OpenAI now sells ads inside ChatGPT, and South Africa is on its list of available countries. We set up your account, write the ads, manage the bids in rand terms and report what every click and lead cost.
Paid ads that appear below an answer in ChatGPT, labelled as ads. Each one has your business name, a logo, a headline, a short description, an image and a link to your page. You buy them in OpenAI's Ads Manager, and the cost is per view, per click or per conversion.
Not every business can, yet. OpenAI's ad policy, updated September 2026, limits the test period to certain categories. We check yours first, before any money is spent.
Lifestyle and household goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products or education. These are the categories OpenAI names for the test period.
Financial services, healthcare and legal services can be approved, but OpenAI reviews each one by hand and is rolling them out gradually. Expect a wait and no guarantee.
Alcohol and drugs, gambling, political content, dating or sexual content and health claims. Ads also do not run in sensitive conversations such as mental or personal health.
Six jobs, done for you and reported in rand. Every plan covers all six; the plan decides how many campaigns, ads and tests run each month.
Your account, billing profile and card, set up with the right country, currency and time zone, because OpenAI will not let those be changed later.
We work out which conversations your customers have with ChatGPT and turn them into ad-group hints that are specific enough to be relevant.
Short, plain ads that read like a useful suggestion below an answer, not a billboard. Several variations tested against each other.
Clicks, views or conversions, a sensible maximum bid, and a daily budget. Reported in rand so you never have to convert dollars.
UTM parameters, OpenAI conversion measurement and your analytics, set up to respect consent under POPIA, so you can see which click became an enquiry.
ChatGPT ads sit next to SEO, Google Ads and Meta Ads, so one budget is not fighting another.
Management starts at R4 500 a month, with no setup fee and no VAT added. Every price is excluding ad spend, which you pay directly to OpenAI. What moves you up the range is how much you spend and how many campaigns, ads and tests run each month.
Testing ChatGPT as a channel. Suggested ad spend up to R15 000 a month.
Steady lead flow. Suggested ad spend R15 000 to R50 000 a month.
Several offers at once. Suggested ad spend R50 000 a month and up.
Your plan follows your ad spend. Move the slider to what you expect to spend each month and see the plan, the monthly fee and the three-month minimum.
Our fees only. Ad spend is separate and goes straight to OpenAI. The click figure is an illustration at R75 a click, roughly the middle of OpenAI's suggested $3 to $5 starting bid. Real prices are set by an auction and are not a forecast.
The full list, line by line. Three things are the same on every plan: the account is yours, tracking is set up before any money is spent, and the minimum term is three months.
| Feature | Launch | Growth · most popular | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly management fee | R4 500 | R8 500 | R15 000 or 15% of spend, whichever is greater |
| Suggested ad spend | Up to R15 000 | R15 000 to R50 000 | R50 000+ |
| Best for | Testing ChatGPT as a channel | Steady lead flow | Several offers at once |
| Campaigns | 1 | Up to 3 | Unlimited |
| Ad groups (context hints) | Up to 2 | Up to 6 | Unlimited |
| New ads per month | 4 | 8 | 12+ |
| Copy variations per ad | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Ad testing | Basic | Monthly tests | Structured test roadmap |
| UTM and conversion tracking setup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Leads tracked to your CRM | No | Yes | Yes |
| Landing page recommendations | No | Yes | Yes |
| Optimisation | Weekly | Twice a week | Ongoing |
| Reporting | Monthly PDF report | Monthly report + strategy call | Combined with Google and Meta, fortnightly call |
| Dedicated strategist | No | Shared | Yes |
| Minimum term | 3 months | 3 months | 3 months |
| Account ownership | Client | Client | Client |
Swipe sideways to see all three plans.
A controlled test, not a leap. Nothing goes live until your category, tracking and landing page are checked, and the first month is mostly about learning what responds.
Category checked against the policy, account and billing created, landing page reviewed, tracking installed and tested.
Context hints chosen, ads and variations written, then submitted to OpenAI for review. Review times are OpenAI's, not ours.
Launch at controlled bids. OpenAI shows clicks and impressions within minutes, with spend lagging by several hours, so we read early and adjust. First report at the end of the month.
ChatGPT advertising is new, and a page that pretends otherwise should not be trusted. Three things worth saying plainly: there is no long track record yet, we are not an OpenAI partner, and ad spend is separate.
Ads only opened to businesses recently. We have no ChatGPT case study to show you, and nobody else does either. What is committed is the work and honest reporting.
We are an independent agency using the same public Ads Manager you could use yourself. You are paying for the time, the writing and the optimisation.
OpenAI bills your budget to your own card. Our fee is for the work, and the two never sit on the same invoice.
Everything on this page about how ChatGPT ads work was read on OpenAI's own pages on 24 October 2026. The rules are still changing, so check the originals before you commit money.
Yes. OpenAI's own Ads Manager availability page lists South Africa as available. The business that advertises and is billed has to be based in a listed country, and the country, currency and time zone cannot be changed after the account is created, so we set that up correctly the first time.
We suggest R10 000 to R15 000 a month for the first three months. OpenAI recommends starting with a maximum bid of roughly $3 to $5 a click, which is about R55 to R95 at current exchange rates. At that price a smaller budget buys too few clicks to learn from. Launch is built for up to R15 000, Growth for R15 000 to R50 000, and Scale for R50 000 and up.
There is no setup fee. We do not charge VAT on our fees. Your ad spend is separate: OpenAI bills it to your own card under its own terms, and it never appears on our invoice.
No, and nobody can. OpenAI targets by context hints on each ad group, which describe the kind of conversation your ad suits. It is closer to topic targeting than to Google keywords, and OpenAI does not guarantee delivery. Our job is to write hints that are specific enough to be relevant and wide enough to get shown.
During the initial test period OpenAI limits ads mainly to consumer areas such as lifestyle and household goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products or education. Financial services, healthcare and legal services are approved manually, case by case. Alcohol, gambling, political content and health claims are not allowed. We check your category against the current policy before you spend anything.
We cannot promise that, and anyone who does is guessing. ChatGPT ads only opened to businesses recently and nobody has a long track record yet, including us. What we commit to is the setup, the ads, the optimisation and honest reporting on what each click and lead cost, so you can decide with real numbers after three months.
Your business does. OpenAI requires the advertiser to be the billed legal entity, so the account is in your name and the card is yours. We run it with the access OpenAI allows. If we stop working together, you keep the account and its history.
No. We are an independent agency that manages paid ads, and we use OpenAI's public Ads Manager exactly as you could yourself. What you pay us for is the time, the ad writing, the optimisation and the reporting.
It is set up to run only where the visitor has consented. We use UTM parameters and OpenAI's conversion measurement, and we flag anywhere your cookie notice needs updating. This is a technical setup, not legal advice, so have your own adviser sign off your privacy policy.
If people already search for what you sell, start with Google Ads, because it has years of data behind it. If your customers already ask AI tools for recommendations, ChatGPT is worth a controlled test alongside it. The ads break-even calculator shows what a lead can cost before either stops making sense.
Tell us what you sell and who buys it. We will check your category against OpenAI's current policy, say honestly whether a test makes sense, and suggest a starting budget. No charge, and no pressure to sign up.
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