OpenAI opened the self-serve opening of ChatGPT Ads Manager to advertisers across India, 31 European markets, and the Middle East and North Africa on August 31, the same day the company disclosed the ad business had reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in under 200 days since launch. The figure is attributed to Dave Dugan, OpenAI’s vice president of global ad solutions.

That’s a roughly 200-day-old business already pacing at the scale it took Google’s search-advertising operation years to hit in the early 2000s. The mechanics rhyme: an interface millions of people already use to make decisions, monetized at the moment of decision.

Ads Manager launched in the US in May, initially through agency and technology partners in Europe. The August 31 expansion drops the intermediary. Eligible advertisers in approved categories whose creative clears policy review can now buy sponsored placements directly, though partners remain available for those who want them. ChatGPT Ads now reaches more than 40 countries, with tens of thousands of advertisers already on the platform and SMBs representing what OpenAI calls a material share.

Inventory is bounded by design. Ads appear only to users on the Free and Go plans; Plus, Pro, and Enterprise subscribers remain ad-free. Per CNBC, the free tier accounts for the vast majority of ChatGPT’s more than 1 billion weekly active users, which is where the run-rate math becomes legible.

OpenAI says additional formats, objectives, and measurement capabilities are expected in later phases. The pattern is familiar to anyone who watched the initial European rollout through agency partners: controlled scarcity, staged geographic openings, measurement infrastructure trailing the ad units. The interesting question isn’t whether it works. It’s how quickly the CPCs converge on Meta’s.

Sources