Advertising on ChatGPT is now available in Central Europe as well, starting this year. The system is already up and running in the Czech Republic, and it’s launching in Slovakia in the coming days. For businesses, this marks the first new performance channel with real volume since the launch of Performance Max.
The difference from traditional search lies in the length of the query. Google works with two to three words. ChatGPT receives an entire sentence, often including the user’s budget, deadline, and constraints. Advertisersent is not buying a keyword, but rather the context of the decision-making process.
This text discusses the technical functioning of the system, entry requirements, budget size, and website preparation. Most of the background material on this topic is available only in English, so this is a synthesis of foreign sources adapted to the conditions of the Czech and Slovak markets.
Why OpenAI Introduced Ads in ChatGPT After Years of Resistance
A Business Model That Doesn’t Rely on Subscriptions
As recently as 2024, Sam Altman described advertising as a last resort and spoke openly about his aversion to combining advertising and AI. That stance changed due to the costs of inference.
The numbers behind this shift:
- ChatGPT surpassed 800 million weekly users (OpenAI data, October 2025)
- The conversion rate to paid plans has long remained in the single digits
- There remain hundreds of millions of people who generate computing costs but produce zero revenue
Advertising is the only known model capable of monetizing the free tier on such a scale. Google followed this path in 2000, Facebook in 2007, and Instagram in 2013. OpenAI is approaching it with greatercaution regarding the quality of responses, but the principle remains the same.
A Personnel Signal from Hiring
The strongest indicator of the company’s direction was not an announcement, but hiring. In May 2025, Fidji Simo took over as CEO of Applications. Previously, she led Instacart and, before that, the monetization of Facebook’s main app. This is a profile built on advertising revenue. OpenAI subsequently recruited additional staff from the advertising divisionsat Meta and Google.
For advertisers, this means the system will not be an experiment. It will be built on the same principles as Meta Ads—namely, an auction, machine targeting, and a minimum of manual controls.
Why It Pays to Be Among the First
With Google Ads, it took about two years for cost-per-click prices to reach market levels. With ChatGPT, this window will be shorter because major media agencies have been monitoring developments from the start and will enter the Czech market quickly. The advantage of low competition in the auction will last for months, not years.
How Advertising in ChatGPT Works Technically
Where Exactly Sponsored Content Appears
The system uses three basic placements:
- Sponsored block below the answer. Visually separated from the model text, labeled as sponsored content. It does not interfere with the answer itself.
- Shopping carousel. A horizontal row of product cards featuring an image, price, and store name. Appears for queries with a clear intent to purchase.
- Sponsored follow-up questions. Suggested continuations of the conversation that lead to the advertiser.
OpenAI consistently communicates one rule: Ads do not alter the content of the model’s response. The response is generated independently, and the ad is appended to it. This is similar to the logic of the Google Shopping carousel above organic results, not nativeadvertisement.
How is it determined which ad is displayed?
The selection is not based on keyword match, but on the semantic intent of the entire conversation. The system evaluates:
- Explicit query in the current message
- The context of previous messages in the same thread, i.e., budget, location, and constraints
- The decision-making stage—whether it involves research, comparison, or purchase
- The commercial value of the query
The search query “I’m looking for a laptop for up to 1,200 euros for video editing; I need it by Friday” includes a price cap, a use case, and a deadline. In Google Ads, an advertiser would combine these three variables across three different campaigns and audiences. Here, they all come together at once.
Who Sees the Ad and Who Doesn’t
| Layer | Ad | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Logged-out user | Yes | Highest volume, weakest data |
| Free account | Yes | Main ad space |
| Plus and Pro | No | Subscription in exchange for no ads |
| Business, Enterprise, Edu | No | Contractually excluded |
For B2B advertisers, this is a major limitation. Decision-makers in corporate environments typically have corporate accounts, which are outside the ad inventory. B2B campaigns are more likely to reach junior-level roles, freelancers, and small businesses.
What the Advertiser Cannot Influence
This is often the most common misunderstanding during the first contact with the channel. You cannot:
- Buy a spot within the model’s response itself
- Prevent the model from recommending a competitor in the response text
- Influence the tone in which the model discusses the brand
- Target a specific query phrasing as precisely as with an exact-match keyword
If ChatGPT speaks negatively about a brand or does not include it among its recommendations, an advertising budget won’t solve the problem. The solution lies in working with the sources from which the model draws its data—namely, GEO. Paid and organic channels cannot be confused here.
