OpenAI has announced the launch of ChatGPT Ads in India, expanding its advertising programme to one of ChatGPT’s largest and most active markets. The ads will initially roll out to logged-in adults using the Free and Go tiers, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users will continue to have an ad-free experience.
WPP and Omnicom will be OpenAI’s first agency partners for ChatGPT Ads in India. The agencies bring established relationships with brands across industries, along with expertise in strategy, creative, measurement, brand safety and campaign execution. Their early involvement is aimed at helping build a strong local advertising ecosystem and enabling brands to leverage ChatGPT’s conversational environment.
More than 50 brands are expected to go live with advertisements on ChatGPT in India this week.
The agency partnership is non-exclusive, with OpenAI continuing to explore relationships with other agencies as the advertising programme expands.
The launch will be followed by the introduction of self-serve access to ChatGPT Ads Manager in India on September 4. The platform will allow businesses of all sizes to sign up and advertise, with daily budgets starting at ₹725.
“India is one of the most dynamic markets in the world for how people use ChatGPT to learn, build, and discover. Our weekly active users have doubled year-on-year, with many of them going beyond simple searches and changing how they make decisions. They ask questions, explore options, and weigh tradeoffs through conversation. With ChatGPT Ads, businesses of every size can introduce themselves at relevant, high-context moments when decisions are beginning to take shape,” said Dave Dugan, Vice President and Head of Global Ads Solutions, OpenAI.
“Our goal is to make those interactions useful, help marketers design for intelligent experiences, and preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable: independent answers, conversations that stay private from advertisers, and meaningful user control,” he added.
Built around user trust
OpenAI said its advertising approach will be guided by five principles: answer independence, conversation privacy, user choice and control, mission alignment and long-term value.
Ads will not influence ChatGPT’s answers, which will continue to be optimised around what is most helpful to users. Advertisers will also not receive access to users’ conversations, chat history, memories or personal details, and OpenAI said it does not sell user data to advertisers.
Users will be able to dismiss ads, provide feedback, understand why an ad was shown, manage advertising personalisation and clear data used for advertising.
Ads may appear below a ChatGPT response when there is a relevant sponsored product or service. They will be clearly labelled as sponsored and visually separated from ChatGPT’s response.
Ads will not be shown to users who identify themselves as, or are predicted to be, under 18. They will also not be eligible to appear alongside sensitive or regulated topics, including mental health and politics. OpenAI said its advertising policies will continue to focus on reducing scams, misleading claims and other harmful content.
Advertisers will receive aggregate campaign-performance data, including metrics such as impressions and clicks, rather than access to individual conversations.
New opportunity for Indian advertisers
The launch gives brands a new way to reach consumers at moments when they are actively researching products, comparing options or considering a purchase.
OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads could help established companies, small businesses and emerging Indian brands improve discovery by appearing in relevant, high-context interactions.
The company plans to continue refining the advertising experience based on feedback from users and advertisers, with additional formats, campaign objectives and buying options expected to be introduced over time.
The India launch marks another step in OpenAI’s broader advertising push, while the company maintains that advertising will remain separate from ChatGPT’s answers and prioritises user trust and control.