AINEWS
Visual ads land beside AI generated images first, where early advertiser returns are weak and the $1B annualized figure is extrapolated from weeks of data.
Free ChatGPT users will start seeing image-style ads beside the pictures ChatGPT generates for them. OpenAI announced the visual format this week, and the placement is deliberate: images are where users pause and look, which is also where an ad has the best chance of earning a click.
The new "visual ad format," as the company calls it, will include carousel-style image slots — in one example OpenAI showed, a set of grocery photos — that appear alongside AI-generated images. It marks one of the first major expansions of the advertising options OpenAI introduced to ChatGPT.
The timing is notable. OpenAI has disclosed that its ChatGPT Ads business reached $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days after launch — a figure the company announced in August. The metric is based on a short measurement window and extrapolated forward; it is not a confirmed full-year result.
That $1B figure lands against a backdrop of early advertiser returns that have been, by multiple accounts, underwhelming. According to Adthena, which tracks more than 40,000 daily LLM prompts, one brand's click-through rate on ChatGPT placements came in at just 0.91% — well below the 6.4% benchmark for Google search in the same sector. A separate enterprise advertiser had used only 3% of a $250,000 budget after several weeks, a signal the platform is not yet delivering spend at scale. The first confirmed screenshot of a live ChatGPT ad appeared more recently. "Early data from our clients tells a continued cautionary tale as OpenAI's trial of ads on ChatGPT evolves," Fletcher said.
Some media buyers are also raising concerns about measurement. Sparro's Ervin Poernama told AdNews that click numbers reported in-platform don't always align with what advertisers see in their own analytics. The Internet Advertising Bureau Australia has called for independent, audited metrics for ChatGPT and Gemini ads.
The expansion into visual formats is explicitly aimed at free users. ChatGPT Plus ($20/month), Pro ($200/month), and Enterprise subscribers are excluded from ad serving — paid tiers see no change. That means the free tier is the product being underwritten.
OpenAI has described the visual format as a way for advertisers to "tell their story through images" and help "people imagine how products and services could fit into their lives." The company has not specified a precise global rollout date.
The honest question the rollout raises is not whether advertising in AI products is coming — it is whether the current placement is earning its keep for users and advertisers alike, and what a healthier funding mix for free AI tools might actually look like.