OpenAI Declares Itself an Advertising Business at Cannes Lions 2026

Market Expansion: 7 Countries Live, Brazil and India Next

• Current test markets (7 countries): US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea .
• Next wave — Latin America & India: Brazil and Mexico are slated for rollout "in the coming weeks," with India to follow .
• Massive user base: ChatGPT has over 920 million weekly active users, giving OpenAI an enormous addressable audience for advertisers .

Revenue Projections & the IPO Connection

OpenAI's ad revenue projections, shared with investors and reaffirmed at Cannes, are ambitious:

CEO Sam Altman told employees the company aims for an IPO "within the next year" . The $100 billion ad target forms a centerpiece of the IPO narrative .

However, external benchmarks suggest skepticism: EMARKETER forecasts industry-wide AI chatbot ad revenue to stay under $1 billion in 2026, and an Ipsos survey found 63% of US adults say ads in AI search would lower their trust .

Pricing Changes: From $60 CPM to CPC and CPA

OpenAI's pricing strategy evolved rapidly in the months leading to Cannes:

• Initial pricing (February 2026): $60 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) — more than three times Meta's average rate .
• Shift to CPC (April 2026): OpenAI moved to cost-per-click bidding with recommended starting bids of $3–$5 per click .
• CPA model (June 2026): A cost-per-action model was added, letting brands pay only when a user takes a defined action .
• Minimum spend dropped: The original $50,000 minimum spend requirement was removed when the self-serve Ads Manager launched in May .

Ad Placement & Product Details

• Ads appear only for free-tier and ChatGPT Go ($8/month) users in the US. Plus ($20/month), Pro ($200/month), Business, and Enterprise tiers remain ad-free .
• Ads are placed below ChatGPT's unpaid answer, with clear labeling — not injected into the main conversational response. Dugan emphasized: "A very clearly labeled ad, two separate models, and a clear separation from the organic results" .
• OpenAI also demonstrated Codex tools at Cannes that can build and deploy entire visual ad campaigns without coding knowledge .

Privacy Commitments

OpenAI's January 2026 advertising principles, reaffirmed at Cannes, state: "Your data and conversations are not used for ad targeting" . The company says it currently plans to provide only high-level, anonymized data to advertisers .

Ads appear only to logged-in adult users (18+) on eligible tiers .

Internal controversy: Researcher Zoë Hitzig resigned when ad testing began, warning that OpenAI holds "the most detailed record of private thought ever assembled" and that advertising built on it could "quietly manipulate users" . OpenAI maintains that user conversations are not sold or used to build individual ad profiles, though advertisers can target based on the context of the current query (not user history) .

Skepticism & Pushback at Cannes

Senior ad buyers at the festival pushed back on the $100 billion projection, arguing OpenAI needs sharper targeting and measurement tools before it can challenge Google in search advertising . Anthropic (maker of Claude) ran Super Bowl ads mocking chatbot advertising, though CEO Sam Altman fired back dismissively .