ChatGPT opens India ads to brands, testing conversational product discovery

OpenAI has begun serving ads to logged-in adult ChatGPT Free and Go users in India. Mamaearth, Sebamed and Univo Education are among early advertisers, while more than 50 brands are expected in the initial rollout. Daily campaign budgets start at INR 725.

— Source publishedThu, 10 Sept, 2026, 08:49 IST·First seen Thu, 10 Sept, 2026, 09:56 IST·Source ET Brand Equity

What happened

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT ads in India for logged-in adult Free and Go users. Mamaearth, Sebamed and Univo Education are early advertisers, testing

Key facts

  • More than 50 brands expected in the initial India rollout
  • Daily campaign budgets start at INR 725
  • ChatGPT weekly active users in India have doubled year-on-year
  • Self-serve buying opened on September 4
  • Market opportunity discussed over the next two to three years

Why this matters

Retailers, marketplaces and martech platforms should assess partnerships and data capabilities for AI-led product discovery as ChatGPT becomes a new paid acquisition channel in India.

What to watch

  • Expansion beyond India Free and Go users, including new user tiers, geographies or languages.
  • Introduction of product feeds, shopping ads, merchant catalogs, conversion APIs, affiliate links or native checkout.
  • Published campaign benchmarks for CTR, conversion, cost per acquisition, incrementality and retention relative to search and marketplace media.
  • Whether sponsored placements appear in high-intent recommendation, comparison and replenishment conversations rather than only general prompts.
  • Ad controls for targeting, exclusions, frequency, brand safety, category restrictions and independent measurement.
  • Traffic-referral and conversion changes for marketplaces, D2C storefronts and comparison-content publishers.
  • Regulatory or consumer backlash concerning labeling, sensitive-query advertising, data privacy or recommendation neutrality.
  • Run controlled pilots across branded, category and problem-solution queries; isolate incremental outcomes against existing search and social activity.
  • Build AI-discoverability foundations: clean product taxonomy, structured attributes, current pricing, regional availability, reviews, FAQs and authoritative product content.
  • Create landing pages optimized for conversational referral traffic, with fast mobile checkout, clear claims substantiation and trackable deep links.
  • Establish a measurement framework covering cost per qualified visit, assisted conversion, new-to-brand rate, incrementality, query themes and post-click return behavior.
  • Set governance for sponsored-answer disclosures, health/beauty claim compliance, competitor adjacency, data use and escalation procedures.
  • Prepare retail-media teams to sell first-party audience and catalog data partnerships as AI assistants increasingly influence shopping journeys.

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