OpenAI Confirms $200K Minimum for ChatGPT Ads—Now What?

ChatGPT isn’t just where people ask questions anymore—it’s becoming a place where brands can pay to show up inside the answers experience. That shift matters now because it changes the economics and the playbook for “being discoverable” in answer engines.

For B2B marketers and media buyers, the timing is especially important. You’ve been optimizing for search results pages for years. But answer engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI are increasingly the interface between your buyer and your category. When ads enter that interface, you’re no longer only competing on rankings and content—you’re competing on placement.

The news: OpenAI confirms spend minimum and tests placements

Two verified developments point to ChatGPT ads moving from concept to operational reality.

First, OpenAI confirmed a minimum spend/commitment to buy ads in ChatGPT. As reported via Google News coverage of OpenAI Advertising, the announcement was summarized directly as: “OpenAI Confirms $200,000 Minimum Commitment for ChatGPT Ads.” (Source: Google News: OpenAI Advertising; source type: official_announcement)

Second, OpenAI is actively testing ad placements within the ChatGPT app experience. The same Google News coverage includes the statement: “OpenAI is updating its app to test ChatGPT's ad placements immediately.” (Source: Google News: OpenAI Advertising; source type: official_announcement)

Taken together, this is the clearest signal yet that ads in ChatGPT are not hypothetical: there’s a stated buying threshold, and there are app-level tests happening.

What this means for B2B marketers (and why AEO just got more complicated)

1) ChatGPT ads are likely to be an enterprise motion first

A $200,000 minimum commitment is a gating mechanism. It means early access will skew toward larger advertisers and brands that can justify a meaningful test budget. For many B2B teams, that immediately creates a two-track reality:

• If you can afford the minimum, you’ll be evaluating ChatGPT as a new paid distribution channel.
• If you can’t, you need to assume competitors may still buy their way into visibility while you rely on organic presence in answer engines.

Either way, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) becomes a more strategic discipline, not just a content tactic. When a paid layer enters an answer interface, organic visibility isn’t only about “rank higher”—it’s about being the source the model chooses to cite or synthesize when a buyer asks.

2) “Where you show up” is shifting from pages to placements

OpenAI testing ad placements “in the ChatGPT app” matters because the app experience is where many users spend their time. If ads are trialed in-app, you should expect the user journey to include sponsored visibility at the moment of question-and-answer—right where intent is expressed.

For B2B, that’s a big deal because your buyers’ highest-intent moments often look like:

• “What’s the best platform for X?”
• “Compare A vs B for Y use case.”
• “What should I ask vendors during evaluation?”

Those are classic mid-to-late funnel queries. If paid placements begin appearing alongside or within that experience, the line between “content influence” and “media influence” blurs.

3) Your measurement and messaging discipline will be tested

Even without knowing the exact formats being tested (the only verified fact is that placements are being tested), the implication is clear: you may soon need to evaluate performance in a conversational environment, not a click-first one.

That changes how you think about:

• Category messaging (do you answer the question cleanly?)
• Proof points (do you earn trust quickly?)
• Differentiation (do you stand out in a compressed context?)

And it also changes how you plan across answer engines. ChatGPT is one answer engine, but buyers bounce between ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI depending on the task. If paid visibility becomes a lever in one, it will influence how you allocate effort across organic AEO, content, and media.

Action items: what you should do right now

1) Decide whether you’re in the “buyer” set or the “defender” set

Based on the confirmed $200,000 minimum commitment, make an explicit call:

• **Buyer set:** You can realistically test ChatGPT ads if/when available to you.
• **Defender set:** You won’t buy in early, so you must protect organic visibility and brand preference.

This decision should drive your next 60–90 days of planning.

2) Build an “answer engine readiness” list of priority questions

Since ads are being tested in the ChatGPT app, assume the battleground is question-led. Create a list of 25–50 high-intent prompts your buyers would ask during:

• Problem identification
• Vendor comparison
• Implementation planning
• Risk and security evaluation

Then use that list as your AEO roadmap across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI.

3) Tighten your content around direct answers, not just thought leadership

In an answer-first interface, being “interesting” is not enough. Your content needs to be quotable, scannable, and unambiguous. Audit your existing assets and ask:

• Do we answer the question in the first few lines?
• Do we define terms clearly?
• Do we provide a simple comparison framework?

You’re not changing your brand voice—you’re making it easier for answer engines to extract and use your best points.

4) If you’re an enterprise advertiser, prepare a controlled test plan

The $200,000 minimum commitment changes how you should approach experimentation. Treat this like a structured pilot, not “let’s try it.” Define upfront:

• The set of target prompts/categories you care about
• The outcome you want (awareness, consideration lift, pipeline influence)
• The internal stakeholders who will evaluate success

You don’t need to know every ad format detail to start building the governance and measurement plan.

5) Create a competitive monitoring loop

If competitors can buy their way into ChatGPT visibility and you can’t (or choose not to), you need early warning. Assign someone to monitor how your category appears in ChatGPT over time—especially around the priority prompts you identified.

Bottom line

OpenAI has confirmed a $200,000 minimum commitment for ChatGPT ads and is updating the ChatGPT app to test ad placements, which signals ads are moving into the core conversational experience. Your job now is to plan for a world where AEO and paid placement can collide inside the same answer—and make sure your brand is ready either way.