OpenAI has widened the reach of its advertising business again. On October 21, 2026 the company said ads in ChatGPT are now available in 26 additional countries, bringing the total to 89, and that more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since the format launched a little over eight months ago. The update follows expansions into Europe in August and into Southeast Asia and Taiwan in September.
Latin America accounts for the largest share of the new markets. After earlier launches in Mexico and Brazil, OpenAI is switching ads on in 14 more countries in the region, naming Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru among them. The rest of the batch spans Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia; the countries OpenAI lists include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ukraine, Serbia, Nigeria and South Africa. Businesses can buy placements either through technology partners or directly in OpenAI's self-service Ads Manager.
The scope inside the product has not changed. Ads appear only for people on the Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers continue without them. OpenAI justifies advertising as a way to fund free and low-cost access, and it cites more than 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users as the audience. That user figure, like the advertiser count, is the company's own and was not independently audited.
OpenAI's pitch to marketers is that ChatGPT reaches people mid-decision. Its example is a user planning meals for a first marathon who narrows options over several turns and might then see a relevant grocery-delivery offer. L'Oreal, quoted in the announcement, says it is testing the format to reach shoppers from discovery through what it calls agentic commerce.
The company repeats the guardrails it set out when ads first launched. It says advertisers do not see conversations, that OpenAI does not sell customer data, that ads are labeled and kept separate from answers, and that advertising has no influence on what ChatGPT says. These are policy commitments; the post does not describe external audits or technical measures that would let outsiders check them.
OpenAI also signaled where the product is heading. With coverage at 89 countries, it plans additional ad formats, campaign objectives, buying options and measurement tools, and says it is exploring more native ways for businesses to interact with users inside ChatGPT. Reuters described the expansion as part of OpenAI's effort to grow revenue, though the post itself gives no advertising revenue figures.
For advertisers, the main change is access: markets that were previously closed can now buy inventory without waiting for a regional rollout. For users in those countries on free tiers, sponsored suggestions will begin appearing alongside answers. How well OpenAI's separation between ads and responses holds up as formats multiply is the question regulators and researchers are likely to watch.