Three Channels Through Which You Can Access ChatGPT Responses
In practice, the term “advertisement” in ChatGPT is used interchangeably to refer to three distinct concepts with different economic models.
Paid sponsored placements
Traditional media buying. The advertiser pays per impression or click, and the content is labeled as an ad. The model is auction-based, with optimization handled by the platform. The channel is available in the Czech Republic and is launching in Slovakia in the coming days. (February 9, 2026)
ChatGPT Shopping and Instant Checkout
The most overlooked and, at the same time, the cheapest channel. OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in September 2025, first with Etsy and then with merchants on Shopify. At the same time, together with Stripe, it released the open Agentic Commerce Protocol.
How it works:
- The merchant provides a product feed with the name, price, availability, images, GTIN, and shipping information
- The products will appear in ChatGPT’s shopping results
- The user completes the purchase directly within the ChatGPT interface, without being redirected to an online store
- OpenAI charges a commission on completed purchases, not a pay-per-click fee
According to OpenAI, product placement in search results is organic; the commission does not influence the ranking. Therefore, the merchant does not pay for visibility, but only for completed sales. There is zero risk, and costs are incurred only upon a sale. For an e-shop, this is the first step that makes sense to take, regardless of whether it plans to run paid ads.
GEO and AEO, Unpaid Citations
Generative Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing content so that a language model can use it as a source. It costs nothing, the ramp-up is slower, but the results won’t disappear when the budget is turned off.
Comparison of Three Channels
| Criterion | Sponsored Placements | Shopping and Instant Checkout | GEO and AEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment Model | CPM or CPC | Commission on sales | No direct payment |
| Time to ramp up | Days | Weeks | 3 to 9 months |
| Investment Risk | High | Low | Medium, it depends on the timeframe |
| Availability in the Czech Republic | Yes | Via Shopify and Etsy | Immediate |
| Availability in Slovakia | Launching | Via Shopify and Etsy | Immediate |
| Duration of effect | Ends when the budget runs out | Ends when the feed runs out | Continues |
| Suitable for | Brands with a volume | E-commerce stores | Services, B2B, content websites |
Who Can Advertise on ChatGPT and Which Categories Are Excluded
Advertiser Eligibility Requirements
At a minimum, you must meet the following requirements:
- A verified legal entity with a documented business purpose
- A functional, indexable landing page without redirect chains
- Transparent contact and billing information on the website
- Compliance with the consumer law of the target country
- License or authorization provided for regulated industries
Prohibited and High-Risk Categories
Permanently excluded are weapons and ammunition, tobacco and nicotine products, illegal substances, unlicensed gambling, adult content, malware and hacking services, counterfeit goods, and political advertising.
Strict regulations with additional scrutiny can be expected for financial services and loans, cryptocurrencies, medical devices and dietary supplements, legal services, weight loss, real estate investments, and educational programs promising returns. For these categories, expect a longer approval process and the possibility that some of the claims in the ad text will not be approved.
What Does the Launch in the Czech Republic and Slovakia Mean?
The rollout in the EU came later than in the U.S. due to regulation, not market size. Advertising in the AI interface is subject to three legal frameworks at once:
- DSA. Mandatory labeling of ads, transparency of targeting parameters, and an ad registry.
- AI Act. Transparency requirements and obligations for high-risk systems.
- GDPR. Legal basis for personalization based on conversation content.
From a GDPR perspective, conversations with AI are an extremely sensitive source of data. Users provide health, financial, and family information in these conversations. Basing targeting on this data posed a legal risk that the platform did not want to take on without proper preparation. As a result, the EU rollout was delayed.
The practical impact of the launch is that that targeting in the Czech Republic and Slovakia will likely be more narrowly focused than in the U.S. Expect a stronger emphasis on the context of current messages and less reliance on conversation history.
Who Will Earn the Most from Ads in ChatGPT
Segments with the Highest Potential
ROI is highest where high order value, a long decision-making process, and a response that cannot be summarized in a single sentence all converge.
- Travel and experiences. The user enters the destination, dates, budget, and group composition in a single message.
- High-end electronics and technology. Comparing specifications is exactly what people use ChatGPT for.
- Software and SaaS. Requests such as “a tool for X for a team of five people for Y euros per month.”
- Finance and insurance. A high conversion rate can justify even an expensive click.
- Education and courses. Long decision-making process and a strong need to compare options.
