ChatGPT Ads Southeast Asia: Countries and Access
ChatGPT Ads is rolling out in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan, with self-service access listed as available.
ChatGPT Ads Southeast Asia is now rolling out across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, alongside Taiwan. OpenAI announced the seven-market expansion on September 23, 2026, bringing ChatGPT Ads to more than 60 countries. Its current Ads Manager availability page lists all seven new markets as available for self-service advertiser access. Read OpenAI’s expansion announcement.
ChatGPT Ads Southeast Asia countries and rollout
The six Southeast Asian countries named in the announcement are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Taiwan is the seventh market in the expansion, but it should not be counted as a Southeast Asian country. OpenAI describes the rollout as starting on the announcement date, following earlier Asia-Pacific launches in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and India.
For businesses, there are several access paths. OpenAI says advertisers can work through its Ads Solutions team, named agency groups and technology partners. Eligible businesses can also use self-service Ads Manager. The Help Center now marks Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam as available for self-service access. It also states that the legal entity being billed must be based in an available country.
That distinction matters because market rollout and account eligibility are related but not identical. The announcement establishes where ChatGPT Ads is expanding. The availability table establishes where OpenAI currently lists self-service account access. Creating an account does not grant access before a country is supported, and larger advertisers with more complex needs can contact the OpenAI Ads team.
Our earlier article on OpenAI Sponsored Agents and ChatGPT Ads covers the product direction announced on September 16. This new event is narrower and more operational: it names seven additional countries or regions and confirms the access routes available to advertisers there.
Who can see ChatGPT ads in the new markets
OpenAI says ads may appear to eligible users on the Free and Go plans as regional testing expands. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts are ad-free. The September 23 announcement uses a shorter plan list, but the updated Help Center explicitly includes Business and Edu among accounts that will not have ads. Accounts identified as belonging to people under 18 will not be shown ads.
Ads can appear below the end of a ChatGPT response. They are labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers, run on separate systems from the chat model and do not constitute an endorsement of the advertiser. Advertisers receive aggregated performance information such as views or clicks, not users’ chats, chat history, memories or personal details.
The fact that an advertiser can open a self-service account does not mean every ChatGPT user in that market will immediately see ads. OpenAI describes the consumer side as a gradual rollout to eligible Free and Go users in selected regions. In-product eligibility, account age signals, the current test configuration and local availability can affect whether controls or ad units appear.
Users can manage advertising options through Settings > Ads controls where the feature is available. They can turn off ad personalization, dismiss or report an ad, see why it was shown and clear data used for ads. Turning off personalization does not remove ads; it changes the signals used to select them. The ChatGPT Privacy Center settings guide explains where broader privacy and personalization controls live, while the Ads controls page governs the ad-specific choices described here.
What advertisers can do now
A business in one of the seven new markets should first confirm that the legal entity responsible for billing is based in a country marked available on OpenAI’s live table. It can then sign up through Ads Manager or use an approved sales, agency or technology partner. The announcement names dentsu, Havas Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Groupe and WPP among the agency partners.
Campaign planning should reflect how ChatGPT Ads is positioned. OpenAI says people use ChatGPT while exploring goals such as planning travel, choosing business software or furnishing a home. Ads are intended to appear during those research and evaluation moments. The Help Center says selection can consider the current conversation’s context and intent, the landing page, ad title and copy, advertiser-provided context hints and targeting choices. When personalization is enabled, selected signals from the wider ChatGPT experience may also be used.
An untested editorial setup checklist would separate four questions. First, is the billing entity eligible for self-service? Second, does the landing page match the intent expressed by the ad copy? Third, can the advertiser distinguish views and clicks by market without treating an aggregate click as a sale? Fourth, does the campaign avoid sensitive contexts that OpenAI excludes from placement? This checklist is our proposed preparation method, not a published performance claim.
OpenAI does not publish campaign prices, auction benchmarks, conversion rates or a guaranteed approval timeline in the expansion announcement. It also says the platform will continue adding formats, optimization tools and measurement solutions. Advertisers should therefore treat current availability as access to a developing channel, not evidence that a particular targeting or measurement feature is already supported in every market.
Privacy and placement limits remain in force
OpenAI says conversations remain private from advertisers and that it never sells customer data to them. Ads are kept separate from answers. The Help Center further says ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics such as personal health, mental health or politics, and political advertising is currently not allowed. Temporary Chats do not show ads.
For eligible Free users who want no ads, OpenAI describes an Ads-Free option with lower message limits and reduced feature access. Plus and Pro remain paid ad-free options. Go users do not receive the Free plan’s Ads-Free tradeoff; they would need to change plans or move to an ad-free subscription. These consumer choices are separate from advertiser account availability.
The material update is practical rather than speculative: seven new Asian markets now have a named rollout, official access paths and current self-service availability. Businesses should verify the live country table before onboarding, while users should look to their own plan and in-product controls to determine whether the advertising experience has reached their account.