ChatGPT Ads Troubleshooting: Every Documented Failure Mode
By The InPromptAds Team 8 min read
Last verified 2 August 2026. Version 1.0. Next scheduled review 1 September 2026.
This is a reference, not a guide. Every check below is drawn from OpenAI's own documentation for Ads Manager Beta, restructured so you can find your symptom without reading the whole thing, with the source linked on each block. Where the documentation is silent, this page says so rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Find your symptom. Work the checks in order. If you still need support, the last section tells you exactly what to send, because sending the wrong details is the most common reason a ticket takes three days instead of one.
New to the format itself? Read what ChatGPT ads are first, or the ChatGPT Ads overview. If your problem is specifically a rejection, blocked crawlers is the single most-missed cause and has its own page. Terms used here are defined in the glossary.
Access and account setup
I cannot get into Ads Manager {#access}
Confirm you are signed in with the OpenAI account tied to the organisation the ad account belongs to, and that your user has been granted access to the correct Ads Manager Beta account. These are two separate things and failing either one produces the same screen. Send support your user email, the account name, and a screenshot of the error.
I do not have permission to create an ad account {#permission}
If your company already has an OpenAI tenant, this is a role assignment, not a bug. Someone with admin rights needs to go to admin.openai.com, open Users, select your profile, open Direct roles, click the plus, and assign Ads Admin. Send support your tenant name and a screenshot if it persists after that.
My billing profile or payment method is missing {#billing}
Confirm a billing profile exists, a payment method has been added, and billing settings are configured. Send the account name, a screenshot of the billing page, and a description of which step is blocked or absent.
Uploading and launching
My ad was rejected {#rejected}
In the Ads tab, check the ad's Status. If it reads Not serving, hover over the ad to see the reason. OpenAI names two common causes: ad copy or landing pages that do not align with its Ad Policies, and landing pages that block OpenAI user agents or IP addresses.
The second one is the one people miss, and it has its own page here, because the crawler you need to allow is OAI-AdsBot and it is not the bot most sites blocked. Check openai.com/adsbot.json if your firewall allowlists by IP rather than user agent.
Check your copy against the Ad policies as well — placement rules, disallowed categories and the advertiser standards all live there. Once fixed, you can edit and resubmit, or request another review if you believe the rejection was an error. Send support the ad title and copy, the disapproval code or message, the creative copy, the landing URL, and the time the notice arrived.
My images will not upload {#images}
Images must be PNG or JPG, square, and no larger than 1200 by 1200. They must also be publicly accessible and open directly to the image in a browser, which rules out most sharing links that render a preview page rather than the file. OpenAI names three accepted hosting routes: publicly available Google Drive links, AWS-hosted links such as S3 or CloudFront, and self-hosted links on your own domain or CDN. Send the account name, campaign name, the ad title tied to the image, and the image URL.
My campaign upload threw an error {#upload}
The error message usually names the exact problem. Compare your file against OpenAI's Campaign Structure Checklist, fix the template, and upload again. Send the exact file used, the row or object you think is failing, and the error message or a screenshot.
Delivery, reporting and measurement
My campaign launched but is getting no impressions {#impressions}
Five things to confirm before you assume anything is broken: billing is fully set up, your payment method is valid, the campaign budget has not been reached, the end date has not passed, and account verification has completed. Ads that are delivering show a Serving status. Then wait. OpenAI asks for at least 24 hours after launch before flagging delivery issues. Send the account name, campaign name, launch date, and a screenshot showing zero delivery.
My reporting does not match what I expected {#reporting}
First confirm the ads in your report are marked Serving. Then, if you are comparing table view against CSV exports against charts, confirm the same campaigns, the same filters and the same date range are applied to each. Mismatched date ranges across views account for a lot of these. If it still does not reconcile, send the report screenshot or export, the date range, the filters used, and a short note on what you expected to see.
