mortgage brokers and insurers for now.
- Housing and jobs: ads for individual property or job listings are banned everywhere.
- Banned for everyone: alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult content, recreational drugs and political ads.
Builders, tradies, retailers, travel operators, software companies and course providers fall into the allowed groups. We have not seen OpenAI rule on specific trades, so treat “local services” as a likely yes that still has to pass review.
How much do ChatGPT ads cost?
There is no fixed price. Placements are sold in an auction, and OpenAI’s campaign setup guide offers three ways to buy:
- Views: pay per 1,000 impressions.
- Clicks: pay per valid click.
- Conversions: the system aims for a sale or enquiry, but you are still billed per click or per 1,000 impressions, never per conversion.
For click campaigns OpenAI suggests a starting maximum bid of US$3 to US$5. It uses what it calls a relevance-weighted, second-price auction, so a more relevant ad can beat a higher bid.
The minimum daily budget for an account billed in Australian dollars is A$25. A daily budget is treated as a weekly average, so one day can spend up to twice the amount, but the week never goes over seven times it. Your card is charged when unpaid spend reaches a set threshold, and at month end.
What nobody can tell you yet is what a good result looks like. OpenAI’s advertiser FAQ says the platform “does not yet have performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries, or campaign types.” Anyone quoting a typical cost per lead in Australia is guessing.
How targeting works
ChatGPT advertising does not use keywords the way Google does. You write short “context hints” describing your product, who it suits and when it helps, such as OpenAI’s own example for a plumber: “after-hours residential plumbing in [city], with an $89 service-call fee for urgent repairs.” OpenAI stresses these are not exact-match keywords and do not guarantee your ad shows. You can also target countries, states, cities and postcodes, choose app or web platforms, and use custom audiences (at least 25,000 matched users to include one).
The system reads your landing page too, so OpenAI requires advertisers to allow its OAI-AdsBot crawler and recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot. A firewall that blocks them can get ads rejected, and would also stop ChatGPT reading your site for organic answers, one of the first things we test in an AI SEO audit.
Privacy and separation
OpenAI’s help centre says advertisers never receive your chats, memories, name, email or precise location, only totals such as views and clicks. No ads show to accounts identified as under 18, in Temporary Chats, or next to sensitive topics such as health, mental health and politics.
What Google charges per click vs what ChatGPT gives away free
On 24 September 2026 we asked ChatGPT 24 Australian buying questions, such as “Recommend a reliable plumber in Brisbane. Give me a shortlist with reasons,” with web search on and an Australian location. It named an average of 5.6 businesses per answer. None of them paid to be there.
We then pulled Google’s cost per click and monthly search volume in Australia for the matching search. Where Google had no data for the exact phrase, we used the closest phrase that did and marked it. Cost per click is in US dollars, as the keyword data reports it.
| Google search (Australia) | Monthly searches | Google cost per click (US$) | Businesses ChatGPT named free |
|---|---|---|---|
| family lawyers melbourne | 2,400 | 32.15 | 7 |
| personal injury lawyer brisbane | 210 | 119.95 | 3 |
| conveyancer sydney | 1,600 | 26.24 | 5 |
| employment lawyer perth | 720 | 12.92 | 5 |
| wills and estates lawyer adelaide | 70 | 6.68 | 5 |
| criminal lawyer sydney | 2,400 | 25.14 | 6 |
| custom home builders melbourne | 1,600 | 6.89 | 7 |
| knock down rebuild sydney (closest) | 320 | 13.72 | 6 |
| granny flat builders brisbane | 590 | 6.46 | 5 |
| renovation builders perth | 210 | 11.56 | 5 |
| duplex builders melbourne | 90 | 10.90 | 7 |
| home builders adelaide | 1,900 | 4.33 | 6 |
| seo agency melbourne | 1,900 | 62.28 | 7 |
| seo agency brisbane | 1,900 | 54.37 | 5 |
| law firm marketing agency (closest) | 140 | 15.38 | 6 |
| marketing agency for builders (closest) | 30 | 15.82 | 6 |
| ai seo agency (closest) | 390 | 22.12 | 6 |
| seo consultant sydney | 1,000 | no data | 5 |
| electrician melbourne | 1,900 | 19.33 | 5 |
| plumber brisbane | 3,600 | 35.94 | 5 |
| solar installer perth | 2,900 | 22.72 | 5 |
| roofer sydney | 1,900 | 20.64 | 4 |
| accountant adelaide (closest) | 1,000 | 14.48 | 6 |
| dentist gold coast | 2,400 | 10.15 | 7 |
Three things stand out. First, the median Google cost per click across the 23 searches with data was US$15.82, and 22 of the 23 were above the top of OpenAI’s suggested US$3 to US$5 starting bid. Those are different measures (one is what Google advertisers pay on average, the other is OpenAI’s advice on where to start), so do not read this as “ChatGPT clicks are cheaper.” Nobody has enough data to say that yet.
