ChatGPT ads arrive in Slovakia: what it means for businesses

In brief

• ChatGPT ads have been live in Slovakia since August 24, 2026
• Only Free and Go plan users see them
• They appear below the answer, never within it
• Ads Manager still lists Slovakia as Coming Soon
• No personalized ads in the EEA yet

ChatGPT Ads is OpenAI's advertising system that shows sponsored blocks below ChatGPT answers to users on the free and Go plans. Since Monday, August 24, 2026, it has expanded to 31 European countries — Slovakia among them.

For businesses, the situation is more complicated than it first appears. The official Ads Manager availability list marks Slovakia as Coming Soon — even though a Slovak advertiser page at ads.openai.com/sk-SK already exists and invites businesses to get started.

In this article you'll find what exactly launched, how ads are selected, what targeting options already exist, what happens to user data and what a Slovak business should do right now.

What exactly happened on August 24, 2026

OpenAI announced the expansion of ChatGPT Ads on August 18, 2026. Since August 24, the advertising system has been available in 31 European markets — in the announcement the company named Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria.

OpenAI hasn't published the full list of all 31 countries. According to available information, they are the countries of the European Economic Area plus Switzerland, which means Slovakia is in this group.

How did we get here?

The journey from pilot to global platform took exactly six months:

• February 9, 2026 — test launched in the US for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans
• May 2026 — self-serve Ads Manager opened in beta for US advertisers
• August 11, 2026 — expansion to the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea
• August 24, 2026 — 31 European markets

OpenAI's advertising platform is now available in 35 countries worldwide and used by tens of thousands of advertisers.

What does a ChatGPT ad look like?

The ad appears below the ChatGPT answer, never within it. There's a visual separation between the answer and the ad block, and the block is always labeled as sponsored.

Each ad unit includes:

• the advertiser's name
• favicon (the advertiser's logo)
• headline
• description
• image
• link to the landing page

So the format resembles a product card more than a classic banner.

Where ads don't appear

During the test, ads don't appear in temporary chats or in the ChatGPT Atlas browser. They also don't show in conversations on sensitive and regulated topics — including health, mental health and politics.

Do ads influence ChatGPT's answers?

No. According to OpenAI, ads run on systems separate from the language model, and advertisers have no way to change, reorder or otherwise influence ChatGPT's answers. Showing an ad doesn't mean OpenAI recommends the product.

This is a crucial distinction for marketers. The space below the answer can be bought. A place in the answer itself can't.

OpenAI calls this answer independence and builds the credibility of the whole system on it. The ad is selected only after the model generates the answer — not while it's being created.

If you want language models to mention you directly in their answers, there's a different path — content optimization for AI search, meaning structured data, citable wording and a clear information architecture. Ads and this discipline aren't mutually exclusive, but they're two completely different games.

Who will see the ads in Slovakia

Ads may be shown to users on the Free and Go plans. Subscribers to the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans aren't supposed to see them.

OpenAI also doesn't show ads to accounts it identifies as belonging to people under 18.

Why this matters for B2B

If you sell software, consulting or services to businesses, a large part of your audience probably uses Plus, Pro or business plans. These people will never see an ad in ChatGPT. You need to factor that into your budget planning before you start testing the channel.

How ads are selected

OpenAI's advertising system takes several signals into account:

• the context and intent of the current conversation
• the ad's landing page
• the ad's headline and copy
• contextual hints provided by the advertiser
• targeting settings
• with personalization turned on, selected signals from broader ChatGPT usage

Contextual hints are set at the ad group level and describe conversations, topics or keywords where the product may be relevant. However, they aren't exact keywords and don't guarantee delivery in specific conversations.

That's the biggest difference from Google Ads. On Google you target the query; in ChatGPT you target the context.

What's different in Slovakia

Personalized ads are initially not available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. For a Slovak user, this means the ad shown is determined only by the content of the current conversation plus approximate location and language.

Older chats, saved memories and the history of ad interactions don't factor into the selection.

For advertisers, this is both good and bad news. Targeting is coarser than in the US, so expectations should be lower. At the same time, the whole system is much less invasive for users, which lowers the risk of a negative reaction to the brand.

