OpenAI Signs Retail Media Partners, Signals Serious Commerce Push

OpenAI has spent months telling advertisers to treat ChatGPT as a test channel. Keep budgets small. Don't expect too much. But the deals it has quietly been signing tell a different story.

The latest is a partnership with Skai, a platform that search marketers use to run campaigns across Amazon, Walmart and Google. The deal, announced in May 2026, gives those same advertisers a direct route into ChatGPT inventory without changing their existing workflow. Before this, OpenAI had already signed Criteo (a company that aggregates demand from thousands of brands) and Pacvue (which controls roughly 12% of total global retail media ad spend). The picture that emerges is not a cautious experiment. It is a systematic build-out of commerce advertising infrastructure.

The Intent Signal Nobody Else Has

The reason brands are paying attention comes down to a single fact: ChatGPT users submit 50 million shopping-related queries per day. These are not casual browsers. A person who asks ChatGPT to compare two specific laptop models has already done their research and is close to buying. That kind of intent is extremely valuable to advertisers. Traditional ad platforms capture shoppers after they arrive at a retailer's website. ChatGPT intercepts them earlier, when the decision is still forming.

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"Partnering with companies that already sit inside those ecosystems positions OpenAI inside the purchase funnel at the moment of highest intent," said Lauren Beerling, Group Director of Performance Media at Collective Measures.

Criteo's early data backs this up. Since joining the ChatGPT advertising pilot in March 2026, the company found that AI-referred conversion rates are approaching twice those of traditional search in categories like consumer electronics, home and garden, and lifestyle products. Over 1,000 brands are now live on ChatGPT ads through Criteo's integration alone.

Pricing Has Shifted Toward Performance

OpenAI's advertising model has evolved quickly. The platform started with a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) pricing model. It has since shifted to cost-per-click (CPC) pricing at US$3 to US$5 per click, and on May 28, 2026, it activated cost-per-action (CPA) ads for select advertisers, where brands only pay when a user clicks through, signs up or makes a purchase. The initial US$50,000 minimum spend requirement has also been dropped, opening the platform to smaller businesses.

Early delivery was rocky. One advertiser spent only US$2,500 of a US$250,000 commitment over four weeks during the pilot's early phase. Fill rates have since improved 30 to 50%, and performance in some categories now rivals Google's non-branded search.

What the Partner Strategy Actually Signals

OpenAI has taken a deliberately different path from Google, Meta and Amazon, all of which built closed advertising systems where data and buying tools stay in-house. OpenAI has let Criteo, Skai and Pacvue into its ecosystem while retaining control of delivery and the underlying intent data.

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"OpenAI is trying hard not to become just another inventory source within the programmatic ecosystem," said Liz DeAngelis, Managing Director of Integrated Media at Brainlabs. The open partnership model lowers the barrier for brands that already use these platforms. But it raises a strategic question: is this a permanent approach, or is OpenAI learning what it needs to learn before building its own closed system? Walmart ran exactly this playbook with The Trade Desk, granting exclusive data access for four years before deciding not to renew.

The APAC Window Is Narrow

For commerce and marketing executives in Asia-Pacific, the geographic rollout matters. ChatGPT ads are already live in Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. South Korea is next. Retail media ad spend is growing at 17.2% in Australia, 11.7% in China and 11.6% in Japan in 2026. Asia-Pacific digital ad spend is projected to reach US$489 billion by 2029.

The window to build early position on ChatGPT inventory in these markets is open now. It will not stay that way.