Second, the answer above the ad slot already names five or six businesses for most of these questions. If a competitor is in the answer and you are the sponsored box underneath, you are paying to sit below someone who got there free.
Third, law is the most expensive category on Google here, and the one category that can not use these ads at all in Australia. For a law firm, the organic answer is the only way in. Our guide on how law firms get recommended by ChatGPT covers what that takes.
For Google click prices across more Australian cities and trades, see our Google Ads cost benchmarks for Australia.
We looked for sponsored units in 29 ChatGPT answers
We also wanted to see what a user actually gets. On 24 September 2026 we captured 19 fresh ChatGPT answers from an Australian location across the kinds of topics OpenAI allows ads on: electricians, plumbers, removalists, solar, builders, robot vacuums, mattresses, meal kits, gaming laptops, flights, family hotels, accounting software, CRMs, website builders and an online course, plus one legal and one insurance question. As a check we ran 10 similar US questions.
None of the 29 answers contained a sponsored unit. Our capture method records ad units as a separate item when they appear, and it logged zero every time.
The honest reading: our captures come from fresh sessions, not long-running logged-in Free accounts with ad personalisation on, and OpenAI says ads only show “when there’s a relevant match.” So this does not prove Australians never see ads. It does show ads are not attached to every commercial answer, and that the organic answer, with its named businesses, is what people see first. Four of the 19 Australian answers showed organic business or product cards, which look a little like ads but are not paid.
Is anyone in Australia searching for OpenAI ads?
Advertiser interest is growing fast. Australian Google data shows “chatgpt ads” at an average of 1,600 searches a month over the past year, up about 2,000% on the year before. “openai ads” averages 390 a month and “chatgpt ads manager” 110.
Searches jumped in January 2026 when OpenAI announced its plans, dipped in March, climbed after the Australian rollout in April and peaked at 3,600 in June. They have held at 2,400 a month since. OpenAI does not publish how many Australian businesses actually spend.
Should an Australian business wait, test or ignore ChatGPT ads?
Law firms: ignore the ads and work on the answer
There is nothing to test, because legal services ads are banned outside the US. What you can influence is whether ChatGPT names your firm. In our study, ChatGPT’s legal answers cited sources such as Doyle’s Guide, Best Lawyers, law society pages and firms’ own websites, and many of its background searches went looking for Doyle’s Guide rankings by name. Our post on what matters for law firm AI visibility goes through it.
Builders and tradies: test small, only with tracking
Local services are allowed and the A$25 daily minimum is low enough for a trial. But with no benchmarks and no keyword control, you need conversion tracking first, or you will never know if an enquiry came from it. If you are not yet in the organic answer for your main service and city, fix that first. Our research on how AI recommends builders shows what ChatGPT looks for.
Retailers, travel and software: a sensible test
These are the categories OpenAI built the product around, with product feeds and Shopify and HubSpot links. If you already run Google Shopping profitably, a capped test makes sense.
