OpenAI began selling ads in ChatGPT in 2026 and has been adding countries quickly. Advertisers in India, Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa could buy through its self-serve Ads Manager from 31 August, according to trade reports, but the first regional list, as captured on 6 September, included Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and others and left out the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
That changed quietly. OpenAI's Ads Manager availability page now lists both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as available for self-service, and trackers that compare the page over time report they were added between 16 and 18 September 2026, with no announcement. PPC Land noted that no public document records the date ads began serving in each market.
What has been reported about the rules
- Minimum daily budget: OpenAI's help page says the minimum varies by market and currency, with a standard minimum of 25 dollars in the US. Two trackers report 65 dirhams for UAE advertisers and 50 riyals in Saudi Arabia; OpenAI does not list those figures, so check in Ads Manager.
- Pacing: OpenAI defines a daily budget as the average spend per day over seven days, so a single day can run higher or lower.
- Local entity: OpenAI's availability page says the legal entity that will advertise and be billed must be based in a country listed as available. A UAE company can buy through self-service; a parent company based in a country not on the list cannot.
- Who sees ads: users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users do not, and there are no ads for under-18s or in temporary chats.
- Format: ads appear below the end of an answer, labelled as sponsored.
- Buying: self-serve, on cost per thousand impressions, cost per click or conversion optimisation.
OpenAI says ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives and are kept separate from them. The Go plan has been available everywhere ChatGPT is since January 2026, priced at 8 dollars a month in the US with local prices elsewhere; we could not confirm the UAE price.
Why it matters
ChatGPT ads were reported to have reached a one billion dollar annual run rate within their first months. For UAE brands, the attraction is intent: people ask ChatGPT for recommendations, comparisons and plans, and an ad below a relevant answer reaches them at that moment. The risk is that the format is new, measurement is young and audience size in the UAE is unknown.
How to test it sensibly
- Log in to OpenAI's Ads Manager with the UAE entity and confirm the country, currency and minimum budget yourself before planning a test.
- Start with one product and one clear objective, at a budget you can afford to learn from, and run it for at least two weeks.
- Tag every destination link so ChatGPT traffic shows separately in analytics, and compare its conversion rate with search and social.
- Write ads that answer a question. The ad sits under an answer, so it should read like a useful next step, not a banner.
- Report it as its own line, so the client sees what it cost and what it returned.
OpenAI also offers an Ads API for reporting, with keys created in Ads Manager, so results can flow into the same reports as other platforms. The UTM builder on this site creates tagged links for each test, and the ad metrics calculator works out CPM, CPC and ROAS from the results.