What targeting and measurement options already exist

In six months, OpenAI built a working ad platform with tools marketers know from other channels:

Pricing models. The system supports CPM for reach-optimized campaigns and CPC for click-optimized campaigns. Conversion-optimized CPC (oCPC) has also been added, so campaigns can be optimized directly for business goals.

Bids and auction. The maximum bid is set at the ad group level. OpenAI recommends starting CPC campaigns with a maximum bid of 3 to 5 USD per click. Selection runs through a relevance-weighted second-price auction — so a lower bid with high relevance can beat a higher but less relevant one.

Targeting. At the European launch, OpenAI said geographic targeting and custom audience options had been added. However, availability of individual features may vary by market, rollout phase and account type — factor that into your planning.

Measurement. OpenAI Pixel, the Conversions API and third-party measurement integrations are available. Reporting in Ads Manager covers impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC and CPM, and conversions. Static URL parameters (such as UTM) are preserved on click-through, so traffic can also be tracked in your existing analytics tools.

If you don't have proper conversion tracking set up yet, that's the first thing to fix — without it, you can't evaluate a new channel. It's part of advanced analytics.

Can Slovak businesses advertise yet?

The answer isn't clear-cut, and it's worth knowing both sides.

What the official list says: OpenAI's Ads Manager availability page shows Slovakia as Coming Soon, like most European countries.

What the Slovak advertiser page says: on ads.openai.com/sk-SK OpenAI presents advertising as a real product. The page is in Slovak, offers “Začať teraz” (Get started) and “Požiadať o podporu predaja” (Contact sales) buttons and describes the whole process — creating a campaign, setting a budget and goal, uploading ads, measurement and optimization.

The practical conclusion: you can try, but there's no guarantee. An interest form exists, and you can enter your country of registration and the countries you want to advertise in. But that doesn't mean every Slovak business will get campaign access today.

At the European launch, OpenAI said ad campaigns would initially be available through:

• the OpenAI Ads Solutions team
• partner advertising agencies
• technology partners

Among agency partners, OpenAI listed networks such as Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP, and on the technology side, for example, Adobe, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue and StackAdapt. The decision on actually serving ads, however, remains with OpenAI's advertising system.

The self-serve Ads Manager at ads.openai.com is set to follow later this quarter. In practice, this means that in the first phase the channel is open mainly to larger advertisers and businesses working with partners.

So if you're considering a test budget today, you realistically have two options: contact the OpenAI team directly, or go through an agency or technology partner that already has access.

What we don't know about ChatGPT Ads yet

The European launch doesn't mean we know the whole system. It isn't yet publicly clear:

• how exactly the auction mechanisms work in individual markets
• how much weight each signal carries in targeting
• which formats and placements will be available
• what the minimum budgets and real prices will be in the Slovak market
• when exactly the self-serve Ads Manager will open for Slovakia

The first published comparisons from the US market suggest the channel still lags behind Google Ads in engagement time and conversion rate — in one published test, ChatGPT Ads reached a 0.21% conversion rate versus 3.71% for Google Ads. But these are isolated measurements on a new platform without established benchmarks, so it's too early for conclusions.

Why a low conversion rate doesn't have to mean a bad channel

Users come to ChatGPT at a different stage of decision-making than to a search engine. In a search engine they often already know what they want and are looking for where to buy it. In a conversation they're still figuring out what they actually need.

The practical conclusion: the channel makes more sense where the decision cycle is longer and the product more complex — custom tech solutions, building materials, financial products, education, B2B services. For an impulse purchase of fifteen euros, Google Ads will probably remain more effective.

How to prepare before the market opens

A list of things worth tackling now, even without Ads Manager access:

1. Set up proper conversion tracking. Without working tracking, you can't evaluate a new channel. If you have gaps in analytics and conversion tracking, now is the time to close them.

2. Review your landing pages. The landing page is one of the signals the system considers when selecting an ad. A page that clearly states what you offer and to whom is better positioned than a generic homepage.

3. Think about intent, not keywords. ChatGPT users don't type three words. They describe their budget, situation and constraints. Go through the questions your customers actually deal with and prepare content for them.

