Study Finds Paid ChatGPT Ads Deliver Far Less Value Than Google Search – Dataconomy

Paid visits from ChatGPT ads generated $0.89 in revenue per U.S. session, compared with $2.45 from paid Google Search visits, according to an October 2026 working paper.The paper, “Can Advertising Fund Free AI? Evidence from ChatGPT’s International Advertising Rollout,” was written by Maximilian Kaiser of the Vienna University of Economics and Business and Christian Schulze of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. It is version 1, remains under review and does not give a specific release date.The researchers tracked 1,898 online shops through OpenAI’s country-by-country advertising rollout. Their data covers 60 weeks from June 29, 2025, to August 22, 2026, and nearly 10 billion visitor sessions.Don’t miss out on the latest insights, trends, and analysis in the world of data, technology, and startups. Subscribe to our newsletter and get exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.Paid ChatGPT visitors converted at 0.37% in U.S. traffic, against 1.17% for paid Google Search visitors. Within the same shops, the paper found a conversion gap of minus 1.87 log-odds, while paid ChatGPT orders were $74 smaller.Among 87 advertisers that bought both paid channels for U.S. traffic, 84 earned less revenue per paid ChatGPT visit and 85 recorded lower conversion rates. Seventy-three of the 87 recorded no paid ChatGPT transaction despite receiving 18,726 paid ChatGPT sessions.One advertiser accounted for 66% of paid ChatGPT purchases in the financial sample and 76% of U.S. paid ChatGPT revenue, the paper found. Across all countries in the financial sample, organic ChatGPT visitors converted at 1.31% and generated $2.48 per session, compared with a 0.31% conversion rate and $0.73 per session for paid ChatGPT visitors.The researchers estimated that a ChatGPT click would be worth about $0.26 to an advertiser if it delivered the same return as paid search. The largest publicly known account paid $1.72 per ChatGPT click, while OpenAI set starting maximum bids of $3 to $5 per click when it opened Ads Manager to all U.S. businesses using cost-per-click bidding on May 5.ChatGPT began placing labeled sponsored cards below conversational answers in February 2026 for free-tier and low-priced Go-tier users. Ads launched in the United States on February 9, followed by Australia, Canada and New Zealand on April 16; the United Kingdom on June 4; Japan and Korea on June 19; Brazil on August 4; and Mexico on August 6.OpenAI opened Brazil and Mexico to advertisers on August 17, bringing ChatGPT ads to nine markets. Ads reached the European Union on August 24, two days after the study’s data window closed, leaving the bloc’s 27 member states as the control group.Organic ChatGPT referrals fell an estimated 5.9% during the first 13 weeks after advertising launched, while conversion changed by minus 0.02 percentage points from a pre-launch baseline of 2.21%. The accompanying fact sheet said advertising generates about $1 per free user annually, while inference costs alone amount to about $5 per free user and OpenAI’s 2030 projections imply roughly $40 per free user.Featured image creditSee the best AI models, ranked by intelligence, benchmark results, speed and token price. Find the most suitable LLMs, Text-to-Image, Image Editing, Text-to-Speech, Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video  artificial intelligence model for your tasks and business. source