Ad buyers say ad rates for ChatGPT are falling from $60 CPM to as low as $25 and the minimum spend to advertise is down to $50K from $250K at launch
Advertising in ChatGPT is already getting cheaper. The rate advertisers pay to reach every thousand users has fallen from $60 …
Context & Ripple Effects
ChatGPT’s ad rollout began with a premium $60 CPM target and large advertiser commitments, despite reported limits on conversion data. The latest buyer accounts indicate that both the price and entry threshold have been reduced sharply.
That change matters because it shifts ChatGPT advertising from a tightly controlled, high-ticket beta toward a channel more advertisers can test, while its pricing moves closer to established digital-ad benchmarks cited in prior coverage.
First-order effects
- Advertisers can enter ChatGPT campaigns with a $50K minimum rather than the $250K launch threshold, expanding access beyond the initial large-budget buyers.
- OpenAI’s reported CPM decline to as low as $25 lowers the immediate cost of buying ChatGPT inventory and reduces the premium attached to the new placement.
Second-order effects
- Lower pricing and minimums give media buyers more reason to run comparative tests against other digital channels, increasing pressure on ChatGPT to demonstrate performance rather than novelty.
- Early advertisers that committed at higher rates may seek better terms or shift incremental budgets unless campaign measurement and outcomes justify the earlier premium.
Third-order effects
- If price reductions persist, generative-AI ad inventory may establish itself as a performance- and measurement-led media category rather than retain launch-era scarcity pricing.
- The key structural question is whether AI assistants can build durable ad economics without undermining the user experience that made their audiences valuable; the reported price reset makes that trade-off more visible.
The trend: Generative-AI platforms are moving from premium, limited-access ad experiments toward broader market testing and price discovery.