ChatGPT's Ad Business Is Accelerating Fast — Doubling Ad Frequency, Tripling Advertiser Count

OpenAI is rapidly scaling its advertising operation inside ChatGPT, and the numbers are moving quickly. Mobile app users are now seeing roughly twice as many ads per hour in July compared to April, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Over the same period, the number of advertisers on the platform has leaped from around 300 to more than 820 — nearly tripling in just three months, with at least 160 new advertisers joining in July alone.

The advertiser mix is also shifting noticeably upmarket. In April, the dominant names were niche tech players like Speechify, Jotform, and Natural Intelligence. By July, those had been displaced in the top 10 by mainstream consumer brands including Booking Holdings, Intuit, Home Depot, and L.L.Bean. Sports retailer Scheels was the only brand to hold a top-10 spot in both months. Other notable July spenders include Expedia, GetYourGuide, recruiting firm Talent Inc., and apparel retailer Quince.

The sector breakdown is shifting too. Retail remains ChatGPT's largest advertising category by spend, but its dominance is eroding. Financial services has seen the sharpest rise, jumping from 2% to 12% of ad spend share since April — making it the third-largest sector behind shopping and software. Travel, tourism, and jobs and education are also claiming larger slices.

Despite the momentum, OpenAI's ad business is still in its earliest stages. The company reported just $100 million in annualized recurring ad revenue in May — a fraction of what Google ($81.6 billion last quarter) and Meta ($59.3 billion last quarter) generate. OpenAI's ads chief Dave Dugan has acknowledged the cautious rollout, noting the company started very conservatively to protect user experience before gradually increasing volume as it gained confidence. Ads are currently placed beneath AI responses and are excluded from queries touching personal health or politics. The self-serve ad product, launched in May, is also considered rudimentary compared to the targeting and measurement tools offered by Google and Meta — but OpenAI is actively expanding formats and markets to close the gap, backed by a user base Sensor Tower estimated hit 1 billion monthly active users in May.