Since late August, a ChatGPT user in Sweden may see an ad below the answer. The questions have followed quickly: who sees the ads, do they affect the answer, can a Swedish business book them itself, and is it worth it? Here is what we have been able to check in OpenAI’s own texts and in the trade press, and what we do not know.

Status 20 October 2026

  • Ads have been shown in Sweden since late August, only to users on the Free and Go plans.
  • Swedish businesses have been able to book ads themselves in Ads Manager since 31 August. It is still in beta.
  • You pay per impression or per click. The minimum daily budget is SEK 175.
  • Personalised ads are not yet available in the EU. The ad is chosen based on the conversation in progress.
  • 43 per cent of respondents in a survey by Sveriges Konsumenter, the Swedish Consumers’ Association, would not accept ads in chatbots under any circumstances.

Does ChatGPT show ads in Sweden?

Yes, but not to everyone. On 18 August 2026, OpenAI wrote that ads would come to 31 European countries “next week”, among them Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and France. According to Dagens PS, a Swedish business news site (1 September 2026), they have been available in Sweden since 24 August.

Ads are only shown to users on the Free and Go plans. According to OpenAI’s Help Center (read on 20 October 2026), the following also applies:

  • Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu have no ads.
  • People under 18 should not see ads. OpenAI relies on the age information on the account and, where available, an age prediction.
  • Temporary Chats show no ads.
  • Logged-out users can also see ads, but only ones that are appropriate for all audiences.

That affects a lot of people. According to Svenskarna och internet 2026, the annual report on Swedish internet use from the Swedish Internet Foundation, 52 per cent of Swedes use ChatGPT. In the Sveriges Konsumenter survey from April 2026, 5 per cent of respondents said they had a ChatGPT Plus subscription or higher. Our reading is that most Swedish users are on a plan where ads can be shown.

What do the ads look like, and where do they appear?

The ad sits below the answer, is labelled as an ad and is kept separate from the text ChatGPT writes. According to OpenAI’s Help Center, one ad unit is shown at a time. It contains the advertiser’s name and logo, a headline, a short description, an image and a link to the advertiser’s page. OpenAI is also testing an ad format with several images that appears while ChatGPT generates an image, but does not say in which countries.

Ads are not shown in conversations about sensitive topics. The Help Center mentions personal health, mental health and politics, and the ad policies list further contexts, including self-harm, conversations where the user is emotionally vulnerable and regulated goods such as gambling and tobacco.

OpenAI’s ad system decides which ad to show based on the conversation in progress, the ad’s copy and landing page, the descriptions the advertiser has added, the campaign settings and the advertisers’ bids. In the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, personalised ads are not initially available, OpenAI says. So in Sweden, past chats and memories are not used to select ads; the system relies on what is being said in the conversation at that moment and on basic context such as general location and language.

Do the ads affect ChatGPT’s answer?

No, according to OpenAI. The Help Center says ads run on separate systems and that advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter the answers. ChatGPT also cannot see the ad you are shown, unless you choose to share it in the chat. OpenAI adds that an ad does not mean the company endorses the advertiser.

Two caveats:

  • This is OpenAI’s own statement. We have not found an independent review that has tested whether the answers are unaffected.
  • The ad and the answer are often about the same thing. The ad is chosen based on the conversation, so someone asking for a cleaning company may get an answer that names three businesses and an ad from a fourth.

For a business, the conclusion is simple: you can buy the spot below the answer, but according to OpenAI not the spot in the answer. Being included in the answer itself takes organic work. How that works is covered in How your business shows up in ChatGPT.

Can Swedish businesses advertise on ChatGPT?

Yes. On 31 August 2026, OpenAI updated its announcement: self-service through Ads Manager is open in the 31 European markets. Dagens PS wrote on 1 September that it would arrive later in the quarter, but OpenAI’s country list shows Sweden as available. OpenAI calls the tool Ads Manager Beta, and according to Digiday (31 August 2026), self-service is open to advertisers in approved categories whose ads pass OpenAI’s policy checks.

This is what OpenAI’s Help Center and ad policies say, read on 20 October 2026:

QuestionStatus 20 October 2026
How do you book?Yourself at ads.openai.com, or through OpenAI’s sales team and partners. The legal entity that advertises and is billed must be based in a country on OpenAI’s list.
What do you pay for?Per 1,000 impressions or per click. Even campaigns optimised for purchases or enquiries are billed per click or impression, not per conversion.
Minimum budgetSEK 175 a day for accounts in Swedish kronor, EUR 15 for accounts in euros. The daily budget is an average over the week, and a single day can cost up to twice as much.
BidsOpenAI recommends starting with a maximum bid of USD 3–5 per click. We have not seen a recommendation in kronor.
TargetingCountry and, where available, region, city and postcode. App or web. Descriptions of what the ad is relevant to, which OpenAI says are not exact-match keywords.
Your own customer listsOpenAI advises against using them in campaigns targeting the EEA while personalisation is unavailable there. A list must also match at least 25,000 users before it can be used to reach them.
MeasurementImpressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate and conversions in Ads Manager, a measurement pixel on your website and UTM parameters on the link.
ReviewThe account is verified and every ad is reviewed before it can run.

