ChatGPT Ads Expand to Pakistan: OpenAI Adds 26 More Countries, Taking Total to 89

By Fatima Raza, Technology Desk | Updated: October 21, 2026

Yes — ChatGPT ads are coming to Pakistan. OpenAI announced on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, that it is expanding advertising inside ChatGPT to 26 more countries, including Pakistan, bringing the total number of markets with ChatGPT ads to 89. If you use ChatGPT on the Free plan — and possibly the low-cost Go plan — expect to start seeing clearly labeled sponsored suggestions inside your chats soon, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers stay completely ad-free.

What OpenAI Announced Today

The announcement landed Wednesday afternoon Pakistan time — Dawn reported it at 6:39 PM PKT — and it is one of OpenAI’s biggest commercial moves this year. The company is switching on ads across 26 additional markets in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, taking its advertising footprint from 63 countries to 89 in one shot.

The timing is no accident. OpenAI is beefing up its ads business ahead of a potential initial public offering — the company said in August that the ads business had reached an annualised revenue run rate of $1 billion.

OpenAI began testing ads in the United States earlier this year, and more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns on the platform in the eight months since. OpenAI now puts ChatGPT’s weekly users at more than 1.2 billion, up from “more than 1 billion” in August.

The Full List: Which 26 Countries Are Getting ChatGPT Ads

Fourteen of the new markets are in Latin America, following earlier launches in Mexico and Brazil. OpenAI named Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru among them; the full Latin American and Caribbean list also covers Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

Beyond the Americas, the expansion adds Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in Africa; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan across Europe and Central Asia; and Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in South and Southeast Asia.

Advertisers in the new countries can access ChatGPT ads through OpenAI’s technology partners, or sign up directly with self-service access through Ads Manager, the company’s advertising platform. OpenAI says the expansion lets everyone from small local shops to multinational brands reach people at the exact moment they are weighing a purchase decision inside ChatGPT. For Pakistani businesses, that door is now officially open — a detail we will come back to below.

Who Will See Ads — and Who Won’t

OpenAI has drawn a clear line. Ads will appear only on ChatGPT’s Free plan and on Go, its low-cost subscription tier (priced at $8 per month and already available in 171 countries). Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts stay ad-free, and accounts OpenAI believes belong to users under 18 don’t see ads at all.

The ads themselves are designed to arrive while you are deciding, not while you are reading. OpenAI gives the example of someone training for a marathon: they ask about race-week meals — and a grocery delivery service ad tied to that conversation could surface an option they hadn’t considered.

Just as important is what OpenAI promises it will not do. Ads are visibly labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and the company says advertising has no effect on the answers themselves. Advertisers cannot see your conversations, and OpenAI says it never sells user data to them. You can switch off ad personalization and erase the data used for ads at any point. Ads are also kept away from sensitive topics such as health, mental health and politics.

What This Means for Pakistan

For Pakistani users, the change is simple: if you chat on the free tier, you will start seeing labeled ads from time to time. Plus, Pro and Enterprise users never see them — and the Go plan at $8 a month is the low-cost option in between.

For Pakistani businesses, this is arguably the bigger story. From this week, a Karachi electronics retailer, a Lahore fashion label or an Islamabad ed-tech startup can run campaigns on the world’s most-used AI assistant — through OpenAI’s technology partners or directly via Ads Manager. Given how many purchasing decisions in Pakistan now start with “let me ask ChatGPT,” the first local advertisers to move could pick up a genuine early advantage.

It also fits a pattern. OpenAI has been paying more attention to Pakistan this year — the Rockefeller Foundation and OpenAI recently launched $50 million in “Cities Deliver” AI grants that Pakistani cities can apply for, and AI tools like Gauth AI have been expanding their footprint here with free subscriptions for Pakistani students. The ads expansion is the commercial side of that same trend: Pakistan is now treated as a market worth monetizing, not just a user base.

One caution from the launch is worth repeating for local advertisers: scammers have already used fake ChatGPT ad portals to steal logins. Sign up only through the official Ads Manager or a verified OpenAI partner — never via a link in a random email or message.

The Money Behind the Move: A $1 Billion Ads Machine Gears Up for IPO

Strip away the press-release language and this is about money. OpenAI’s ads business went from a $100 million annualised run rate in March to $1 billion in August — and the company gave no new revenue figure on Wednesday, which means investors will be watching the next update closely before any listing.

OpenAI has filed confidentially for an IPO, with executives pointing to a 2027 listing according to CNBC reporting. It has been a busy month on the corporate front, including the departure of its computing chief Sachin Katti and the elevation of Uday Ruddarraju.

OpenAI vs Anthropic: The Great AI Ads Debate

Not everyone in the AI world agrees that ads belong in a chatbot. Anthropic has taken the opposite line: it pledged to keep Claude ad-free — and even made ChatGPT’s ads the target of its first Super Bowl campaign in February. OpenAI believes advertising can fund free AI for billions; Anthropic is betting users will pay to keep their AI assistant commercial-free.

For Pakistani users the choice is practical rather than philosophical. Prefer ad-free? Pay for Plus. Happy with labeled ads in exchange for free access? Stay on the Free tier. With 89 countries switched on, OpenAI clearly believes the ad-supported model is how it pays for free ChatGPT across most of the world.

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