OpenAI launches ChatGPT Ads in India, betting on AI-driven expansion in the advertising market

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT Ads

Highlights

OpenAI has launched a visual ad format on ChatGPT in India, with brands running ads through Razorpay Engage and early advertisers including Fastrack, Tata Neu, and Shaadi.com.
ChatGPT Ads are shown only to Free and Go plan users and will not appear on every query; advertisers can start with a minimum daily budget of ₹725.
OpenAI clarified that ads remain separate from and labeled alongside organic responses, aggregated data is provided for performance measurement, and users can control their privacy.

This article was translated from the original. Read the original version by our correspondent here.

Launch in India and the advertising model

According to Forbes India, OpenAI introduced a visual ad format for ChatGPT on Tuesday, adding visuals that showcase product use or service experiences alongside sponsored messages that have so far appeared below responses. Initial testing is taking place during image-generation queries, and the company is clearly separating ads from images created by users.

OpenAI has partnered with Razorpay in India, allowing brands to run ads on ChatGPT Ads through Razorpay Engage. Razorpay is helping businesses create product catalogs, launch and manage campaigns, and track performance, while Fastrack, Traya, Tata Neu, Rivaah by Tanishq, Shaadi.com, Axis Max Life, and Tanishq are among the early advertisers.

The company says ads will not appear on every query. OpenAI estimates that around 20 percent of ChatGPT queries have direct commercial intent, and ads may only be shown alongside those; only Free and Go plan users see these ads, while users who do not want to see ads can move to higher tiers.

OpenAI is also testing a 'Sponsored Agents' feature. It includes a "Learn More" button with the ad, which opens a branded ChatGPT conversation when clicked, where users can ask follow-up questions and responses are more inclined toward information provided by the advertiser.

Small and medium-sized businesses in India are also being targeted. According to the company, advertisers can start with a minimum daily budget of ₹725, while in the U.S., the advertising model initially began with cost-per-mille and later added cost per click and cost per action options.

Privacy, measurement, and market impact

OpenAI's global head of advertising, Dave Dugan, says the advertising business supports the company's mission of bringing the benefits of artificial general intelligence to as many people as possible at low cost. According to him, ad revenue can help subsidize access for users worldwide, and India is an important market due to its advertising maturity and rapid adoption of conversational AI.

The company has set out three principles for its advertising system. First, response independence, where organic answers and ads remain separate and labeled, and the model's response is not influenced by advertising; second, conversational privacy, under which advertisers receive only aggregated performance data, such as clicks and cost per click, while no conversation data or user profile information is shared; third, choice and control, under which users can turn memory on or off in the app.

On the measurement front, advertisers receive data through Ads Manager, Conversions API, and third-party measurement partners. The company believes that impact on ChatGPT is not limited to direct clicks, as many users may not be ready to buy immediately, yet responses can influence later decisions.

The impact on the industry could be broad. According to Social Samosa CEO Hitesh Rajwani, ChatGPT operates at the consideration and decision stages, giving it a depth that differs from search and social advertising; meanwhile, TruCommerce.ai co-founder and CEO Viren Inaniyan says paid advertising is not a way to buy influence over ChatGPT's responses. This shift is moving ChatGPT beyond being just an AI chatbot toward an emerging digital marketplace, and it could set industry standards for AI-driven advertising models.

Our previous report discussed the accelerating pace of investment in India's AI and deep-tech ecosystem, where the potential for global leadership is emerging through compute capacity, indigenous models, and application-layer startups. It highlighted increased early-stage investments by Peak XV/Surge, major AI capex announcements in 2026, and growing activity in space tech, semiconductors, and other deep-tech sectors.

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