OpenAI crossed $100 million in ChatGPT ad revenue in just six weeks. Impressive — until you look at the performance.
Since launching ads for free and low-cost tier users, OpenAI has signed more than 600 advertisers. But the clicks aren't following. An Adthena analysis of 29 million queries found ChatGPT ads averaging a 0.91% click-through rate — Google Search pulls 6.4% in the same categories. The pricing gap is just as stark:
- CPM: ChatGPT charges roughly $60 CPM, about three times Meta's average and well above Google Search.
- Minimum buy-in: Early pilot access required $200,000, though that reportedly dropped to $50,000 in April.
- Spend problems: One enterprise advertiser in the early pilot burned just 3% of a $250,000 budget over several weeks because the platform couldn't deliver enough impressions to spend the rest.
OpenAI has framed the ads as a way to keep ChatGPT accessible, not as a revenue play, and says ads never influence the chatbot's answers. Anthropic, meanwhile, has argued that advertising fundamentally doesn't belong in AI conversations.
The $100M headline sounds like validation, but click-through rates seven times lower than Google and advertisers who literally can't spend their budgets tell a different story. This looks less like the foundation of an ad business and more like brands paying a premium to be early — ahead of OpenAI's planned IPO later this year. The real test isn't whether advertisers show up. It's whether they renew once the performance data settles.