- Health and Sports Equipment. Unregulated part of the segment, good margins, many parameters.
Segments where it’s not yet worthwhile
- Low-margin impulse purchases. The conversion path is unnecessarily long for a 15-euro purchase.
- Purely local services. Geographic targeting is limited at the outset.
- Enterprise B2B. The target audience is on corporate accounts without ads.
- Brands with no digital footprint. The model has no source to draw from, and advertising cannot compensate for this.
What budget should you allocate for advertising on ChatGPT
Pricing
You’ll need to retrieve the official price list for the Czech and Slovak markets directly from the interface. Perplexity serves as a reference point; which launched its advertising in November 2024 with a CPM of around $50 and minimum spend requirements in the tens of thousands of dollars for its first advertisers.
By comparison, standard display CPMs are in the single-digit dollar range, and retail media ranges from $10 to $30. AI interfaces are valued as premium inventory because they are scarce, have high intent, and low impression frequency.
A working estimate for planning in the Czech and Slovak markets is a CPM in the range of 20 to 60 euros—below U.S. levels due to lower volume and purchasing power. Verify this figure first; the entire budget model depends on it.
A test budget that yields a clear result
For the test to be meaningful, it needs at least 100 conversions or 30 days of runtime, whichever comes first. With an estimated CPM of 40 euros and a click-through rate of around 1.5%, this means:
| Test Objective | Estimated Spend | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Verify whether the channel generates traffic at all | 800 to 1,500 € | 14 days |
| Measurable conversion rate | 2,500 to 4,000 € | 30 days |
| Evaluating cost per acquisition by segment | €6,000 to €10,000 | 60 days |
Spending less than 800 euros won’t yield anything usable. The data will be too sparse to make any decisions.
Sample Budget by Company Size
Small e-shop, annual revenue up to 500,000 euros
| Channel | Monthly | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Product feed and Instant Checkout | 0 € upfront | Commission on sales, one-time setup fee of 800 to 2,000 € |
| GEO and content | 600 to 1,200 € | Two to three in-depth content units |
| Paid test | €800 to €1,500 | One segment, one campaign, 14 days |
| Total | €1,400 to ,700 | Plus one-time feed setup |
Medium-sized company, revenue of 0.5 to 5 million euros
| Channel | Monthly | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Feed and maintenance | 300 to 600 € | Ongoing data optimization |
| GEO, content, and digital PR | €1,500 to €3,500 | Including building mentions in sources |
| Paid advertising | €2,500 to €5,000 | Two to three segments |
| Measurement and reporting | €300 to €500 | Attributions and assisted conversions |
| Total | €4,600 to €9,600 | – |
Larger company or brand, revenue over 5 million euros
| Channel | Monthly | Note |
|---|---|---|
| GEO and content infrastructure | 4,000 to 8,000 € | Systematic topic cluster |
| Digital PR and authority | €2,000 to €5,000 | Sources used by the models |
| Paid advertising | €10,000 to €25,000 | Full segment coverage |
| Technology and measurement | €800 to €1,500 | AI visibility tracking tools |
| Total | €16,800 to €39 ,500 | – |
Where to Get the Money
No new budget is needed. In the first phase, it makes sense to shift 10 to 15% from Google Ads on queries where the cost per acquisition has historically been the highest—namely, for comparison and informational queries at the top of the funnel. It is precisely these queries that are being shifted to AI interfaces first, and companies are paying Google more and more for them while receiving decreasing traffic quality.
The ratio between channels in the first six months that makes sense for most companies:
- 45% GEO and content—the only investment that continues to work even after the budget is turned off
- 35% paid advertising, while competition in the auction is low
- 20% technical infrastructure—i.e., feed, data layer, crawler access, and measurement
When Not to Increase the Budget
- Until tracking is in place that can distinguish traffic from AI interfaces
- Until the website has resolved its indexability and speed issues
- Until there is a product feed of usable quality
- Until the company knows its conversion value and maximum cost per acquisition
What You Need to Prepare Before Launching
Product feed and data layer
- A feed in a format compatible with Google Merchant or the ACP specification
- Complete GTIN, MPN, and brand for each variant
- Accurate availability updated at least once a day
- Prices including sales tax and shipping costs
- Images in sufficient resolution, on a white background, without watermarks
- Descriptions written for both machines and humans—i.e., specific parameters instead of marketing adjectives
OpenAI crawler access
This is the most common technical error seen during audits. OpenAI uses three different bots, and many websites block all of them at once without realizing what they’re missing out on.
| Bot | Purpose | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
GPTBot | Data collection for model training | Optional; blocking will not affect visibility |
OAI-SearchBot | Indexing for ChatGPT search | Never block |
ChatGPT-User | User-initiated page load | Never block |
Blocking OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt will completely exclude the website from ChatGPT’s responses. No budget can compensate for this. The first step of every audit is therefore to check robots.txt and server rules based on User-Agent.
