TL;DR
- From 10 September 2026, select US advertisers using Amazon Ads, including the Amazon DSP, can buy ads inside the ChatGPT app in a pilot, Digiday reported.
- Delta Vacations is the first brand named; the report does not describe ad formats, targeting data, measurement or any market beyond the US.
- Digiday says Amazon DSP fees on programmatic guaranteed deals often land near zero, against The Trade Desk's historical 15 to 20%.
- OpenAI also sells through Criteo, StackAdapt and agency holding company deals, and is reported to be targeting $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030.
Amazon Ads advertisers can now buy ads inside the ChatGPT app. Digiday reported on 10 September 2026 that the arrangement, which runs through Amazon's advertising platform including the Amazon DSP, started that day as a pilot limited to select US advertisers, with Delta Vacations among the first brands named. It is the latest in a run of premium inventory deals Amazon has struck over roughly 18 months, and one of several partnerships OpenAI is using to build its ad business.
What was announced on 10 September
According to Digiday, from 10 September advertisers using Amazon Ads can buy ads that appear inside the ChatGPT app. Amazon Ads is the company's advertising platform, and it includes the Amazon DSP, its tool for buying media programmatically. The deal is a pilot. It is limited to select advertisers in the United States, and Delta Vacations is the first brand identified as taking part.
Chris Conetta, director of omnichannel supply at Amazon DSP, described conversational ads to Digiday as "the fastest growing engagement opportunity for brands to reach new and existing audiences," and said access to ChatGPT Ads lets advertisers "extend their campaigns further into where their customers are actively spending time in conversational chat platforms."
Katrin Koenig, president of Delta Vacations, said the company would use "deep consumer insights to inform how and when Delta Vacations appear within ChatGPT Ads experiences." Her statement describes the intent. Neither quote, as reported, explains which Amazon data signals are used, how targeting inside ChatGPT works, or what ad formats the pilot uses.
Why Amazon keeps adding inventory like this
Digiday places the deal in a pattern. Over about the past 18 months, Amazon has brought its wider ads business into some of the most sought-after inventory available, and Digiday lists Netflix, Roku, Spotify, SiriusXM, Disney, Hulu and ESPN. The Netflix deal came in September 2025, so this is the second September running in which Amazon has added a high-profile supply source.
The commercial argument Digiday describes has two parts. The first is price. Digiday reports that the Amazon DSP often lands near zero in fees on programmatic guaranteed deals, against The Trade Desk's historical 15 to 20% and a similar cut at Google. The second is data. Amazon has first-party shopping and browsing data, which Digiday says no other ad platform can match. Put together, Digiday characterises the pitch Amazon's vice president of ads Kelly MacLean made earlier in 2026 as: buying the best inventory through Amazon costs less and targets better than buying it anywhere else.
Digiday says that claim has held up so far, with Amazon's ad spend growing, mostly because more money is flowing into digital advertising overall and partly at The Trade Desk's expense. It also suggests travel advertisers could be among the first to test whether the pattern holds in ChatGPT, because people use the app for high-intent planning conversations. That is Digiday's reading, not a result from the pilot.
OpenAI's side of the deal
For OpenAI, the arrangement is one more route for advertiser demand into its ad inventory. Digiday reports that OpenAI has already connected Criteo and StackAdapt and has signed deals with the major agency holding companies. Amazon would arguably be the largest name so far if the pilot becomes permanent.
Digiday also cites a reported target: OpenAI is said to be aiming for $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030, which Digiday calculates would require sustaining compound growth above 200% a year, every year from now. The figure is reported, not confirmed by OpenAI in the article.
The same report is blunt about the weaknesses. OpenAI started testing ads in February 2026, and Digiday lists measurement, clunky technology and limited ad formats among the business's obvious problems. Nate Elliott, principal analyst of AI at eMarketer, told Digiday it would be "overly generous to call Q4 a stress test for OpenAI's ad business," because the company is "still trying to build out even many of the basics of a functional ad sales operation, including their team, technology, vendor partnerships, ad formats, and pricing."
The FTC case in the background
Digiday points out the timing. Amazon Ads is expanding into ChatGPT while scrutiny of how its ads business handles advertisers' money is sharpening. The Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit alleges that Amazon misled advertisers into overpaying for inventory. Relevant Audience covered the complaint on 2 September 2026, when the FTC and 22 states alleged Amazon charged advertisers their own bid 79.1% of the time in 2024. Digiday observes that the case has produced little visible pushback from buyers so far, and argues that advertisers have repeatedly shown a platform offering performance inventory can get away with a great deal.
