In 2024, Sam Altman called advertising a "momentary industry." In May 2026, OpenAI is projecting $2.5 billion in ad revenue, which means that gap is closing fast.
The latest move is the biggest signal yet, with OpenAI killing the $50,000 minimum spend requirement on its self-serve ChatGPT ads platform.
For the first few months of the pilot, only big brands and big agencies could run ads in ChatGPT, since the minimum check started at $200,000 in February and only dropped to $50,000 in April. That's a hard wall for any small business, mid-market company, or anyone testing creative ideas with a $5,000 budget.
OpenAI removed the floor entirely this month, which means anyone can now spend whatever they want. The company also flipped on cost-per-action ads, where advertisers only pay when a user clicks, signs up, or buys something.
The pricing model overall has shifted to cost-per-click bids of $3 to $5, down from a $60 CPM at launch in February that has since dropped to about $25. The pilot has also expanded geographically, with the platform now live in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea on top of the original US rollout.
For AI infrastructure investors, the ad business matters because revenue diversification changes the financial profile of OpenAI's broader ecosystem. A subscription-plus-ads model looks more like Google than like a pure SaaS company.
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The CPM drop is the more interesting number for investors, since a decline from $60 to $25 in 10 weeks means OpenAI is racing to fill inventory faster than advertisers are willing to pay premium rates. That's a normal pattern for any new ad market, but it usually takes longer.
The cost-per-action shift is a fix for the same problem, where OpenAI charges only when something works if advertisers won't pay big upfront. The platform takes more risk on the campaigns, but it gets more advertisers on the system.
Think of it like a new restaurant that drops happy hour pricing because the dining room is still empty, where the point isn't the price, it's getting the room full.
Investors comparing this to Nvidia's path will notice the same dynamic, which is that AI margins look great until everyone tries to monetize them at once.
The interesting question for investors isn't whether OpenAI can sell ads, since it can. The bigger question is whether they can scale ad revenue without bruising the user experience.
ChatGPT is currently ad-free for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education subscribers, while Free and Go tiers see ads. If OpenAI hits the $2.5 billion target this year, advertising stops being a side project and becomes a real second revenue pillar next to subscriptions.
Truist already called 2026 the inflection year for LLM-powered ads. The ad business inside ChatGPT is not "momentary" anymore.
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