ChatGPT Ads has hit $1 billion in annualised revenue run rate in under 200 days, andOpenAIis expanding self-service ads to new regions. Tens of thousands of advertisers now use the platform and self-service access through Ads Manager is launching today in India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
According to OpenAI, people arrive at ChatGPT already partway through a decision. Some are comparing market options, or planning something like a renovation. Others are researching a job change or weighing a purchase. OpenAI wants its ad product positioned inside that moment, feeding suggestions into an existing conversation instead of a separate results page.
ChatGPT Ads started under a managed-sales, agency, and partner-led model. The product is now available in more than 40 countries through OpenAI’s Ads Solutions team and its agency and technology partners, and the ecosystem supporting it has grown to more than 50 technology and measurement partners.
With self-service access extending to India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, businesses in those regions can open an Ads Manager account and launch campaigns without routing the buy through a managed-sales team or an agency partner first. Those four regions previously reached ChatGPT Ads only through OpenAI’s managed and partner channels, the same route still used across countries where self-service is not yet available.
Separately, EU regulators have increased oversight of the same product now expanding its advertising business into the region.
The European Commission designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under theDigital Services Act(DSA). At the same time, the Commission gave Reddit and Roblox the equivalent platform designation, Very Large Online Platform. All three services had declared reaching at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU, the threshold that triggers the status.
OpenAI now has four months from notification to meet the added DSA duties that come with VLOSE status, putting the deadline at January 2027. Those duties require assessing and mitigating the systemic risks a service and its algorithmic systems create.
The Commission’s list starts with the spread of illegal content and the negative effects of a service on minors. It extends to users’ physical and mental wellbeing, and to the protection of individual rights under EU law. A further category covers risks to electoral processes and public security.
The designation gives the Commission new investigative powers over the functionality behind ChatGPT and any related systems. Supervision sits with the Commission working alongside Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator, since OpenAI’s EU operations are established there.
The Commission classifies ChatGPT as a hybrid service (i.e. it is an AI system that engages with and responds to user prompts, including by searching the web.) That web search capability is why the Commission treats it as a search engine under the DSA. ChatGPT was already subject to the general DSA obligations that apply to search engines before this designation, and VLOSE status now adds a further layer on top of that baseline.
Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said the designations mean ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox “will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society.”
Virkkunen added that the Commission continues to monitor online platforms and will designate any service that meets the threshold for enhanced DSA supervision. The Commission has now designated 28 very large online platforms and search engines under the DSA in total, with enforcement split between the Commission and national Digital Services Coordinators across EU member states.