For a buyer weighing the pilot, the two stories sit side by side. One is about access to new conversational inventory through a DSP with low fees. The other is an unresolved allegation about how that same ad business priced auctions. Neither cancels the other out, and the lawsuit's allegations have not been proven in court.
Key facts at a glance
The table below separates what Digiday reported as fact from what it presented as analysis or a reported target.
| Item | What the source reports | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Start date and scope | 10 September 2026, pilot for select US Amazon Ads advertisers | Reported fact |
| First named brand | Delta Vacations | Reported fact |
| Amazon DSP fees on programmatic guaranteed deals | Often near zero, vs The Trade Desk's historical 15 to 20% | Digiday's reporting on pricing |
| OpenAI's other ad partners | Criteo, StackAdapt, major agency holding companies | Reported fact |
| OpenAI ad revenue goal | $100 billion by 2030 | Reported target, not confirmed in the article |
What the source did not say
Several things advertisers would want to know are absent from the report, and it is better to state them plainly than to fill the gap with guesses:
- Formats. The article does not say which ChatGPT ad formats Amazon advertisers can buy, or whether they differ from what OpenAI sells directly.
- Targeting and data. It does not explain whether or how Amazon's shopping and browsing data is applied to targeting inside ChatGPT, or what data, if any, flows between the two companies.
- Measurement. It does not describe how results are reported back to advertisers, which matters given that Digiday itself lists measurement as a weakness of OpenAI's ad business.
- Pricing inside the pilot. The fee comparison refers to Amazon DSP deals generally, not to the ChatGPT pilot specifically.
- Markets and timeline. Only the United States is mentioned. There is no date for a wider rollout and no list of other countries.
How this fits the ChatGPT Ads timeline
OpenAI's ad product has been changing quickly. Relevant Audience has tracked a series of updates over the summer, including view-through conversions, automated bidding becoming the default in new ad groups, and ChatGPT ads reaching 41 markets by the end of August 2026, with India opening without self-serve buying. The Amazon pilot adds a different kind of development. Instead of a new feature inside OpenAI's own buying tools, it is a new doorway: an established DSP through which a large pool of existing advertisers could reach the same inventory.
That distinction matters for how demand builds. A buyer already running campaigns in the Amazon DSP could, if the pilot opens to them, add ChatGPT placements without setting up a separate relationship with OpenAI. Whether that happens, and on what terms, is exactly what the pilot has not yet shown.
What this means for Thai marketers
Right now, nothing changes for advertisers in Thailand. The pilot is limited to select US advertisers, and the source says nothing about other markets. What follows is analysis of why it is still worth watching.
First, conversational inventory is being wired into existing buying systems. For brands and agencies that already buy programmatically, the question is shifting from "should we test a new chatbot ad platform" to "will this inventory show up inside the tools we already use". That lowers the effort of testing when access widens, and it makes it more important to decide in advance how you would measure an ad shown inside an AI conversation.
Second, AI answers are becoming a paid surface as well as an organic one. Brands that invest in being cited by AI assistants, the work covered by generative engine optimisation, will increasingly share that space with ads bought through several channels. Organic visibility in AI answers and paid placement next to them are separate levers, and both deserve a line in the plan.
Third, the fee argument is worth remembering at the next media review. Digiday's reporting that DSP fees vary widely, from near zero to 15 to 20% historically, is a reminder to ask what share of a programmatic budget reaches the media. That question applies to any Google Ads or programmatic plan, not only to Amazon.
FAQ
Can Thai advertisers buy ChatGPT ads through Amazon?
Not according to the source: the pilot that started on 10 September 2026 is limited to select advertisers in the United States. Digiday did not report any plans or dates for other markets.
Does this mean Amazon shopping data is used to target people in ChatGPT?
The source does not say. Delta Vacations' president referred to using "deep consumer insights" to decide how and when its ads appear, but the article does not explain which data is used or how targeting works inside ChatGPT.
Is OpenAI selling ads only through Amazon?
No. Digiday reports that OpenAI has also connected Criteo and StackAdapt and has deals with the major agency holding companies, alongside its own ad sales.
Is ChatGPT advertising mature enough to test?
It is early. OpenAI began testing ads in February 2026, and Digiday lists measurement, technology and limited formats as open problems, while an eMarketer analyst said OpenAI is still building many of the basics of an ad sales operation.
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