What happened
- On September 10, Amazon Ads announced a partnership with OpenAI so its advertisers can extend campaigns to ChatGPT. It’s a pilot with selected U.S. advertisers, with Delta Vacations among the first.
- Buying goes through Amazon DSP, Amazon’s programmatic buying platform, as a managed service: Amazon’s team sets up and optimizes, and it’s billed per click or per thousand impressions.
- OpenAI controls all delivery decisions, an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. The ads appear as text or image blocks below the answers, labeled as sponsored, on the free and Go plans.
- Amazon adds automatically generated ads based on the advertiser’s product catalog.
Why it matters
- ChatGPT doesn’t sell ads in Chile yet. If the pilot expands, buying that space will involve one more intermediary, and the announcement doesn’t say how much Amazon charges to manage it.
- Nor does the announcement say whether Amazon’s purchase data influences which ad is shown. The advertiser buys with Amazon’s tool, but OpenAI decides the placement and the timing.
- To measure results, the marketing team is caught between two systems: that of whoever sells the space and that of whoever serves it.
The number
$1 billion. The annual revenue run rate of ChatGPT advertising reported by CNBC. OpenAI started selling ads in the United States in February.
Context
Amazon restricts ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini’s access to its store while it develops its own shopping tools, according to CNBC. At the same time, it was the top retail advertiser on ChatGPT between April and August, according to Sensor Tower data cited by the same outlet. Advertising on the platform already operates in 38 countries, and Chile isn’t one of them, and its share of hotel queries rose from 6% to 24% in three months.
What’s next
- The pilot is U.S. only, with no date for other markets.
- No timelines announced for opening it to more advertisers.
Bottom line
In August, AI agents started buying on people’s behalf. Amazon limits those agents’ access to its store, but pays to be in the conversation where the decision about what to buy is made.
Sources
- Amazon Ads announces new integration with ChatGPT — Amazon Ads, September 10, 2026
- Amazon gives OpenAI’s ad business a boost, letting its advertisers into ChatGPT — CNBC, September 10, 2026
- Amazon pilots ad services in ChatGPT: What marketers need to know — Marketing Dive, September 10, 2026
Edited by Rodrigo Cornejo. How we select and verify the facts: who writes these notes.
