ChatGPT Ads Specs: The 2026 Reference Sheet
A ChatGPT ad is one small card. It appears below a relevant ChatGPT answer, labeled “Sponsored,” and it has room for only a few words, a logo, and one picture. There is no headline-plus-three-descriptions layout like Google search ads, and no carousel of creatives like a Meta feed. One card, a handful of fields, done.
That tight format is the whole point of this page. Below is a plain reference sheet for the Sponsored Recommendation card: the fields you must supply, the image you need to make, the landing-page rules you cannot skip, and an honest note on the one spec that sources still disagree about, the character limits. Every figure here is date-stamped so you can see how current it is.
If you want the strategy behind the creative (how to write copy that fits a conversation), read our ChatGPT Ads best practices playbook. This page is the dry, look-it-up companion.
Key Takeaways
- Six required parts. Every Sponsored card needs an advertiser name, a favicon (your small logo), a title, copy, a landing URL, and an image.
- Image: square, at least 256x256, JPG/PNG/WEBP. A favicon is just the tiny logo shown in a browser tab, and ChatGPT shows yours on the card.
- Character limits are disputed. OpenAI's help docs point to a short title and short copy, but agency write-ups cite different numbers. We list each, with dates, and do not pretend one is settled.
- Your landing page must not block OpenAI's crawler. If you block OAI-AdsBot or OAI-SearchBot, your ad will not serve. (as-of 2026-06-03)
The Sponsored Recommendation card at a glance
When someone using the Free or Go tier of ChatGPT asks a relevant question, OpenAI may place a single sponsored unit at the end of the answer. It is clearly labeled “Sponsored” and set apart from the AI text, so it reads as an ad, not as part of the response. (as-of 2026-06-04, per OpenAI’s help center.)
Think of it like a sponsored recommendation a knowledgeable friend slips in after answering your question. It is small, it sits below the useful part, and it carries only the essentials.
One unit can feature one or more items, and those items can come from one or more advertisers. So the “card” is really a slot, and your creative is one entry competing for attention inside it.
Required fields (what you must supply)
OpenAI’s help center lists the parts of every Sponsored card. There are six. Supply all of them, or the ad cannot run.
| Field | What it is | Plain-language note |
|---|---|---|
| Advertiser name | The brand shown as the source of the ad | This is who the user sees is paying. Use your real, recognizable brand name. |
| Favicon (logo) | The tiny square logo, the same kind shown in a browser tab | ”Favicon” just means the little icon next to a site name in your browser. ChatGPT shows yours next to the advertiser name. |
| Title | The short headline of the card | The one line that has to earn the click. Keep it short (see the limits below). |
| Copy | The description line under the title | One sentence of value. There is no room for a feature dump. |
| Landing page URL | Where the click goes | Must be reachable and must match the ad (no bait-and-switch to a different offer). |
| Image | One creative image | A single picture, not a gallery. Specs below. |
Source for the field list: OpenAI help center, “Ads in ChatGPT, the basics” (as-of 2026-06-04).
Image requirements
The image is the one asset you have to produce yourself, so the specs matter.
- Shape: square (1:1).
- Minimum size: at least 256 by 256 pixels.
- File formats: JPG, PNG, or WEBP.
(as-of 2026-06-12, surfaced from the ChatGPT ad creative requirements; verify against OpenAI’s “Create Ads for ChatGPT” article before a launch, since OpenAI updates these.)
A favicon is a separate, even smaller asset. It is the small logo mark (the browser-tab icon), not your full image. Use a clean, square version of your logo that reads at a glance, because it renders very small on the card.
Title and copy character limits: sources disagree
This is the spec people argue about, so we will be honest instead of confident.
The format is short by design. A practitioner in r/PPC described it plainly: “ChatGPT Ads gives you 150 characters total. You have to land the value prop in one sentence.” (source: r/PPC, undated). That total-character framing is a useful gut check even though the exact field-by-field split is not settled.
Here is what different sources report for the per-field limits. Read this as “sources disagree,” not “here is the one true answer.”
| Source | Title limit | Copy limit |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI help docs (as-of 2026-06-12, per the figures circulating from "Create Ads for ChatGPT") | 16 to 24 characters | 32 to 48 characters |
| Other agency / spec write-ups | 30 characters | 60 characters |
| r/PPC practitioner (undated) | "150 characters total" for the whole card | |
Why the disagreement exists: OpenAI’s primary help pages are partly gated to automated fetching, the format is new and still changing, and agency posts were written at different dates against different builder versions. When the underlying product moves, old numbers linger in old articles. That is exactly why we date-stamp everything here.
