Ads in ChatGPT: what small businesses in Germany need to know

Since 24 August 2026, ChatGPT has been showing ads in Germany too. For many businesses, this is the first new advertising space in years that doesn’t belong to Google or Meta — so there are plenty of questions: Who sees the ads? What do they cost? And is it worth it for a small business, or is it mainly something for large corporations?

I’ve gone through OpenAI’s official information, the help pages for the Ads Manager and the first assessments from data protection authorities. Here is what you need to know as the owner of a small business.

In short: Only users of the free version and the low-cost Go plan see ads in ChatGPT. In Europe, the ads are not personalized; they are matched to the ongoing conversation. Since 31 August 2026, you can book them yourself, from a daily budget of €15 per campaign. For most small businesses, this is a test in 2026, not a main channel — and the ads don’t change who gets recommended in the answers themselves.

What exactly is advertising in ChatGPT?

OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT in the US in February 2026. On 18 August 2026, the company announced the launch in 31 European markets, including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France (OpenAI’s announcement). The ads have been running since 24 August.

The ads appear in a clearly labeled box below the answer, separate from it. So they don’t sit in the middle of the text, and ChatGPT doesn’t recommend your business because you pay. OpenAI describes the channel as advertising at the moment when people compare options and make decisions — closer to a search ad than to a banner.

An example of what this can look like: someone asks ChatGPT where they can hold a Christmas party in Koblenz with 25 colleagues. Below the answer, an ad from a local restaurant that targets this topic and this location could appear. The answer itself remains unaffected.

Who sees the ads — and who doesn’t

• Free and Go only: Ads are shown to users of the free version and the Go plan. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise remain ad-free.
• No minors: According to OpenAI’s advertising principles, accounts that state an age under 18 or that OpenAI estimates to be underage are not shown any ads.
• No sensitive topics: No ads appear near conversations about health, mental health or politics. That makes the channel largely irrelevant for medical practices and health professions.
• No ads in temporary chats: Anyone using a temporary chat sees no ads there.

What this means for you: you mainly reach people who use the free version of ChatGPT in everyday life — a large share of private users. Business customers who work on a company plan, on the other hand, can’t be reached through this channel.

How ads are served in Europe

Where personalization is active, OpenAI says past chats and saved memories can also influence which ads someone sees. Europe is different: personalized ads are not available in the European Economic Area and Switzerland for now. The ad is selected based on the ongoing conversation, the approximate location and the language. Past chats and memories are not taken into account.

According to the data protection authorities in Hamburg and Berlin, OpenAI plans to introduce personalization in Europe soon as well — here only with the users’ consent. Both authorities warned against it on 2 October 2026 and advise people not to give that consent. Users who decline still see ads — just based on the current conversation, as before (Notebookcheck on the warning).

For advertisers, this is an important restriction: in Europe, you can’t build an audience based on interests or behavior. You reach people through the topic they are talking about right now and through their location. OpenAI’s help pages even explicitly advise against using your own audience lists in campaigns for the EEA and Switzerland as long as personalization isn’t available there.

What does advertising in ChatGPT cost?

According to the Ads Manager help page, you choose one of three objectives for each campaign:

The minimum daily budget is €15 per campaign if your ad account is billed in euros. The daily budget is an average over seven days: on individual days, OpenAI can spend up to twice that amount, but over the week no more than seven times the daily budget. If you run a campaign at the minimum for a month, you should expect to spend about €450.

There is no official price list for clicks or impressions; prices are set by competition. The test phase in the US gives a first idea: at launch in February 2026, 1,000 impressions cost about $60, in April sometimes as little as $25, and advertisers there could bid between $3 and $5 per click (Digiday). There are no reliable averages for Germany yet. So plan with a fixed test budget, and after two to four weeks, work out what an inquiry actually cost you.

How booking works

Since 31 August 2026, businesses in the 31 European markets can book their ads themselves through the Ads Manager at ads.openai.com. Before that, access was only available through OpenAI’s sales team and partner agencies. The key points from the help pages:

• Account and review: Every ad account is verified, and every ad is reviewed before it runs. You set the country, billing currency and time zone when you create the account.
• Home country first: New self-serve accounts can initially only advertise in their own country. For a business based in Germany, that is rarely a problem.
• Local targeting: Besides countries, you can also select federal states, cities, market areas and postal codes, depending on availability. For a local business, this is the most important setting.
• Platforms: You can choose whether the ads appear in the Android or iOS app, in the mobile browser or on desktop.
• Be careful with the start date: For your first campaign, you may only be able to set the start date after publishing. Ads go live as soon as they pass review. If you want to start on a specific day, sort this out before you publish.

