OpenAI has just reached a decisive step in building its advertising model: after testing CPM (cost per thousand impressions) ads, the platform is now activating cost-per-click CPC (cost-per-click) inside ChatGPT. A strategic shift that turns the chatbot into a true performance channel and puts OpenAI in direct competition with Google Search.
Key takeaway:
- OpenAI is testing cost-per-click (CPC) ads in ChatGPT, with bids ranging from $3 to $5 per click.
- This change comes as CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) have fallen from $60 at launch to around $25 today.
- The CPC model allows advertisers to directly compare ChatGPT's performance with that of other platforms like Google Search.
- OpenAI is actively recruiting its first head of advertising measurement, a sign that ad monetization is becoming a central priority.
From CPM to CPC: why this change was inevitable
When OpenAI launched its first ads, the choice of CPM was obvious. This model, which allows advertisers to be charged for every thousand impressions served, is simpler to implement. It doesn't require click-tracking infrastructure and allows brand-awareness-focused advertisers to be onboarded quickly, even on a platform that still has limited measurement capabilities.
But CPM has a ceiling. Performance-oriented advertisers, those who manage budgets based on concrete results, prefer to pay for real actions, not for displays. Yet this segment accounts for the majority of online ad spending. Keeping these advertisers on an impression-based model indefinitely was not a viable option.
Price pressure has also accelerated things. In just ten weeks, ChatGPT's CPM fell from around $60 at launch to $25 in some cases, with a downward trend. When the price of impressions drops, the revenue generated by each impression mechanically decreases. CPC gives OpenAI an advertising growth lever that no longer relies on artificially sustaining CPMs.
How these CPC ads actually work
According to screenshots of the ad manager interface, verified by Digiday, advertisers can now dset bids between $3 and $5 per click. This format coexists with the CPM model already in place, and is being rolled out gradually via a limited version of the ad manager.
The shift to CPC fundamentally changes the relationship between OpenAI and its advertisers. Rather than paying to be visible, they only pay when a user actually interacts with their ad. This aligns advertising spend with measurable results and allows return on investment to be calculated in a way comparable to other channels.
As Nicole Greene, vice president and analyst at Gartner, points out: this format will allow advertisers to directly compare their results on OpenAI with those on other major advertising platforms and more easily justify reallocating budget to ChatGPT.
The real challenge: proving the value of a click in a conversational context
Adopting CPC means to stake a claim on Google's turf, and the Mountain View company spent years perfecting this model. Its auction system relies on precise intent signals, quality scores, real-time bid pressure and retargeting data. The result: advertisers have tangible proof, quarter after quarter, that those clicks are worth the investment.
OpenAI will have to provide the same guarantees. And that is precisely where the task becomes complicated. Not all clicks are equal. On Meta, for example, cost per click is three to five times lower than on Google Search, not because the inventory is necessarily of lower quality, but because the intent behind those clicks is different. On social networks, users browse. On a search engine, they are looking for something specific. It is this intent gap that justifies Google's price premium.
The question, then, is where ChatGPT will position itself on this spectrum. OpenAI's case rests on the conversational nature of the platform: intent is built progressively through exchanges, within conversations guided by prompts. It's an intent signal different from that of classic search, but potentially just as valuable.
A rapidly built advertising infrastructure
To achieve its ambitions, OpenAI is going beyond new formats. The platform is building the entire infrastructure needed to a real advertising business.
The hiring of a first head of advertising measurement, a position currently open, is the most visible sign. This profile will have to build the measurement strategy for advertisers from scratch: define how the platform’s reports align with attribution models, incrementality tests, media-mix modeling and geographic experimentation. The person hired will also work with third-party measurement vendors and industry groups to facilitate advertisers’ evaluation of ChatGPT compared with their other media buys.
The speed at which OpenAI is structuring itself is particularly notable. By comparison, Uber Ads only hired its first head of measurement, Edwin Wong, in 2025, about three years after launching its advertising business. Netflix, for its part, began building its measurement team in 2023, nearly a year after starting its ads. OpenAI, however, is accelerating much earlier in its advertising development curve.
What this means for advertisers
For marketers, activating CPC in ChatGPT represents a concrete opportunity to gain early access to a high-intent channel, before competition drives bids up. Those who test the format first have a first-mover advantage to understand the platform’s unique performance mechanics.
On the budget side, CPC makes it easier to integrate ChatGPT into existing media plans. Performance teams now have a familiar measurement framework to justify investments and manage campaigns. Claire Holubowskyj, a senior analyst at Enders Analysis, sums up the issue well: OpenAI’s CPC experimentation is largely driven by the need to sustain advertiser demand and earn their trust, in a context where CPMs are already under pressure!
The article “OpenAI launches cost-per-click (CPC) ads in ChatGPT” was published on the site Abundance.
