ChatGPT ads by industry
How the 118,765 shown ads in our capture split across 20 industries: advertisers, formats and how concentrated each industry was. Each industry had a similar number of conversations (6,067 to 6,534), all from questions we wrote, so differences reflect our question sets as well as the ads.
Our capture: logged-out ChatGPT, US, Oct 3–4, 2026Updated
Industries compared
20 industries“Top share” is the most shown advertiser’s share of the industry’s shown ads; “Top 5 share” the five most shown together.
| Industry | Ads shown | Advertisers | Top share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Furniture & Decor | 6,229 | 612 | 8.1% |
| Business Software | 6,164 | 629 | 15.2% |
| IT, Security & Dev Tools | 6,131 | 491 | 6.4% |
| Insurance | 6,075 | 517 | 15.4% |
| Small Business Tools | 6,050 | 727 | 16.7% |
| Consumer Electronics | 6,001 | 665 | 9.9% |
| Telecom & Internet | 5,999 | 348 | 16.6% |
| Travel & Hospitality | 5,994 | 552 | 26.0% |
| Personal Finance | 5,979 | 363 | 16.8% |
| Education & Careers | 5,903 | 650 | 18.1% |
| Media & Entertainment | 5,889 | 731 | 6.6% |
| Automotive | 5,884 | 555 | 4.4% |
| Food & Grocery Delivery | 5,879 | 380 | 23.6% |
| Productivity & Creative AI | 5,866 | 623 | 6.8% |
| Fashion, Apparel & Footwear | 5,863 | 489 | 6.4% |
| Local Home Services | 5,824 | 767 | 13.0% |
| Pets | 5,809 | 449 | 11.4% |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 5,808 | 347 | 5.7% |
| Home Improvement & Appliances | 5,731 | 689 | 6.4% |
| Sports, Outdoor & Fitness | 5,687 | 570 | 5.9% |
What stands out
- Shopping ads (product name and price) were most common in Home Furniture & Decor: 41.4% of its shown ads. In Business Software they were under 0.1%.
- The most concentrated industry was Travel & Hospitality: Expedia had 26.0% of its shown ads.
- Local Home Services had the most distinct advertisers: 767.
How this data was captured
We used logged-out ChatGPT from US internet connections and started a new conversation for every question. Message 1 was the question. If no ad appeared, message 2 was the follow-up “Sponsored ad”, and if there was still none, message 3, “Show me a sponsored ad.”, was a last try. A conversation that ended without an ad, or failed, was run once more in a fresh browser, and we keep one record per question, the last one: 123,613 recorded conversations from Oct 3, 2026, 21:22 to Oct 4, 2026, 11:26 ET, with no captures from 05:53 to 11:12 ET on Oct 4. Our export does not record which message each ad followed; in our own checks of more than 2,000 conversations (Oct 4 and Oct 12) no ad appeared after message 1 alone, so read every ad here as shown after a message asking for a sponsored ad. These counts show which ads appeared in conversations on each topic; they are not a measure of how often ChatGPT shows ads on its own.
Only ads drawn on screen count as shown. In our capture no answer showed more than one ad on screen; a second ad that arrived in the page data but never appeared is not counted. Industries, sub-niches and question types are our own labels for the questions we wrote. Independent; not affiliated with OpenAI. Full methodWhy this is not an ad rateWhat the ads looked like
How does your brand show up in ChatGPT and AI search?
We look at the answers and ads shown for your category and where your brand appears in them.