According to OpenAI, some new accounts can initially only advertise in the country where the account is registered. For a local business in Sweden, that rarely matters.

Which industries are allowed to advertise?

During the initial period, mainly four kinds of advertiser, according to OpenAI’s ad policies (version 1.6, 10 September 2026): household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, and digital products and education. For local businesses, that means in practice:

  • Tradespeople, cleaning companies, hairdressers and similar should, in our reading, count as local services. That is decided in OpenAI’s review, not by us.
  • Dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists and other healthcare providers generally cannot advertise. Health ads outside the US are generally prohibited.
  • Gyms and personal trainers should, in our reading, count as general wellness, which the policies allow if the ad makes no medical claims.
  • Law firms currently cannot advertise legal services outside the US, and financial services are generally prohibited outside the US.
  • Restaurants can advertise, but not alcohol. Drinks above 0.5 per cent count as alcohol, and the ad must not lead to a page with prohibited content, such as alcohol sales.
  • Estate agents cannot advertise an individual property for sale or rent.

The policies also prohibit unsubstantiated claims about prices, results and comparisons with other businesses, and ads that imitate ChatGPT’s own interface.

What we do not know

  • Which Swedish towns and postcodes can be selected. OpenAI says availability varies by country, and we have not been able to see the list without an account.
  • What a click costs in Sweden. OpenAI says there are not yet any performance benchmarks across advertisers, industries or campaign types.
  • How often Swedish users see ads, and how many Swedish advertisers there are. We have not found any published figures.
  • When personalised ads will come to the EU. OpenAI only says they are not available there “initially”.

Should a local business advertise on ChatGPT now?

For most, not yet. Our assessment is that it is wiser to wait and follow developments, and first to make sure the business appears in the answers themselves. A test can make sense for a business in a permitted industry that has a landing page answering customers’ questions, measurement in place and a budget to experiment with.

The case for waiting:

  • The platform is in beta. OpenAI says delivery and spend can fluctuate during the beta.
  • There are no benchmarks. You cannot compare your results with anyone else’s.
  • The minimum daily budget is SEK 175. If the campaign runs every day, that comes to about SEK 5,250 over 30 days, by our calculation.
  • Targeting is limited in the EU. Without personalisation or your own customer lists, the ad is chosen mainly on the conversation and roughly where the user is.

The case for testing: questions in ChatGPT are often long and describe a need, such as who does end-of-tenancy cleaning with a guarantee in a particular town. That resembles a search with clear intent. We have not seen any figures showing whether it brings in cheaper customers than Google Ads or Meta. How to weigh paid against organic more broadly is covered in Organic vs paid search.

How we work with ads on Google, Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok is described on our services page.

Ads or organic AI visibility: which delivers more?

For a local business, organic usually delivers more, in our assessment. A ChatGPT ad appears below the answer for as long as the budget lasts, while a mention in the answer itself is not tied to any budget at all. That does not mean the mention is guaranteed: answers vary between users and can change when the sources or the model change.

Comparison of a ChatGPT ad and being mentioned in the answer. The ad appears below the answer, labelled as an ad, only to users on the Free and Go plans who are not under 18, costs per impression or click with a minimum of SEK 175 a day and stops showing when the budget runs out. A mention sits in the answer itself, can be shown to users on every plan, costs working time but nothing per click and is not tied to any budget, although answers can change.
Status 20 October 2026. According to OpenAI, ads do not influence the answers, so the spot in the answer takes organic work.
Ad in ChatGPTMentioned in the answer
WhereBelow the answer, labelled as an adIn the answer itself
Who sees itOnly Free and Go, not under-18s, not on sensitive topicsUsers on every plan, when the answer includes you
CostPer impression or click, at least SEK 175 a dayWorking time, no cost per click
When the budget runs outThe ad stops showingNo budget to run out
Can it be bought?YesNo, according to OpenAI

The same groundwork also pays off across several AI services: a clear website, an up-to-date Google profile, the same details everywhere and answers to your customers’ questions. The steps, the timing and the cost are in AI SEO in practice. How to track whether you appear, in ChatGPT and in Google’s AI answers, is covered in How to measure visibility in AI answers.

