Four AI answer products now sell ads: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity. Each program has its own formats, its own buying mechanics, and its own rules about what the ad system is allowed to read. This chapter maps the programs one by one, then closes with the questions that stay constant, because the programs will keep changing and new ones will follow.
This is the fastest-moving chapter in the book. Every program below is dated so you can check what has changed since it was written.
ChatGPT: a pilot growing into a platform
OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT on February 9, 2026, in the US, for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go tiers. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education accounts see no ads. The pilot expanded to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in early 2026, with the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea announced next.OpenAI, Testing ads in ChatGPT: the launch announcement, with the tier rules and the market expansion updates appended as the pilot grew.
The format is a single ad unit below the end of a response, labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. Matching starts from the topic of the current chat thread; if the user leaves ad personalization on, past chats and past ad interactions feed the matching too. Ads do not appear in OpenAI's Atlas browser during the test, and accounts known or predicted to be under 18 are excluded. Users can turn off personalization, dismiss ads, see why an ad was shown, and clear the data used for ads, and Free users can trade ads for fewer daily messages.OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT: placement, labeling, matching signals, exclusions, and the user controls.
OpenAI states that ads do not influence the answers: the ad system runs separately from the chat model, and advertisers cannot shape or rank responses. Take that as stated policy, verified only by OpenAI itself. The structural fact you can act on is the direction of data flow: the ad system reads the conversation, and the answer system does not read the ads.
Buying started with a small group of direct advertisers, then opened through agency partners (Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis, WPP) and technology partners (Adobe, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue, StackAdapt). In May 2026, OpenAI began rolling out a beta self-serve Ads Manager: register, set budgets, bids, and pacing, upload ads, and view performance. The first phase sold on CPM (cost per thousand impressions); CPC (cost per click) bidding came with the Ads Manager, alongside a Conversions API and pixel-based measurement.OpenAI, New ways to buy ChatGPT ads: the partner list, the self-serve Ads Manager beta, and the move from CPM-only to CPC with conversion measurement.
Google: the same auction, new placements
Google did not build a new ad product. Search and Shopping ads began appearing inside AI Overviews on US desktop in May 2025, announced at Google Marketing Live, after running on mobile first; Google is also testing ad formats integrated into and below AI Mode responses.Search Engine Land, Google expands ads in AI Overviews, AI Mode to desktop, reporting from Google Marketing Live 2025. Google's own announcements hub tracks the rollout status of each placement.
Eligibility is automatic. Advertisers running Performance Max, Shopping, or Search campaigns with broad match (including AI Max) are eligible for these placements without opting in. That has a consequence worth sitting with: your budget may already be buying impressions inside AI answers, whether or not anyone on your team decided that. Auditing where your Google spend actually serves is now part of auditing your AI search presence.
Microsoft Copilot: shopping formats first
Microsoft's Copilot ads lean commercial. Showroom ads put the user inside an immersive product exploration, with sponsored content alongside the organic conversation and brand agents planned for direct engagement; Dynamic filters narrow product options from preferences the user states in the chat. Both began piloting in 2025. Microsoft's own research claims ad relevance metrics in Copilot run 25% better than traditional search, a seller's number about its own product, so treat it as directional.Search Engine Land, Microsoft's Copilot adds Showroom ads and Dynamic filters: the format descriptions, pilot timing, and the 25% relevance claim.
Perplexity: buying the question, not the answer
Perplexity has run ads since November 2024, starting in the US: sponsored follow-up questions, plus paid media positioned beside an answer. The mechanics are the notable part. The brand sponsors the question; the answer to that question is still generated by Perplexity, not written or edited by the brand, and the sponsored material is labeled. Launch partners included Indeed and Whole Foods Market, and Perplexity's stated rationale is funding its publisher revenue-sharing program.Perplexity, Why we're experimenting with advertising: formats, labeling, launch partners, and the publisher revenue-share rationale.
Creative control ends at the question.
That is a real constraint, and it may be a template for other platforms that want ad revenue without letting advertisers near the answer text.
Who still runs without ads
Anthropic's Claude carries no ads and, as of this writing, no announced ad program. Given how directly every other major platform has moved, treat any ad-free platform as a current fact rather than a durable one.
Evaluating the next ad surface
The programs above will change, and new ones will launch. The questions to ask stay constant:
- Where does the ad sit relative to the organic answer: below it, beside it, or woven into it?
- Can the ad change the answer text itself, or is the separation structural?
- What does targeting read: the current conversation, account history, a profile, or all three?
- How is it bought: a new platform, or existing campaigns made automatically eligible?
- What is disclosed to the user, and what does the advertiser get back: impressions, clicks, conversions?
- What does a paid slot do to the organic slot on the same answer, if anything?
In the terms of Model Memory and Live Retrieval, paid placement is the one row bought directly: immediate, and lasting exactly as long as it is funded. Whether and when to buy it is the subject of Paid AI Search Strategy and Tactics.