ChatGPT Ad Rates Are Falling Fast — CPM Drops From $60 to $25 as Minimum Spend Slashed

By Jaspal Singh April 18, 2026 Updated: April 18, 2026

Advertising in ChatGPT is getting cheaper — and faster than many expected. According to ad buyers speaking to Digiday, the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for ads running inside ChatGPT has fallen from a launch price of $60 to as low as $25. The minimum spend required to advertise on the platform has also dropped dramatically: from $250,000 at launch to just $50,000. The price compression suggests that either supply has outpaced demand, or OpenAI is actively reducing the barrier to entry to grow its advertiser base.

Why the Premium Was So High at Launch

When OpenAI first opened ChatGPT to advertising, it commanded a significant premium. The audience was highly engaged, the environment was novel, and advertisers were willing to pay top dollar to be associated with the most talked-about AI product in the world. A $60 CPM was steep by industry standards but defensible given the novelty factor and the quality of the user intent — people in ChatGPT are actively seeking answers, making them potentially more receptive to relevant ads than passive social media scrollers.

The Competitive Pressure

As AI-powered search and conversational products have proliferated — from Google's AI Overviews to Perplexity's ad-supported model — the uniqueness premium of advertising inside ChatGPT has eroded. Advertisers now have multiple AI-native surfaces to choose from, which has increased their bargaining power and driven rates down across the board. The drop from $60 to $25 CPM represents a 58 percent decline in advertiser cost.

The $50K Floor: Opening the Market

Dropping the minimum spend from $250,000 to $50,000 is a significant strategic shift. At $250K, ChatGPT advertising was accessible only to large enterprise brands with substantial media budgets. At $50K, mid-market brands and performance-focused advertisers become viable customers. This broadens the potential advertiser universe considerably and could help OpenAI build the long-tail revenue base it needs to make its ads business material at scale.

Monetization Still Early

OpenAI is still in the early innings of building its advertising business. ChatGPT's primary revenue continues to come from subscriptions (ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise) and API access. Advertising is a supplementary revenue stream that could become significant if the company can scale its user base — which now exceeds 500 million weekly active users — and develop effective ad formats that don't alienate its core audience.

The Bottom Line

Falling CPMs in ChatGPT are the normal market correction after an initial novelty premium. The more interesting signal is the drop in minimum spend — it suggests OpenAI is prioritizing advertiser volume over premium pricing, which is a classic move to grow an advertising marketplace. Watch this space: if ChatGPT ads prove effective for even one major category of advertiser, rates will stabilize and the business will scale.