OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT Ads will expand to 31 European markets, its largest geographical rollout since advertising first entered the service in the United States in February. The announcement was made on 18 August, seven days after OpenAI said the advertising service had launched in the UK on 11 August.
The new markets include Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria. OpenAI said the wider European rollout would begin the following week, while Digiday reported a start date of 24 August.
How businesses will be able to advertise
Advertisers in the newly added markets will initially access ChatGPT Ads through OpenAI's Ads Solutions team, agency partners and technology partners. OpenAI says self-service access through its Ads Manager will follow later this summer, so the expansion will not immediately operate like a fully open advertising platform for every small business.
The adverts may appear to people using ChatGPT's Free and Go plans. OpenAI says paid plans including Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu will remain free from advertising. Ads are displayed below ChatGPT responses, clearly marked as sponsored and kept separate from the answer itself.
That distinction matters. Paying for an advert does not buy a place inside ChatGPT's answer or make the system recommend a business. OpenAI's guidance for users says advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter responses, and that seeing an advert does not mean OpenAI endorses the advertiser.
A new point in the customer journey
OpenAI is presenting the service as a way to reach people while they are researching, comparing options or preparing to make a decision. A user might be discussing business software, planning a trip or narrowing down a purchase before seeing a related sponsored placement beneath the response.
For marketers, that creates a potentially useful form of intent-based advertising. It is also still an early and fast-changing channel. OpenAI says it has added conversion optimisation, geographical targeting, custom audiences and measurement tools, but independent performance evidence remains limited compared with established platforms such as Google Ads and Meta.
The sensible interpretation is therefore not that marketing budgets should suddenly move away from proven channels. The European expansion creates another place to test whether a business can reach relevant customers, but campaign results will need to justify any larger commitment.
Privacy and measurement remain central
OpenAI says conversations are not shared with advertisers and that advertisers receive aggregated information such as views and clicks. Its privacy policy for European services says personalised advertising for Free and Go users relies on consent. Current help guidance also says personalised ads will not initially be available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. Users who turn personalisation off may still see contextual adverts based on the current chat, without other conversations, advertising history or broader topic signals being used.
Businesses testing the channel will also need to look beyond the advert itself. The placement leads to the advertiser's landing page, so website performance, conversion and analytics remain part of campaign performance. Slow loading, unclear messaging or a difficult enquiry and checkout journey could waste otherwise valuable traffic. Reliable conversion tracking will be equally important, particularly while the platform is new and benchmarks are thin.
For UK companies selling across Europe, the 31-market expansion may make regional campaigns more practical once access broadens. Local language, currency, delivery terms and privacy arrangements will still need to match the destination market. The opportunity sits at the meeting point between advertising and website performance, rather than replacing either one.
OpenAI's announcement confirms that the platform is still being built and refined. For now, ChatGPT Ads is best viewed as an emerging paid discovery channel worth watching and, where access and audience fit, testing carefully.