Landing-page requirements (do not block OpenAI’s crawler)
The card sends a click somewhere. OpenAI sets rules for that destination, and one of them quietly kills ads if you ignore it.
- The page must be valid and reachable. A broken link, a 404, or a page behind a login wall will not pass.
- It must not block OpenAI’s user agents. OpenAI crawls your destination with bots named OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. A “user agent” is just the name a bot announces itself with, the same way a browser tells a site it is Chrome or Safari. If your
robots.txtfile or firewall blocks those two names, OpenAI cannot verify the page and the ad will not serve. (as-of 2026-06-03.) - The creative and the destination must match end to end. An approved ad may not link to a page that introduces disallowed content. In plain terms: the page has to deliver on what the ad promised, with no switcheroo.
To answer the common worry directly: no, you should not block OpenAI’s crawler on a page you are advertising. Blocking it does not protect you. It just stops your own ad from running.
A printable spec checklist
Copy this before you build a campaign.
- Advertiser name set to your real, recognizable brand.
- Favicon uploaded: clean, square logo mark that reads when tiny.
- Title written tight (a few words), checked against the live counter in the ad builder.
- Copy is one clear sentence of value, checked against the live counter.
- Image is square, at least 256x256 (export larger), saved as JPG, PNG, or WEBP.
- Landing URL is live, reachable, and not behind a login.
- robots.txt and firewall allow OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot.
- Destination matches the ad, with no disallowed content downstream.
How specs fit into a real campaign
Hitting the spec is the easy part. The harder part is that the native dashboard only reports impressions, clicks, spend, and click-through rate. It does not show you conversions or return on ad spend on its own. To connect a click on a Sponsored card to a sale or a lead, you need OpenAI’s measurement pixel or its Conversions API in place. (per practitioner reporting on ChatGPT ad tracking.)
That is why a clean creative and a tracked landing page go together. We walk through the measurement side in our ChatGPT Ads attribution tracking guide, and we build the pixel-plus-server setup as part of tracking and measurement.
If you would rather hand off the whole thing, from spec-correct creative to a properly tracked destination, our ChatGPT Ads team produces compliant cards and wires up the measurement so the numbers actually mean something.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ChatGPT ad character limit?
Sources disagree, so do not bet a launch on one figure. The numbers circulating from OpenAI's help docs point to a short title (roughly 16 to 24 characters) and short copy (roughly 32 to 48 characters), as-of 2026-06-12. Other agency write-ups cite 30 characters for the title and 60 for the copy, and a practitioner in r/PPC described it as "150 characters total" for the whole card. The format is short by design either way. Write a few-word title and a one-sentence value prop, then trust the live character counter in OpenAI's ad builder for the exact ceiling at the moment you create the ad.
What image size do ChatGPT ads need?
The image should be square (1:1), at least 256 by 256 pixels, saved as JPG, PNG, or WEBP (as-of 2026-06-12). Treat 256x256 as a minimum, not a target. Export your square image larger, for example 512x512 or 1024x1024, so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens, and let ChatGPT scale it down. Your favicon is a separate, much smaller asset: a clean, square version of your logo mark.
Can my ad block OpenAI's crawler?
No, and you would not want it to. OpenAI verifies your landing page with two bots, OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. If your robots.txt file, CDN, or firewall blocks those user agents, your landing page cannot be validated and your ad will not serve (as-of 2026-06-03). This is a common silent failure: the ad gets approved, then quietly does not deliver. If delivery is stuck, check the crawler allowlist before you touch the bid.
What fields are required for a ChatGPT ad?
Six: advertiser name, favicon (your small square logo), title, copy, landing page URL, and one image (as-of 2026-06-04, per OpenAI's help center). There is no second headline, no extra description lines, and no creative carousel. One card, six parts, which is why every word and the single image have to work hard.
Build the card right, then measure it
ChatGPT Ads reward simplicity: a recognizable brand, a sharp little logo, a tight title, one honest sentence, a square image, and a landing page the crawler can actually reach. Get those right and you meet the spec. Pair them with real conversion tracking and the channel starts telling you the truth about what it drives.
Want spec-correct creative and a tracked destination handled for you? See our ChatGPT Ads services or book a strategy call to talk through whether the format fits your offer.