ChatGPT Ads: How to Advertise on ChatGPT in Germany

Blog · ChatGPT Ads

Yes, you can advertise in ChatGPT in Germany, and you can do it yourself. Since 31 August 2026, the OpenAI Ads Manager at ads.openai.com has been open to businesses based in Germany. Your ad appears below a relevant ChatGPT answer, clearly labelled as sponsored and kept separate from the answer. Instead of keywords, you write context hints that describe the situation in which your offer helps. For accounts billed in euros, the minimum daily budget is 15 euros per campaign. Only users on the Free and Go plans see the ads. Our advice for getting started: choose clicks as the objective, use a landing page that matches the question exactly, set up conversion tracking before you spend anything, and switch off automatic text optimisation.

In brief

Self-serve since 31 Aug 2026 via ads.openai.com, from a daily budget of 15 euros per campaign.
Ads appear below the answer, only on Free and Go, and without personalisation in the EEA.
Context hints describe situations and replace the keyword list.
Text optimisation is switched on when you create a campaign: turn it off before launch.

Published 25 Sep 2026Nikolai Schöbel and Jeremias Burger9 min read

Nikolai Schöbel and Jeremias Burger

Co-founders of Scalableloops GmbH. Nikolai Schöbel leads online marketing and AI strategy, Jeremias Burger the AI architecture. Both build AI systems and train teams on them in their own agency work.

On this page

What are ChatGPT Ads and where do they appear?
Who can advertise on ChatGPT in Germany?
Context hints instead of keywords: how ChatGPT matches your ad
How much do ChatGPT Ads cost?
How do I create my first campaign in the OpenAI Ads Manager?
Why you should switch off text optimisation before launch
Set up conversion tracking before you spend anything
Landing pages that match the question, not the home page
Who should test ChatGPT Ads?
Frequently asked questions
How to run your first test properly
Where the information on this page comes from

Basics

What are ChatGPT Ads and where do they appear?

ChatGPT Ads are paid ads shown below a ChatGPT answer. Each ad shows the advertiser's name, a logo, a headline, a short text, an image and the landing page. OpenAI labels them as sponsored and separates them visibly from the answer. According to OpenAI, ads do not influence what ChatGPT answers, and advertisers do not see any chats.

For your planning, the key question is who actually sees the ads: only users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu are ad-free, and accounts of people under 18 receive no ads. In the European Economic Area and Switzerland, ads are not personalised for now. In Germany, it is mainly the ongoing conversation that decides which ad fits.

Free & Go

ChatGPT shows ads only on these two plans. Anyone working through an employer's Business or Enterprise access sees no ads.

OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT

Access

Who can advertise on ChatGPT in Germany?

Since 24 August 2026, ChatGPT has shown ads in Germany and 30 other European markets. At first, bookings went only through OpenAI's sales team and partner agencies. On 31 August, OpenAI opened self-serve access through the Ads Manager for these markets. Some reports give 4 September; OpenAI's own announcement is what counts.

The business that advertises and receives the invoice must be based in an eligible country. Germany, Austria and Switzerland are on OpenAI's country list. You sign in with an OpenAI login, have your business verified and add your billing details. Ads are delivered only once verification and payment details are complete.

Targeting

Context hints instead of keywords: how ChatGPT matches your ad

In Google Ads, search terms decide when an ad is eligible. In ChatGPT, people ask in full sentences, describe their situation and compare options. That is why you add context hints at ad group level: short, natural descriptions of what your offer does, who it is for and in which situation it helps.

Context hints are explicitly not exact match keywords and not delivery rules. They do not guarantee delivery in particular conversations and cannot enforce locations, times or exclusions. You set restrictions like these in the campaign fields. A hint such as “cushioned running shoes for beginners training for their first 5K” tells the system more than the word “running shoes”. Write one idea per hint rather than a list of words, and create separate ad groups when two occasions need different messages or landing pages.

01
What
Offer
Features, services, prices, availability or service area not already stated in the ad.
02
Who
Need
Which customers, needs or circumstances your offer fits.
03
When
Situation
The decision or situation in which your offer helps, for example when comparing two solutions.

Costs

How much do ChatGPT Ads cost?

The minimum daily budget depends on the billing currency of your ad account. For accounts in euros, it is 15 euros per campaign. We also read this value in an account we manage on 23 Sep 2026. Practitioner reports also mention a minimum total budget of 65 euros per campaign.

Treat the daily budget as an average over seven days. On any single day, a campaign may spend up to twice that amount, and no more than seven times over the week. If you enter 15 euros, expect up to 30 euros on some days without the week costing more.

For click campaigns in the US, OpenAI recommends a starting bid of 3 to 5 US dollars per click. OpenAI does not publish click prices for Germany, and after only a few weeks there are no reliable benchmarks yet. Plan a test budget that brings enough clicks to draw a conclusion, then judge the results by your own enquiries or sales.

Campaign objective	Billing	Best for
Reach (impressions)	per 1,000 impressions (CPM)	Visibility when clicks matter less
Clicks	per valid click (CPC)	Bringing visitors to a matching landing page, a good start
Conversions	per click (oCPC) or per 1,000 impressions (oCPM), never per conversion	Optimising for purchases or enquiries, requires tracking in place

Guide

How do I create my first campaign in the OpenAI Ads Manager?

