OpenAI's sponsored agents let brands run their own chatbot inside ChatGPT conversations
OpenAI is piloting Sponsored Agents, a format that replaces the ad click with a branded AI chat inside ChatGPT, launching with Wayfair, Angi and others.
The ad click just became a conversation
On 16 September 2026, OpenAI began piloting a new ad format inside ChatGPT called Sponsored Agents. Instead of clicking an ad and landing on a brand’s website, users can now tap a clearly labelled button, something like “Chat with us,” and open a branded AI conversation right inside ChatGPT. The agent on the other side belongs to the advertiser, trained and run by them, but the exchange happens within the ChatGPT interface before any handoff to the brand’s site.
The pilot launched with six brands: Wayfair, Angi, Newegg, Best Buy, Lowe’s and VistaPrint. Wayfair’s agent handles detailed furniture questions. Angi’s connects users to local contractors. Both conversations are kept separate from ChatGPT’s own answers and from the user’s original chat thread, and both are clearly marked as sponsored.
OpenAI had signalled this direction back when it first introduced ads. In its published approach to advertising, the company wrote that “conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links,” and that users might soon be able to “directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision.” Sponsored Agents are that prediction arriving.
How it actually works
The mechanics are straightforward. When your question touches a relevant product or service category, a labelled sponsored result can appear below ChatGPT’s response. Pressing the button opens a separate chat with the brand’s AI agent. You can ask follow-up questions, explain what matters to you, and when you’re ready to buy, follow a link through to the brand’s website.
The key word throughout is “separate.” OpenAI is explicit that the Sponsored Agent conversation is distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers and does not feed back into your original chat. The agent is also not neutral: it is trained by the brand, optimised for the brand’s conversion goals, and makes no claim to be otherwise. The labelling is there to make that clear.
Wayfair has confirmed it is testing at limited scale, with what it describes as guardrails on accuracy, transparency and handoffs to service. Agency buyers quoted in coverage note that ChatGPT ad returns have not yet made their way into core budgets, so most spending remains experimental.
What this means for you as a user
If you are on a free or Go plan in one of the more than 40 countries where ChatGPT Ads run, you may already see these. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts remain ad-free, and OpenAI says it does not show ads to accounts identified as under-18.
On privacy: OpenAI states that advertisers receive only aggregated, non-identifying information such as total views or clicks. They do not have access to your chat history, memories, or personal details. The agent sees what you type in the sponsored thread, not your wider conversation.
The practical upside is genuine. If you are trying to decide whether a sofa fits your room or which contractor handles your kind of job, being able to ask follow-up questions before clicking through is more useful than a static ad. The honest caveat is that the agent is not giving you independent advice. It is a brand representative in chatbot form, and its job is to move you toward a purchase.
What this means for advertisers
For brands, this is a meaningful shift in what a paid placement can do. The traditional search ad gets you a click and whatever happens on your landing page. A Sponsored Agent gets you a conversation, with a user who has already opted in by pressing the chat button, before they ever reach your site.
The format also surfaces a question that advertisers will need to answer: who owns the conversation? The agent sits inside OpenAI’s interface but runs on the brand’s logic. Retailers in the pilot are reportedly still prioritising getting shoppers to their own sites, where first-party data is collected. The Sponsored Agent is a bridge to that moment, not a replacement for it.
OpenAI is not currently accepting early access requests from additional advertisers. It says it will announce availability when it is ready to expand. Businesses already in the ads programme can sign up at ads.openai.com.
The broader advertising push
Sponsored Agents are one part of a larger set of updates OpenAI announced on 16 September 2026. Advertisers can now use natural-language prompts inside a ChatGPT Ads Manager plugin to create, update and analyse campaigns, turning a URL or brief into a running campaign and getting performance recommendations in plain English. AI assistance inside Ads Manager can suggest copy and imagery based on a landing page and campaign objective, and an opt-in text customisation feature adapts existing headlines to fit conversational context and translates them into a user’s preferred language.
Two platform integrations also launched on 16 September. HubSpot, OpenAI’s first CRM partner, allows businesses to create ads, monitor performance and follow up on leads without leaving HubSpot. Shopify merchants in the US can manage ChatGPT Ads campaigns through a dedicated app, with products pulled in through Shopify Catalogue. The Shopify app expands internationally from 23 September 2026.
The commercial context matters here. OpenAI’s ad business reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate roughly 200 days after its February 2026 launch. The company is targeting $2.5 billion in advertising revenue for 2026, as part of an annualised revenue projection exceeding $40 billion. An Amazon deal announced earlier in September gives brands on Amazon’s ad platform access to ChatGPT placements in the US. Sponsored Agents, with their higher engagement potential, are the next step in making those numbers work.
The bigger picture
Search advertising has run on the click for 25 years. You buy intent, user arrives on your page, you convert or you don’t. What OpenAI is testing with Sponsored Agents is a format where the brand gets to participate in the research phase, inside the tool the user is already using to do that research.
That is genuinely new, and it carries real questions: about transparency, about the distinction between a ChatGPT answer and a branded sales conversation, and about what it means for users to interact with an agent that looks like part of ChatGPT but is optimised by a retailer. OpenAI’s answer to those questions, for now, is clear labelling and hard separation from the main conversation window. Whether that is enough will depend on how users experience it once the format moves beyond a six-brand pilot.