My product feed uploaded but the Products tab is empty {#products}
This is usually expected behaviour rather than a fault. The Products tab is a reporting view. It does not list every uploaded or eligible product; products appear once an active product-feed campaign has delivered and generated reporting data. If the campaign has not started, has a future start date, or has not delivered, an empty tab is correct. During ad group setup, check that the right feed is selected and review how many products are passing your filters. Send the ad account ID, feed ID, campaign and ad group names, date range with time zone, example product IDs, and a screenshot.
The two numbers that explain most false alarms
A large share of "the platform is broken" reports are latency, not failure. Two figures from OpenAI's documentation are worth memorising.
| Delay | What it means |
|---|---|
| Up to 7 hours | Typical lag between ad delivery and that delivery appearing in Ads Manager Beta reporting. Applies to product feed reporting too. |
| At least 24 hours | How long OpenAI asks you to wait after launch before flagging a delivery issue. |
If your campaign went live four hours ago and reporting shows nothing, that is the documented behaviour of the system, not a problem to escalate.
How to escalate
Support requests go to [email protected], or through the widget at the bottom right of any OpenAI help article. Include the details listed under your symptom above. Each block names them specifically, because the useful details differ by failure mode.
On urgency, OpenAI gives unusually direct guidance: if the issue looks broader than one campaign or one user, say that clearly. Name whether it affects multiple campaigns, multiple accounts, or an entire workflow such as reporting or launch. If you think it is a broader incident, give a few concrete examples rather than stating that the platform is down.
What the documentation does not answer
Three gaps, stated rather than filled.
- Character limits for ad copy. OpenAI's own article on the ad format lists the fields — advertiser name, favicon, title, copy, landing page and image asset — and gives no character limits at all. Practitioner sources circulate at least two different sets of numbers that disagree with each other by around 50 percent. Until OpenAI publishes them, anyone stating a limit as fact is reporting someone else's observation.
- Approval timelines for restricted categories. Finance, health and legal are opening through case-by-case manual review. No published figure exists for how long that review takes or what share is approved.
- Whether the 7 hour reporting lag varies by campaign type or account age. OpenAI describes it as typical. Typical implies a distribution, and the distribution is not published.
Quick answers
Why was my ChatGPT ad rejected? Check the Status in the Ads tab; if it reads Not serving, hover for the reason. OpenAI names ad copy or landing pages misaligned with its Ad Policies, and landing pages that block OpenAI user agents or IP addresses.
My campaign has zero impressions. Is it broken? Probably not yet. Confirm billing, payment method, budget, end date and verification, then allow 24 hours before flagging it.
Why does the Ads Manager report not match my analytics? Confirm the ads are marked Serving and the same campaigns, filters and date range are applied across table, CSV and chart views. Reporting also lags delivery by up to 7 hours.
What image specs does ChatGPT Ads require? PNG or JPG, square, no larger than 1200 by 1200, publicly accessible, and the URL must open directly to the image.
Who do I contact for ChatGPT Ads support? [email protected], or the support widget on OpenAI help pages.
How long does reporting take to appear? Typically up to 7 hours between delivery and reporting.
Sources and maintenance
Every check on this page is drawn from OpenAI Help Center, Troubleshooting Common Issues (article 20001217), and OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics (article 20001207), both verified 2 August 2026. Crawler detail is drawn from Advertiser Guidance for Allowing OpenAI Web Crawlers (article 20001243).
This page is reviewed on the first of every month whether or not anything has changed, and the changelog records the review either way. If a check here contradicts what you are seeing in Ads Manager, tell us, because that is the fastest way this page stays right.
Related reading
- Blocking AI Crawlers Can Get Your ChatGPT Ads Rejected — the rejection cause this page points at most often.
- What Are ChatGPT Ads? — the format, the targeting, and the early performance data.
- Why People Respond to Ads Differently Inside a Conversation — why creative that works on Meta underperforms here.
- ChatGPT Ads vs Google Ads vs Meta Ads — benchmarks, and which stage each channel owns.
- The InPromptAds methodology — the five layers we run between a prompt and pipeline.
- Glossary — chat_card, reasoning window, AEO, GEO.
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The InPromptAds Team
Writes about AI-native advertising and the shift from search to conversation.