What do Swedes think of ads in chatbots?

Many are sceptical. In June 2026, Sveriges Konsumenter published the report Svenska konsumenter om reklam i ChatGPT (Swedish consumers on advertising in ChatGPT), based on a bachelor’s thesis by Effat Fanari at Mälardalen University. The survey was carried out by Norstat on 21–28 April 2026, with 1,010 respondents aged 18 and over with internet access, which was before the ads reached Sweden.

  • 43 per cent would not accept ads in AI chatbots under any circumstances.
  • 73 per cent disagree that they are comfortable with their chat history being used to tailor ads. 7 per cent agree.
  • 37 per cent believe there is hidden advertising in chatbots’ answers.
  • The most common conditions for accepting ads are that the service stays free (39 per cent), that data is not shared with third parties (22 per cent) and that ads are kept clearly separate from the answers (20 per cent).

For an advertiser, this means the ad should be factual and helpful, not pushy. The scepticism also applies to the answers. When more than a third believe in hidden advertising, it matters more, in our assessment, that a mention can be checked, with reviews and clear details on your own website.

What users can opt out of

This is what OpenAI’s Help Center says (read on 20 October 2026):

  • Ad-free plans: Plus and Pro, as well as Business, Enterprise and Edu.
  • Ad-free option on Free: no ads, but fewer messages and fewer tools, for example no image generation. OpenAI says availability may vary by region, and we have not checked the situation in the Swedish app.
  • Temporary Chats show no ads.
  • In Ad controls in Settings, you can hide and report ads, see why an ad is shown and delete your ads data, which is then removed within 30 days. Outside the EEA, personalisation can be switched off. In the EEA, personalised ads are not initially available.

According to OpenAI, advertisers only receive aggregated statistics, such as numbers of impressions and clicks, and not chats, memories, names, email addresses, precise location or IP addresses.

The situation in other countries

The US came first. The test started there on 9 February 2026, and on 31 August OpenAI wrote that ads were available in more than 40 countries. Self-service in Ads Manager is open in around sixty countries, including all the Nordic countries, according to OpenAI’s list (read on 20 October 2026).

Two documented differences from Sweden:

  • Personalisation. In the US, if the user has it switched on, ads can be selected based on past chats and memories. In the EEA and Switzerland, personalised ads are not initially available.
  • Industries. In the US, approved advertisers in healthcare and finance can be allowed to advertise after case-by-case review, and legal services are allowed for those licensed to practise law where the ad is shown. Outside the US, these categories are generally prohibited.

Frequently asked questions

Does ChatGPT have ads in Sweden?

Yes. OpenAI announced on 18 August 2026 that ads were coming to 31 European countries, Sweden among them, and according to the Swedish business news site Dagens PS they have been shown there since 24 August. Ads are only shown to users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu are ad-free, and OpenAI does not show ads to accounts it identifies as belonging to people under 18.

How much does it cost to advertise on ChatGPT?

You set your own budget and bids. You pay per 1,000 impressions or per click, even in campaigns optimised for conversions, and the minimum daily budget is SEK 175 for accounts billed in Swedish kronor, or EUR 15 for accounts billed in euros, according to OpenAI’s Help Center (read on 20 October 2026). OpenAI publishes no click prices for Sweden and says there are no performance benchmarks yet.

How do you advertise on ChatGPT?

Sign up for an account at ads.openai.com. Sweden is listed as available for self-service in Ads Manager, which is in beta, and the legal entity that advertises and is billed must be based in a country on OpenAI’s list. The account is verified and every ad is reviewed before it can run. Larger advertisers can go through OpenAI’s sales team or a partner instead.

Do ads influence ChatGPT’s answers?

No, according to OpenAI. The company says ads run on separate systems and that advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter the answers. That is OpenAI’s own statement, and we have not found an independent review that has tested it.

How do you avoid ads in ChatGPT?

According to OpenAI’s Help Center, Plus and Pro are ad-free, Temporary Chats show no ads, and the Free plan has an ad-free option with lower message limits and fewer tools, although availability may vary by region. In the ad settings you can hide and report ads, see why you are shown an ad and delete your ads data.

Which businesses are allowed to advertise on ChatGPT?

During the initial period, mainly household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, and digital products and education, according to OpenAI’s ad policies (10 September 2026). Outside the US, ads for healthcare, legal services and financial services are generally prohibited, and alcohol, gambling and political ads are not allowed.

Sources

All web pages read on 20 October 2026. OpenAI updates its help pages often, so the details may have changed since.