Ten weeks in, OpenAI ads have gone from velvet rope to open bar.
Are you ready to order: OpenAI has started offering cost-per-click (CPC) bidding to select advertisers within its ad pilot, Digiday reports. And the pricing? $3 to $5 per click.
If this seems accessible compared to the initial release… that’s because it is.
Since February 2026, OpenAI dropped minimum spend from $250,000 to $50,000 and CPMs have cooled from $60 to around $25.
All this signals ChatGPT’s quick shift to self-serve. Brand advertisers are happy paying per impression. Performance marketers aren’t. They want to pay for clicks, and now they can.
Of course, this brings up the platform comparison questions to the fray:
- Does a ChatGPT click carry Google Search-level intent?
- How does it stack up against Meta’s high-volume, lower-intent traffic?
- Do your current measurement tools even give you a clean read?
On that last point: Measurement is still shaky, so any early results could still be directional.
If you’re one of the pilot advertisers, low minimums and thin competition may be worth a small test before the crowd shows up.
Your audience is already using ChatGPT to discover and evaluate products, barriers to entry are low, and the competition is thin.
In some ways, it does feel like a happy hour deal.