Conversion tracking and cookie banners

To see which clicks lead to inquiries or purchases, OpenAI offers a pixel for your website and a Conversions API. A pixel like this stores or reads information on your visitors’ devices. Under § 25 TDDDG, the German law on data protection in telecommunications and digital services, this generally requires consent — so the pixel belongs behind your cookie banner and in your privacy policy. This is my assessment, not legal advice. If you don’t want to use the pixel, you can still work with the “Clicks” objective and attribute inquiries through your own links with UTM parameters.

And if you use an AI-generated image or video in your ad: the transparency obligations of the EU AI Act have applied since 2 August 2026. What that means for advertising is covered in the article on the EU AI Act for small businesses.

Who is it worth it for — and who not (yet)?

My assessment after the first weeks in Germany:

Probably yes if you sell something that people think about and compare carefully before buying: trade services, renovation, travel and day trips, courses, parties and events, software or services for the self-employed. These are exactly the questions people ask ChatGPT. And if you already have experience with Google Ads, a website that wins people over on a phone and conversion tracking that works.

Probably not yet if your total ad budget is only a few hundred euros a month. That money is better spent in a channel with a track record — often Google search ads or your Google Business Profile, which costs nothing. Also difficult: health-related offers, because no ads appear there, and business customers who use ChatGPT on an ad-free company plan.

One honest point to finish: the channel is young. If you test now, you will probably face less competition for ad slots, but you will also pay for the learning. How ChatGPT compares to the established channels is covered in the article Google Ads vs. Meta Ads (in German), and how to fit a test budget into your annual budget in the article on the 2027 marketing budget (in German).

The free side: getting mentioned in the answers themselves

More important than any ad is still the question of whether ChatGPT names your business in the answer itself. According to OpenAI, advertising has no influence on that. What shows up in the answers is what ChatGPT finds about you online and considers trustworthy.

• Clear facts on your website: what you offer, for whom, in which region and roughly at what price. A page that answers these questions is more likely to be used as a source than one that only promises “Qualität seit 1998” (quality since 1998).
• A well-maintained Google Business Profile with recent reviews. How to get there is covered in the article on the Google Business Profile.
• Visibility across several search engines: For web search, ChatGPT also draws on external search indexes. So don’t just submit your website to Google Search Console; add it to Bing Webmaster Tools as well.
• Mentions outside your website: industry directories, local press, partner websites.

I explain how this works in detail in SEO vs. GEO and in the article on Google AI Mode (in German).

Checklist before your first campaign

1. The landing page works on a smartphone and answers within the first few seconds: what, for whom, where and roughly at what price.
2. You know what an inquiry or a customer is worth to you — otherwise you can’t judge the costs.
3. Conversion tracking is in place: a pixel with consent via the cookie banner, or at least links with UTM parameters.
4. The campaign targets your region, not all of Germany.
5. You have a fixed test budget and a fixed time frame, for example €420 for four weeks, which is the minimum budget of €15 a day.
6. AI-generated images or videos in the ad are labeled wherever the EU AI Act requires it.
7. You have a date in your calendar on which you review the results and decide: continue, adjust or stop.

If your landing page is the bottleneck: you can get a landing page from us for a fixed price of €950, usually in about seven days — whether your visitors later come from ChatGPT, Google or Instagram.

Frequently asked questions

When did ads in ChatGPT start in Germany?

On 24 August 2026. OpenAI had announced the launch in 31 European markets on 18 August. At first, businesses could only book through OpenAI’s sales team and partner agencies; since 31 August 2026, they can also book themselves through the Ads Manager.

Who sees ads in ChatGPT?

Adult users of the free version and the Go plan. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise are ad-free. Accounts belonging to minors don’t get any ads, and none appear in conversations about health, mental health or politics either.

Can you turn off ads in ChatGPT?

Only with a paid plan such as Plus. No ads are shown in temporary chats. If you decline personalized advertising once it is offered in Europe, you will still see ads — matched to the current conversation instead of your profile.

Does advertising influence ChatGPT’s answers?

According to OpenAI, no. Ads appear separately below the answer and are labeled as advertising. Whether a business is named in the answer itself depends on the information ChatGPT finds about it — its website, reviews and mentions, not its ad budget.

What is the minimum cost of advertising in ChatGPT?

The minimum daily budget is €15 per campaign for ad accounts billed in euros, so about €450 over a month. What a click costs depends on competition; there is no official price list. For a first test, I would plan four weeks at the minimum budget.

Can I advertise only in my city?

Yes, where available. Besides countries, the Ads Manager also lets you select federal states, cities, market areas and postal codes. For a local business, this setting is crucial; otherwise you pay for impressions among people who would never come to you.