ChatGPT Ads opens in seven Asian markets. Self-serve buying works from day one

OpenAI said on 23 September 2026 that ChatGPT Ads now runs in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. Its help centre lists 63 countries where firms can buy.

All seven open with self-serve buying from the start. That breaks the pattern set in India, which went live without a self-serve option and left buyers waiting on a sales team. Firms in the new markets can also go through OpenAI’s own sales staff, through agencies, or through technology partners.

Indonesia and Vietnam join a list that passed 60 countries this month

The pace has been quick. Europe came earlier in the year, when OpenAI said ChatGPT ads were running at a billion dollars a year. The company put that figure at a $1 billion annualised run rate reached in under 200 days, measured at the end of August, on monthly revenue of roughly $83 million. Those are OpenAI’s own numbers.

OpenAI is still adding resellers rather than building one sales force

The partner route matters more than the market count. Adform became an OpenAI partner for ChatGPT ads in Europe, and Equativ signed up across 12 markets. OpenAI is renting other people’s buying desks instead of hiring one of its own in every country.

Currency, measurement and personalisation rules stay unexplained

PPC Land notes that the announcement says nothing about which currencies the new markets bill in, how results are measured, or how personalisation rules apply under local privacy law. Buyers in Jakarta or Bangkok get an open panel and few written answers.

Put the numbers next to each other. A $1 billion run rate spread over 63 countries averages under $16 million a year per market, and the older markets carry most of it. The seven new ones are a rounding error today, which is exactly why a test budget there costs little to run.