ChatGPT ads are live in the UK and Spain as of 2026. What they cost, which industries can advertise today, and how the format differs from Google Ads.
ChatGPT ads reached the UK in an early expansion wave in 2026 and arrived in Spain in August with the rollout to 31 European markets. Real-world CPM runs $25–45, there is no minimum spend, and ads appear only when the conversation has commercial intent. The format has one rule that changes everything: the user already has their answer — your ad has to add something to that specific context, or it gets ignored.
That distinction determines whether this channel is worth testing for your business right now.
How do ChatGPT ads work?
A clearly labelled "Sponsored" card appears below ChatGPT's answer when the conversation carries commercial intent. No intent signal — no ad. A question about weather shows nothing. A question about estate agents in Bristol or property services in Marbella can trigger one.
Matching is done entirely on conversation context. No cookies, no behavioural profiles, no remarketing lists. The auction is relevance-weighted: a more relevant lower bid beats a generic higher one. That shapes the creative brief — specificity wins, not budget.
Ads show only to logged-in free-plan and Go-plan users. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education tiers are ad-free. The free tier is the majority of ChatGPT users, but you are not reaching the power users who pay to remove ads.
What does it cost?
Real clearing prices from advertisers running since the European launch:
- CPM: $25–45 (softened from early $60 as inventory scaled with the European expansion)
- CPC: $3–5 in retail and consumer categories; competitive professional categories clear at $8–18
- Minimum spend: none since May 2026 — ads.openai.com is open at any budget
OpenAI publishes no official rate card, so these are auction outcomes reported by advertisers — treat them as benchmarks, not prices.
In competitive UK categories — legal, property, financial services — Google click prices have been pushed up by years of auction pressure, and the ChatGPT numbers sit comfortably inside what those advertisers already pay. In thinner Costa Blanca categories the comparison is tighter. Either way, neither number means much without a defined cost-per-lead target and a test period.
Note that ChatGPT Ads run through a separate account at ads.openai.com, not through Google or Meta. New account, new campaign structure, new conversion tracking setup.
Which industries can advertise — and which cannot?
OpenAI's ad policy splits the market into three tiers.
Open: consumer goods and retail, local services (estate agents, tradespeople, hospitality), travel, education, and digital products and software.
Restricted, case-by-case review: financial services and health. OpenAI has begun admitting selected advertisers in the US, but not broadly in Europe.
Prohibited: alcohol and tobacco.
Legal services are the special case worth knowing about: the category opened in the US in late August 2026 — licensed firms only, verification required — but remains closed outside the US. A UK solicitor or a Spanish law firm cannot advertise today. The direction of travel is clear, though, and the firm that prepares its campaign structure and messaging now will be first in when the category opens in Europe. Accounting has no explicit category of its own and is in practice tested against the financial-services boundary.
The practical implication for our markets: a UK estate agent or a Costa Blanca hospitality business can advertise today; law and accounting firms wait or apply for review. Check openai.com/policies/ad-policies/ before planning a campaign — the list has moved several times since launch.
How is this different from Google Ads?
Three differences that change the creative approach entirely:
The intent mode is different. Google Ads interrupts — your ad competes against ten organic results and multiple other ads in a high-attention scanning moment. In ChatGPT, the user has just received a considered answer and is in reading mode. Lower friction, but shorter attention. An ad that does not connect to what they just read gets scrolled past without effort.
The creative requirement is different. A Google ad can be generic and win on the right keyword. A ChatGPT ad that does not add something specific to the conversation context underperforms — the format rewards relevance over volume. "Award-winning estate agents" is weaker here than an ad that connects to whatever property question the person just asked.
The data history is different. Google Ads has a decade of optimisation tools and benchmark data. ChatGPT Ads Manager launched in February. The advertisers running now are building their own baseline conversion data. Those who wait a year will buy that experience from the early movers.
There is one case where Google Ads is clearly better: high-volume broad-keyword traffic. ChatGPT ads are stronger when purchase intent is specific and the person has already articulated a considered question — "what should I look for in a property management company" rather than "property management."
How do you write a ChatGPT ad that works?
Start from what ChatGPT says, not from what you want to say.
Traditional ad copy is written inside-out: product, USP, call to action. A ChatGPT ad is written outside-in: what did the person ask, what answer did they receive, and what do we add in that specific context? An estate agent ad appearing next to an answer about property prices in a particular area should connect to that — not a generic "free valuation" headline.
That requires understanding how ChatGPT typically answers questions in your category: what intent triggers your ad, what the answer usually covers, and where the gap is that your ad can genuinely fill. It is a different brief from a Google Ads brief. Copying existing ad copy directly into ChatGPT Ads Manager is the most common early mistake, and it shows in click-through rates.
We work through this with clients in our AI readiness audit — part of the mapping covers which channels fit a business's intent profile and what a conversation-adapted message actually requires. For sector-specific breakdowns — estate agents, law firms, accountants — we are publishing vertical guides in this blog section as the channel matures.
Is it worth testing now?
For the right category and a defined test budget: yes, and timing matters. The UK and Spain opened in August 2026. Competition density in ChatGPT Ads Manager is a fraction of Google Ads in the same categories. Advertisers who test now, optimise now, and build conversion data now will be a year ahead of those who wait for the channel to be established.
That is not an argument for spending without measurement. A reasonable test is six to eight weeks with a defined conversion event — enquiry, booked call, downloaded guide — and a cost-per-lead target benchmarked against your current Google Ads CPA. Without that, you learn nothing useful.
The vertical that looks most immediately interesting in both the UK and Spain is local services with high-intent conversational queries — estate agents above all. If that is your business, the channel is open and the competition is still thin. Law and accounting firms should watch the category policy instead: when Europe opens, the firms with campaign structure already prepared will take the early, cheap inventory.