OpenAI recently turned on cost-per-action pricing for ChatGPT ads.
By Toddpie · June 18, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
OpenAI recently turned on cost-per-action pricing for ChatGPT ads.
Every e-commerce brand I know is about to measure it + treat it like a performance channel. I think they're missing what this actually is.
Someone asks ChatGPT which moisturizer to try, sees a sponsored card, thinks about it for two days, then Googles it and buys.
Google takes the credit, ChatGPT gets nothing.
The decision happens on one surface, the purchase happens on another. No attribution.
I've seen this before. Amazon advertising in 2014 looked exactly the same with ugly units, limited proof & scale, and nobody paying attention. Cut to 2025 it was the third biggest ad platform on earth and worth $68 billion.
We're earlier in this cycle than we ever were with Amazon.
If I were a VP of E-Commerce at a DTC brand I'd go ask ChatGPT about my category and see whether there's a competitor with a mediocre sponsored card at the bottom, or whether it's my brand.
That's the assignment this week.