ChatGPT ads reach Nigeria, South Africa and 24 more countries

Every answer ChatGPT produces runs on costly computing power, including answers for people who pay nothing. OpenAI says advertising helps cover that bill. On October 21, the company said it is expanding ChatGPT Ads to 26 more countries, bringing the total to 89. The new markets include 14 more Latin American countries and others such as Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/08/31/openai-discloses-new-momentum-in-ad-business.html

The ads have spread quickly since OpenAI began testing them in the US on February 9 and counted "over 40" countries by August 31. It says more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since launch, up from "tens of thousands" at the end of August. On August 31, OpenAI said the ad business had reached $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate.

A run rate takes recent revenue and scales it up to a full year, so $1 billion a year works out to roughly $83 million a month. It measures pace at one moment, not money earned over a year, and OpenAI did not say which period it used. CNBC and MarketWatch reported a run rate of $100 million in March, which points to fast growth from a small base. The business is still small beside Meta, which reported on October 21 that its advertising revenue for the three months to September 30 was $63.06 billion, about $21 billion a month. ChatGPT's August run rate is well under 1% of that pace, a rough comparison of a projection with booked revenue.

Those ads reach only some users, appearing on the Free plan and the low-cost Go plan, priced at $8 a month in the US since January, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers stay ad-free. According to OpenAI's Help Center, the system reads the context of the current conversation and picks among eligible ads using factors including relevance and advertiser bids. OpenAI's own example is someone planning meals for a first marathon seeing an ad for a grocery delivery service. Most campaigns now bid per click or for specific outcomes, OpenAI said on August 31.

OpenAI says its ads are clearly labeled, sit below answers and do not influence what ChatGPT says, and that advertisers receive only aggregated figures such as views and clicks, never users' conversations. It says it "never" sells user data to advertisers and that ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive topics such as personal health, mental health or politics. These are OpenAI's own commitments, and no independent audit of them was found.

Free users in Nigeria, South Africa and the other new markets still have choices, according to OpenAI. They can switch to an Ads-Free option with lower message limits and fewer tools, pay for an ad-free plan, or turn off ad personalization, which still leaves ads based on the current chat. OpenAI adds that these options may vary by region and over time. Whichever a user picks, OpenAI says advertising now helps pay for the free version, with businesses bidding to appear beneath its answers.