ChatGPT Ads in the United States

Yes. The United States is one of the 63 countries on OpenAI’s self-service Ads Manager list. A business whose legal entity is registered in the United States can open its own ChatGPT Ads account, verify it, and buy ads that appear beneath ChatGPT answers for Free and Go users.

“Available” is an account question. It does not mean every category is allowed, that every location inside the United States can be targeted separately, or that a new account can immediately reach other countries. Those three limits are what the rest of this page is about.

The United States is where OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in February 2026. The 200,000 USD entry commitment that gated the early pilot was removed on 5 May 2026, which is when self-service Ads Manager became a realistic route for advertisers of every size.

The United States is the only market where OpenAI’s ad policies let financial services, health services and legal services be approved case by case, with proof of licensure. Every other market on this list is closed to those categories. It is also the only market with documented postal-code and DMA targeting, and OpenAI’s recommended starting CPC of 3 to 5 USD is quoted in dollars.

OpenAI’s minimum daily budget for an account billing in USD is 25 USD per campaign.

A daily budget on ChatGPT Ads is an average, not a cap. OpenAI paces it over a Sunday-to-Saturday budget week: a single day can spend up to twice the figure, and the week cannot exceed seven times it. At the USD floor that is up to 50 USD on one day and no more than 175 USD across the week.

The floor is not what sets the cost of a useful test. On fixed bidding, the daily budget also has to be at least your highest effective ad-group bid, and click prices decide how many observations a budget buys. Our daily versus total budget and cost field notes cover the sizing.

Below country level: States, designated market areas (DMAs) and postal codes. Our 8 August 2026 pull of OpenAI’s geotargets file counted 41,488 US postal codes, the deepest targeting on the platform.

OpenAI’s campaign documentation now says campaigns can target “states or regions, cities, markets, and postal codes where available”, and that availability varies by country. It does not publish a per-country list. Search the location in the campaign picker before you plan around it, and start at country level until the campaign proves it can spend.

New accounts may be held to their home country. OpenAI says some new self-serve accounts can initially advertise only in the country associated with the account, and selecting other countries does not override that. An account becomes eligible for other supported countries once identity verification is approved and it reaches a required spend in its home country. To restrict a campaign to the United States, include the United States explicitly. Excluding other countries alone does not do it.

Campaigns built from product feeds are different: new feed campaigns target and exclude at country level only. Our location targeting field note covers the levels in detail.

Regulated categories. The United States is the one market where OpenAI may approve ads from financial services, health services and legal services, case by case and with proof of licensure. Legal services must be licensed in the jurisdiction where the ad is shown. Credit repair, debt settlement and bullion stay disallowed.

Custom audiences. Inclusion targeting needs at least 25,000 matched users; exclusion lists can be smaller. See custom audiences for which lists are worth building.

Everyone else. Allowed categories centre on consumer verticals: household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, and digital products and education. B2B software is not named as an allowed category. Our category guide goes through the policy line by line.

1. Confirm the legal entity that will advertise and be billed is registered in the United States. OpenAI’s availability page makes this the test, not where your team or customers are.
2. Sign up at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI login. You can start from your website URL, which drafts a first ad, or skip straight to Ads Manager.
3. Choose country or region, currency and time zone carefully. OpenAI says none of the three can be changed after the account is created.
4. Set the three names separately (Settings, General). Since 25 September 2026 the Account Name, Brand Name shown on ads and Legal Name used for billing and verification are independent. Changing the Brand Name later pauses serving until it is re-approved.
5. Complete billing and business verification. Billing must be set up before anything delivers. See advertiser verification.
6. Invite colleagues or an agency as Admin, Member or Viewer. If you manage several advertisers, OpenAI says to create a separate account for each.
7. Check that your landing pages admit OpenAI’s ad crawler before submitting ads. Pages that block OpenAI user agents are a documented rejection cause. See OAI-AdsBot access.

• ChatGPT Ads Countries: All 63 Markets and Who Can Advertise
• ChatGPT Ads Account Setup: Verification and Required Details
• How Much Do ChatGPT Ads Cost? CPC, CPM and Test Budget
• Location Targeting Inside ChatGPT Ads: Country, Region, City, DMA and Postal Code
• ChatGPT Ads for Local Services: The Approved Category Nobody Writes For

Every claim on this page traces to OpenAI’s own documentation or to a measurement we state the method for. Checked 2 October 2026.