4. Sort out your product feeds. If you run an e-shop, a high-quality, up-to-date feed is the foundation for any performance channel. That applies to e-commerce solutions just as much as to ChatGPT Ads.

5. Align company information across sources (GEO). Generative Engine Optimization is the discipline of shaping what language models know about you. Check that your company data is consistent in the places models draw from — Wikipedia and Wikidata, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, industry directories, your own structured data. Inconsistencies between sources lower the chance a model will mention you.

6. Rewrite product descriptions semantically. If you plan to use a product feed, rewrite descriptions to describe the situation, not the specs. Instead of “running shoes, membrane, size 42”, try “running shoes for wet asphalt and forest trails with a waterproof membrane”. Contextual targeting works with meaning, not codes.

7. Distinguish between ads and visibility in answers. You can buy an ad. You can't buy a mention in the answer. If you want both, you need to work on content and structured data in parallel.

All seven points are part of our ChatGPT advertising service — from evaluating the channel through measurement to preparing the campaign.

Is this channel worth watching for Slovak businesses?

Yes — but not because “ChatGPT has ads”.

The reason is different. A new space is emerging between classic search, AI answers, discovery and the purchase decision. Users don't come to ChatGPT to scroll. They come with a specific request: which product should I choose, compare these three services for me, find me a solution under five hundred euros.

That's a moment much closer to the decision than most standard ad placements.

Slovak businesses may not have Ads Manager yet. But they should keep an eye on what's happening in this market — and prepare for the moment the ad space fully opens.

Want to be among the first to advertise in ChatGPT?

We'll look at what you do and tell you straight whether ChatGPT advertising is worth it for you — even if the answer is no.

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Frequently asked questions

Are ChatGPT ads available in Slovakia?

Yes. Since August 24, 2026, ChatGPT ads have expanded to 31 European countries including Slovakia and are shown to Free and Go plan users. For advertisers, the official Ads Manager availability list marks Slovakia as Coming Soon, although a Slovak advertiser page at ads.openai.com/sk-SK already exists.

Do ads influence ChatGPT's answers?

No. The advertising system runs separately from the language model, and advertisers can't change or reorder answers. Ads appear below the answer, visually separated from it and labeled as sponsored.

Who will see ads in ChatGPT?

Free and Go plan users. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu subscribers don't see ads. They also aren't shown to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18, nor in temporary chats or the ChatGPT Atlas browser.

Can advertisers see my conversations?

No. Advertisers don't receive chat content, conversation history, saved memories, names, emails, precise location, IP addresses or sensitive information. They only get aggregated campaign performance data, such as the number of impressions and clicks.

How much does advertising in ChatGPT cost?

The system supports paying per thousand impressions (CPM) and per click (CPC), and conversion-optimized CPC has been added. OpenAI recommends starting CPC campaigns with a maximum bid of 3 to 5 USD per click. Specific prices for the Slovak market aren't known yet.

How is it decided who sees an ad?

The system considers the context and intent of the current conversation, the landing page, the ad's headline and copy, contextual hints from the advertiser and targeting settings. Personalized ads aren't yet available in Slovakia or anywhere in the EEA, so chat history and saved memories don't factor into the selection.

Can you avoid ads in ChatGPT?

Yes. Free plan users can switch to an ad-free version in exchange for lower limits and restricted access to some features. The paid Plus and Pro plans are also ad-free.

Sources

All data in this article is based on official OpenAI documentation:

1. ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe — OpenAI, August 18, 2026. Announcement of the expansion to 31 European markets, an overview of plans and new platform options.
2. Ads in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center. Which plans see ads, how personalization works, what data is processed and what advertisers don't receive.
3. Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics — OpenAI Help Center. Ad format, buying options (CPM, CPC), auction, recommended bids and measurement options.
4. Ads Manager Availability — OpenAI Help Center. The current Ads Manager availability table by country, including the status for Slovakia.
5. Ads — OpenAI Developers — technical documentation for the measurement pixel, Conversions API and Advertiser API.

As of August 24, 2026. We'll keep this article updated.
Authors: prepared for you by the MR. Digital team
Date: August 24, 2026