ChatGPT ads are live in Japan, and the conversation picks which one you see

On 11 August 2026 OpenAI added a line to its announcement page: ChatGPT ads had launched in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

The path there was short. OpenAI began testing ads in the United States on 9 February 2026. On 7 May it said pilots would follow in those five markets. On 18 June Dentsu Digital announced it had started running the Japanese pilot as a launch partner, and Hakuhodo DY ONE announced the same that month. OpenAI's help centre now lists Japan as a country where businesses can buy through the self-service Ads Manager.

For anyone who buys search ads in Japan, this is the first new ad surface in a while that sits where people ask questions.

Who sees them, and where

Ads appear for users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not see ads. Accounts identified as belonging to people under 18 do not see ads either, and neither do Temporary Chats.

An ad appears below the end of a response, labelled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. OpenAI's help centre states that ads run on separate systems from the chat model and that advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter the answer.

Some topics are off limits. Ads are not eligible to appear near personal health, mental health or politics, and political advertising is not allowed at present.

How an ad gets chosen

This is the part that differs most from search.

A search ad is matched to the words someone typed. OpenAI's help centre lists the signals ChatGPT uses: the context and intent of the current conversation, the ad's landing page, title and copy, context hints and targeting choices the advertiser provides, and, when the user has personalisation on, some signals from the rest of their ChatGPT use. When several ads qualify, OpenAI weighs a combination of factors, including relevance and the advertiser's bid, to decide which appears first.

Two things follow for an advertiser.

The landing page is part of the targeting. If the page does not say clearly what you sell and who it is for, the system has less to match against. A vague page was always a conversion problem. Here it is also a reach problem.

The conversation is longer than a keyword. Someone who types three words into a search box and someone who has spent ten messages explaining their situation to ChatGPT are at different points in a decision. An ad written for the first person may read oddly to the second.

What you get back

For now, advertisers receive aggregated reporting such as views and clicks. They do not see conversations, chat history, memories or personal details.

That means measurement past the click is on you. If your site cannot tell you what a visitor from ChatGPT went on to do, you will not be able to compare this channel with search.

What stays the same

Search is not going anywhere soon. In Japan, search ads bought at auction were 38.7% of internet ad media spend in 2025, the largest slice by ad type and buying method, according to the detailed analysis published by Dentsu and three partners.

And the ad is not the answer. Because an ad cannot change what ChatGPT says, a company that wants to appear inside the answer itself still has to be the kind of source the model finds and quotes: clear pages, sourced numbers, structure a machine can read.

The ad slot is for sale now. The answer above it is not, and it is still the first thing the user reads.