OpenAI has started testing a new type of ad inside ChatGPT: a carousel that lets one retailer show several products in a single ad, instead of just one. It shows up at the bottom of a conversation and pulls products straight from a retailer’s catalog, similar to how Google Shopping ads work.
This isn’t the first ad format ChatGPT has had, though. OpenAI started testing ads back in February 2026, after years of Sam Altman saying ads were a “last resort” for the product. That first version showed only one product at a time: a headline, a short description, an image, and a link. Big retailers like Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Target were part of the early test. Within six weeks, the ads were reportedly bringing in over $100 million a year, which pushed OpenAI to move faster. By May, the company had removed its minimum spend requirement and let any US business buy ads, and the number of advertisers grew past 600. The new carousel is just the latest step in that ongoing rollout.
What actually changed
Before this, a ChatGPT ad meant one product. Now the carousel can show several products from the same retailer, side by side, in that same spot. OpenAI’s system decides on its own when to show a carousel instead of a single product, which suggests it’s still figuring out which format works best for different questions.
This builds on something OpenAI released three months ago, when it let online stores upload their whole product catalog at once instead of building each ad by hand. That update was already designed to support ads shown side by side, so the carousel is really just the next step.
For now, each carousel only shows products from one retailer. OpenAI hasn’t said whether it will eventually mix products from competing brands into the same carousel, but the technology behind it could support that later.
Where this actually works
This matters directly for UK readers: the UK is one of the seven markets where ChatGPT ads currently run, alongside the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. So the carousel format isn’t just a US story, it’s live (or about to be) in Britain too.
The rest of Europe is a different picture. No EU country has ChatGPT ads yet, and there’s no confirmed date for when that changes. Germany, France, and other major EU markets are simply absent from OpenAI’s availability list, which lines up with the EU’s stricter rules on data and ad targeting. Brazil and Mexico sit in a “coming soon” category, where advertisers can set up accounts but ads aren’t serving to users yet.
One detail worth knowing: eligibility is based on where a business is registered, not where its customers are. So a UK-registered company can already buy ChatGPT ads targeting shoppers in the US, Australia, Japan, or any other live market, even if most of its own customers are in Europe.
Why this matters beyond OpenAI
The bigger point here isn’t the carousel itself. It’s that OpenAI is building shopping tools that look a lot like what Google built for Shopping ads, but inside a chat instead of a search page. That’s a meaningful difference. When someone asks ChatGPT for gift ideas, they’re not scrolling through a list of results, they’re getting what feels like a personal recommendation. Turning that moment into a paid ad brings up the same question search engines have dealt with for years: how do you mix “helpful” with “sponsored” without losing people’s trust?
For retailers, the appeal is simple: reach shoppers exactly when they’re asking for help, using product data they already have set up for Google and Facebook ads. For OpenAI, it’s a chance to prove that all the traffic going through ChatGPT can actually turn into ad revenue, at a time when the company needs more income beyond subscriptions.
What happens next
Expect OpenAI to keep rolling out new ad features quickly. Tools for tracking conversions and controlling budgets are already live or in testing, and more precise audience targeting is being tested with a small group. If carousels perform well over the holidays, OpenAI will likely open them up to more product categories (right now it’s mostly household goods, travel, and everyday consumer products) and may even test carousels that mix products from competing brands. Whether that expansion reaches the rest of Europe this year remains an open question.
The real question is whether people will get used to seeing shopping ads when they ask ChatGPT for advice, or whether it starts to feel like the AI has a hidden agenda. How that plays out will affect not just OpenAI’s ad business, but how much people trust AI recommendations in general.