Everyone: do the free work first
The organic recommendation is still the bigger prize. It is what the user reads first and it costs nothing per click. What to do now:
- Check that your robots.txt, firewall and security plugins allow OAI-SearchBot, and OAI-AdsBot if you plan to advertise.
- Run your own buying questions through ChatGPT and note who it names and which sources it cites. Our guide on how to get recommended by ChatGPT walks through the test.
- Fix the sources it relies on: your Google Business Profile, directories, industry registers and review sites.
- Set up conversion tracking on forms and calls, so any paid test is judged on leads, not clicks.
- Re-test monthly, because answers change from run to run, as we found in our study of how often AI answers change.
If you would rather hand that over, our AI SEO services focus on getting businesses named in the answer itself.
If you plan to test, OpenAI’s short getting started video shows the Ads Manager setup screens before you open an account.
How we did this research
All research was done on 24 September 2026.
- Platform facts: OpenAI’s announcements, ChatGPT release notes, Ads help centre articles and ad policies, each checked on the page itself. The May 2026 Ads Manager date comes from news reporting.
- Free recommendations: our shared study of 24 Australian buying questions (6 law, 6 builders, 6 agency and SEO, 6 trades and services), each run once through ChatGPT with web search on and an Australian location, counting distinct businesses named.
- Google prices: Google Ads monthly volume and average cost per click for Australia. Five phrases had no data, so we used the closest phrase and marked it. One had volume but no cost figure.
- Ad check: 29 ChatGPT answers from fresh sessions (19 Australian, 10 US), with sponsored units recorded as separate items. One Australian capture failed on the first attempt and was re-run.
- Demand: monthly Google search volume in Australia for “chatgpt ads” and related phrases.
Limits: each question was run once and AI answers vary between runs. Our captures were not logged-in consumer accounts, so they can not show what a Free user with personalisation sees. Cost per click is an estimate that moves. Twenty-nine answers is enough to show ads are not on every answer, not enough to say how often they appear.
Frequently asked questions
Does ChatGPT have ads?
Yes. OpenAI started testing ads in the US on 9 February 2026 and began rolling them out in Australia on 16 April 2026. They appear below the answer for logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans and are labelled as sponsored. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans have none.
How to stop ChatGPT ads?
Upgrade to Plus or Pro, which have no ads. On the Free plan, go to Settings, then Ads controls, and pick the ads-free option, which removes ads in exchange for fewer daily messages and tools. Turning off ad personalisation does not remove ads, it only changes how they are chosen.
How much do ChatGPT ads cost?
There is no set price because ads are sold in an auction, per 1,000 impressions or per click. OpenAI suggests starting click bids at US$3 to US$5, and the minimum daily budget for an Australian dollar account is A$25. OpenAI says it has no performance benchmarks yet, so cost per lead is unknown.
Can I advertise on ChatGPT in Australia?
Yes, if your business is based in Australia and sells something in an allowed category. OpenAI lists Australia as available for self-service at ads.openai.com, after verification and billing setup. Legal services, and in general health and financial services, can not advertise outside the US.
Do ads change the answer ChatGPT gives?
OpenAI says no. Its help centre states ads run on separate systems and advertisers can not shape, rank or change ChatGPT’s responses. The businesses named in the answer are still chosen organically, so getting into the answer is a separate job from buying the ad slot below it.
Can Australian law firms use OpenAI ads?
Not at the moment. OpenAI’s ad policies, updated 10 September 2026, prohibit legal services ads outside the US. Law firms can still be recommended in organic answers, which draw on legal directories, law society listings, reviews and the firm’s own website.
If you are weighing ChatGPT against spending more on Google, we are happy to look at your numbers with you. Our Google Ads management team can show you what your current clicks cost and where a small test would fit, and our AI SEO work covers the free side of the answer.
