SaaS brands dominate ChatGPT ads while retailers stay away

Key Takeaways

• Software and SaaS brands captured 8 of the top 10 advertiser spots on ChatGPT, with Monday.com alone holding 5% of global impressions
• Active advertisers jumped 46% in one week after OpenAI dropped its $50,000 minimum spend and launched self-serve ads
• Retailers remain absent after Instant Checkout converted at one-third the rate of standard e-commerce, though ChatGPT still drives product discovery

OpenAI's advertising business crossed $100 million in annualized revenue within six weeks of launch. But the brands spending that money reveal something unexpected: B2B software companies have flooded in while major retailers remain almost entirely absent.

According to Similarweb data, Monday.com alone captured 5.05% of global ChatGPT ad impressions. The top five advertisers, which also include Shopify, Jotform, Resume.io, and Cursor, accounted for nearly 17% of all impressions combined. Eight of the top ten were B2B SaaS, productivity, or developer-focused companies.

Not a single major retailer cracked the top ten.

Why software brands fit ChatGPT's audience

The skew toward SaaS reflects who actually uses ChatGPT. Similarweb traffic data shows the platform's largest user group is adults aged 25 to 34, primarily professionals and developers. These are the same people software brands already target on LinkedIn and Google.

A project management platform or developer tool fits naturally into a conversation about workflow problems. When someone asks ChatGPT how to organize a product launch or debug code, an ad for Monday.com or Cursor makes contextual sense. A consumer retailer selling apparel does not have the same entry point.

The ad format itself favors software. Similarweb found that 83% of queries triggering ChatGPT ads would never activate a traditional keyword-based ad. Retailers built their entire ad operations around keyword bidding, product listing feeds, and catalog-based targeting. That infrastructure does not translate to a conversational system inferring intent from ongoing exchanges.

The Instant Checkout failure still stings

Retailer hesitation runs deeper than audience mismatch. OpenAI's earlier commerce experiment failed badly, and merchants have not forgotten.

ChatGPT's Instant Checkout feature launched in September 2025, letting users complete purchases inside the chat without visiting a retailer's website. Six months later, OpenAI pulled it. On March 24, 2026, the company announced it would let retailers use their own checkout experiences and focus instead on product discovery.

Walmart provided the clearest evidence of why. The retailer made about 200,000 products available through Instant Checkout starting November 2025. Daniel Danker, Walmart's executive vice president of product and design, told Wired that purchases completed inside ChatGPT converted at one-third the rate of click-through transactions to Walmart.com. He called the in-chat experience "unsatisfying."

The problem was trust. Consumers completing a purchase inside a chatbot encountered no familiar brand environment, no visible return policies, and no standard security signals. The checkout felt foreign.

Walmart's workaround points to a different model

Walmart did not abandon ChatGPT entirely. After pulling Instant Checkout, the company embedded Sparky, its own shopping assistant, directly inside ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Users can log into Walmart accounts, sync carts, and complete purchases within Walmart's own system.

Early data suggests Sparky-in-ChatGPT reached approximately 70% of Walmart.com's conversion rate, more than doubling Instant Checkout's performance. The lesson: ChatGPT works as a discovery surface. It does not work as a replacement for the retailer's own checkout.

PYMNTS Intelligence found ChatGPT's share of product research climbed from 2% to 30% in two years. Consumers are using it to research products, compare options, and narrow decisions. AI-referred traffic converts at higher rates and produces larger orders once shoppers reach a retailer's own site.

OpenAI's $100 billion bet

OpenAI is counting on advertising to become a major revenue stream. The company expects $2.5 billion in ad revenue by the end of 2026 and projects $100 billion by 2030, according to Axios.

The May 5 removal of the $50,000 minimum spend threshold accelerated growth. Active advertisers rose from 2,585 to 3,770 in the seven days ending June 8, a 46% week-over-week increase. The self-serve Ads Manager opened the platform to mid-market companies that could not justify enterprise-level commitments.

But the current advertiser mix poses a challenge. Software brands have clear use cases for conversational ads. Retailers represent far more total ad spend globally. If OpenAI wants to hit those 2030 projections, it needs to solve the trust and conversion problems that kept merchants away.

What fintech teams should watch

Financial services brands face a similar calculation. ChatGPT's audience skews toward the professionals that fintech companies want to reach. The conversational format could work for complex products that benefit from explanation, like business banking or expense management tools.

But compliance adds friction. Advertising regulated products inside an AI interface raises questions about disclosures, fair lending language, and audit trails. Early SaaS advertisers do not face those constraints.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to advertise on ChatGPT?

OpenAI removed its $50,000 minimum spend on May 5, 2026, and launched a self-serve Ads Manager. Pricing details for the self-serve tier have not been publicly disclosed, but the lower barrier drove a 46% increase in active advertisers within one week.

Why are retailers not advertising on ChatGPT?

Retailers built ad operations around keyword bidding and product feeds, which do not translate to conversational AI. Additionally, ChatGPT's Instant Checkout feature failed with conversion rates one-third of standard e-commerce, eroding retailer confidence in the platform.

What types of companies are advertising on ChatGPT?

B2B SaaS, productivity, and developer-focused companies dominate. Eight of the top ten advertisers by impression share are software brands, including Monday.com, Shopify, Jotform, and Cursor.

How much ad revenue does OpenAI expect from ChatGPT?

OpenAI projects $2.5 billion in advertising revenue by the end of 2026 and $100 billion by 2030, according to Axios reporting.

Source: PYMNTS | / PYMNTS