Since the introduction of advertising on ChatGPT on February 9, 2026, in the United States, OpenAI has rapidly expanded its reach. By August 31, 2026, the company opened its advertisement manager to businesses across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This expansion allows businesses in numerous jurisdictions to launch campaigns directly, utilizing sophisticated tracking and targeting tools.

Investigations, such as those conducted by 404 Media on October 15, 2026, revealed that advertisers can upload proprietary customer lists—including email addresses and phone numbers—to ensure that advertisements are displayed specifically to individuals within those databases.

  • Advertisers can upload customer lists containing email addresses, phone numbers, or device identifiers to reach specific segments.
  • Targeting capabilities are restricted in regions like the European Economic Area and Switzerland, where personalized advertising remains limited.
  • Disabling ad personalization limits the data used for targeting but does not remove advertisements entirely.
  • Various tiers of ChatGPT service offer different levels of ad-free experiences, often with trade-offs in feature availability.

How do brands use customer lists to target ChatGPT users?

OpenAI refers to this tool as "Custom Audiences." Advertisers prepare a data file containing email addresses, phone numbers (formatted with country codes), hashed identifiers (SHA-256), or Android advertising IDs. These files, which can reach up to 500 megabytes, are processed by OpenAI over the course of 20 to 30 minutes to match records with existing ChatGPT users. Once matched, advertisers can choose to show ads exclusively to these individuals, exclude them from campaigns, or increase their bidding priority when a user from the list interacts with the service.

To ensure privacy at scale, OpenAI requires a minimum match of 25,000 individuals for "show-only" targeting, with 100,000 recommended. Advertisers cannot view the identity of matched users or target individuals in isolation. For exclusion lists, however, no minimum threshold exists, allowing brands to opt out recent customers from specific campaigns.

The provenance of these lists is the responsibility of the advertiser. OpenAI’s ad tool terms stipulate that companies must possess the necessary legal rights, notices, and consents to utilize this data for advertising purposes. The use of purchased third-party lists is prohibited, though OpenAI does not publicly detail its methods for auditing these claims.

Why are targeting capabilities restricted in Europe but available elsewhere?

Documentation provided by OpenAI includes a specific exception stating that custom audiences cannot be used for campaigns targeting the European Economic Area and Switzerland, as personalized advertising is not yet enabled in those territories. While these regions enjoy specific protections, other global markets do not have the same restrictions on personalized ad delivery.

When personalization is enabled, ad selection is not limited to the current prompt. OpenAI signals include past conversation history, information stored in ChatGPT’s memory, and engagement history with previous advertisements. Even when personalization settings are disabled, advertisements persist, now relying on the context of the active chat, general location, and language settings. Sensitive topics—including healthcare, mental health, and political discussions—are excluded from ad placement. Additionally, users identified as under 18 based on account data, usage patterns, and topics are not shown advertisements. Advertisers only receive aggregate data regarding total impressions and clicks; they do not have access to specific chat content, names, or email addresses.

What advertising controls are available in the settings menu?

Users can manage their preferences via the Settings menu under "Ad controls." This menu is visible to Free and Go plan users in regions where advertising is active. The "Personalize ads" toggle prevents the use of conversation history, memory, and ad engagement data in ad selection. A separate "Chat history and memory" toggle manages the retention of data itself, while the "Delete ad data" button clears ad history and user-specific interest profiles without deleting chat transcripts.

Temporary Chat sessions do not display advertisements. To remove advertisements entirely, users must subscribe to Plus or Pro plans or utilize the "Ad-free" option within the Free plan, which may limit message quotas and restrict access to advanced tools like image generation. As of August 31, 2026, OpenAI noted that its advertising business reached a $1 billion annual revenue run rate, signaling an intent to continue expanding its advertising formats and measurement tools.

Notes and Sources

  1. OpenAI Help Center, "Ads in ChatGPT" (accessed October 19, 2026).
  2. OpenAI (August 31, 2026). "Expanding access to AI with ChatGPT ads"; OpenAI Help Center, "Ads Manager Availability".
  3. Joseph Cox, 404 Media (October 15, 2026). "How ChatGPT Targets Ads To You Based On Your Prompts, Phone Number, and Email".
  4. OpenAI Developers, "Custom Audiences" and "Targeting"; OpenAI Help Center, "Set up Custom Audiences for your Campaign" (accessed October 19, 2026).
  5. OpenAI, "Ad Tools Terms".