Measurement and Attribution
- Segment in analytics for referrers
chatgpt.com,perplexity.aiandcopilot.microsoft.com - UTM parameters on all links that the company publishes itself to the AI ecosystem
- Regular manual testing of a set of search queries to determine whether and how the brand is mentioned
- Tracking assisted conversions; the share of direct traffic will increase after an AI mention
Expect attribution to be inaccurate. Users often ask a question in ChatGPT, get the brand name, and then search for it on Google or enter it directly. This effect will be reflected in brand searches and direct traffic, not in referrer data.
Landing Page and Creative
- Answer the query within the first 100 words of the page
- Structured data
Product,Offer,FAQPage, andOrganization - Specific numbers, parameters, and prices directly in the text; models use facts rather than claims
- LCP under 2.5 seconds; a slow page after clicking from an AI interface has a significantly higher bounce rate
Advertising in ChatGPT vs. Google Ads
| Criterion | Google Ads | Ads in ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of Purchase | Keyword | Semantic Intent of the Conversation |
| Query Length | 2 to 4 words | 15 to 40 words |
| Context information | Derived from audiences | Provided directly by the user |
| Number of Advertisers Displayed | 4 or more above the results | 1 to 3 |
| Manual Leverage | Extensive | Minimal |
| Maturity of measurement | High | Low |
| Competitive pressure in the Czech Republic and Slovakia | Maximum | Still low |
The difference that determines strategy is the breadth of the result. On Google, a user sees ten links and makes a choice. In ChatGPT, the user receives an answer along with one to three commercial offers. The market is structurally narrower; the winner takes an incomparably larger share, and the runner-up gains almost nothing. This increases both the value of the top position and the risk of complete invisibility.
Plan for the Next 90 Days
Days 1 through 14: Audit and Unblocking. Check the robots.txt and server rules for OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User. Set up a segment in analytics for AI referrers. Compile a set of 30 to 50 search queries for which the company wants to be visible, and manually measure the baseline.
Days 15 to 30: Data layer and initial test. Prepare or clean up the product feed. Add structured data to key templates. Simultaneously run a paid test on one segment with a budget of 800 to 1,500 euros to obtain your own data on cost per click.
Days 31–60: Content and Expansion. Create three to five content units that directly address the most valuable search queries from the list. The format consists of a specific question as the headline, the answer in the first paragraph, numerical data, and a comparison table. Based on the test results, expandthe paid campaign to additional segments.
Days 61 through 90, evaluation. Repeat the visibility measurement on the original set of search queries. Compare the cost per acquisition from ChatGPT with that from Google Ads for the same products. Decide on a permanenttransfer of part of the budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does advertising cost on ChatGPT?
Prices for the Czech and Slovak markets should be verified directly in the interface. Perplexity serves as a reference, with a CPM of around $50. For the Central European market, a realistic estimate is 20 to 60 euros per thousand impressions. A test budget with meaningful results starts at around 800 euros.
Is advertising in ChatGPT available in Slovakia?
It’s launching in the coming days. The system is already up and running in the Czech Republic. The shopping channel via product feed and GEO optimization are available in both markets without restriction.
Does advertising influence what the model responds with?
No. The response is generated independently, and sponsored content is displayed separately and clearly labeled. Payment cannot influence the model to recommend a brand in the text of the answer.
Do paying users see ads as well?
No. Ads are targeted at free and logged-out users. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise plans are excluded from the ad inventory.
Will ads in ChatGPT replace Google Ads?
Not in the foreseeable future. Google processes an order of magnitude higher volume of commercial queries and has a more mature measurement system. ChatGPT is a supplementary channel for the research and comparison phase.
How is ROI measured when there is no referrer?
By combining three signals: growth in brand searches, growth in direct traffic, and manual tracking of the share of mentions within a defined set of search queries. Direct attribution of individual conversions may not yet be possible.