The Ads Manager has three levels: campaign, ad group, ad. In an account we manage, it offered two campaign types when creating a campaign: Standard and Product feed. Product feeds are for retailers with large ranges: an uploaded product list turns into ads with image, title, rating and price. New feed campaigns can currently only be targeted by country.

Here is how to set up your first standard campaign:

01
Step 1
Account
Sign in at ads.openai.com, have your business verified, add billing.
02
Step 2
Tracking
Create a data source and install the OpenAI Pixel or Conversions API before any money is spent.
03
Step 3
Campaign
Choose an objective (clicks to start), enter a daily budget, set the country at campaign level and, if needed, select platforms such as desktop, iOS or Android.
04
Step 4
Ad group
One topic per group, plus several specific context hints.
05
Step 5
Ad
Several headline and text variants with different angles, a clear image, a landing page with UTM parameters.
06
Step 6
Review
Read the review page, switch off text optimisation, then submit for approval.

Control

Why you should switch off text optimisation before launch

When you create a campaign, a switch is set to On. In our account it was called “ad text optimisation”; other accounts show it as “text customisation”. When it is on, the system creates personalised and translated versions of your headlines and descriptions and may serve them without your approval. On 23 Sep 2026 we also found that the switch no longer appears in the edit view of a campaign that is already running. Whether it is still active there is hard to check after the fact.

This matters legally. OpenAI's Ad Tools Terms state that the advertiser is responsible for all generated ad texts it approves, uses or that are applied to its campaign. At the same time, OpenAI does not promise that these texts are accurate, lawful or convey the intended meaning. So you are liable for wording you have never seen. For a test there is a further problem: if you do not know which text ran, a click-through rate tells you little.

Our advice: switch it off when you create the campaign and check this on the review page. Other ad platforms work in a similar way: Google Ads has text customisation, formerly automatically created assets, and Meta changes images and texts with Advantage+ Creative. Anyone who requires approved ad texts should know these switches in every account.

On

This is how text optimisation is set when you create a new campaign. In the edit view of a running campaign, we could no longer find the switch.

Our own check in a managed account, 23 Sep 2026

Tracking

Set up conversion tracking before you spend anything

Without tracking, you see impressions and clicks, but not whether they turn into enquiries or purchases. The Ads Manager measures conversions via the OpenAI Pixel in the browser, via the server-side Conversions API, or both. If you use both, send the same event ID for the same conversion so it is not counted twice.

With every click, OpenAI appends a click reference called oppref to the landing page URL. The pixel stores it in a first-party cookie and links it to later conversions. So do not redirect the URL in a way that drops the parameter. You can also add your own UTM parameters to every landing page; they are kept on click and make the traffic visible in your existing web analytics.

In Germany, consent is part of this. OpenAI itself points out that conversion data should only be sent when users are informed and the required consents are in place. Integrate the pixel through your consent management before the campaign starts.

Landing page

Landing pages that match the question, not the home page

People asking ChatGPT have usually already put a specific need into words. OpenAI recommends linking to the most relevant page, such as a product page, category or guide, rather than simply to the home page. The closer ad and landing page match, the shorter the path to an enquiry.

Technically, the landing page must be reachable for OpenAI. The OAI-AdsBot crawler must not be blocked by robots.txt, a firewall or bot protection. For product feeds, OpenAI recommends also allowing OAI-SearchBot, including for image URLs. Check this before launch, because a blocked page only shows up when the ad does not run.

Assessment

Who should test ChatGPT Ads?

The channel suits offers where people compare before deciding and describe their situation: consumer goods, local services with a clear occasion, and shops with structured product data. OpenAI reports that product feed ads have so far been among the strongest formats in the programme.

In B2B, reach is limited because Business and Enterprise plans are ad-free. If you want to test there, plan ChatGPT Ads as an additional touchpoint and combine the test with clean lead tracking. Only your own properly measured test will show which click prices and conversion rates your industry can expect.

Frequently asked questions

Since when have ChatGPT Ads been available in Germany?

Ads have been shown in Germany since 24 August 2026. Businesses have been able to book them themselves through the OpenAI Ads Manager since 31 August 2026.

How much budget do I need for ChatGPT Ads?

For accounts in euros, the minimum daily budget is 15 euros per campaign. The daily budget is an average over seven days; on individual days, up to twice that amount can be spent. For a meaningful test, plan more than the minimum.

Do ChatGPT Ads use keywords?

Not in the classic sense. At ad group level, you add context hints that describe the offer, the audience and the situation. They help with matching, but do not guarantee delivery for particular words.

Who sees ads in ChatGPT?

Only users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu are ad-free, and accounts of minors receive no ads. In the EEA and Switzerland, ads are not personalised for now.

Do ads influence ChatGPT's answers?

According to OpenAI, no. Ads run on separate systems, appear below the answer and are labelled as sponsored.

How do I track conversions from ChatGPT Ads?

With the OpenAI Pixel, the server-side Conversions API, or both together with the same event ID. UTM parameters on the landing page also help attribute the traffic in your web analytics.

Next steps

How to run your first test properly

01
Pick an occasion
Choose a specific situation in which your offer helps, plus a matching landing page.
02
Tracking first
Set up the pixel or Conversions API with consent, and add UTM parameters to every landing page.
03
Clicks as objective
Start with clicks as the objective and a budget that delivers enough data to evaluate.
04
Text optimisation off
Switch it off when creating the campaign and check it on the review page.
05
Measure for two weeks
Let it run without changes, then decide based on real enquiries or sales.