7 Ways to Use ChatGPT Sponsored Agents in 2026

What Are ChatGPT Sponsored Agents?

ChatGPT Sponsored Agents are an ad format OpenAI announced on September 16, 2026. After seeing a relevant ad, a user can start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent in ChatGPT, ask follow-up questions, and follow a link to the business's website. OpenAI's help center calls it a limited alpha test with selected advertisers.

This is the most important ad format OpenAI has announced, because it turns an ad click into a conversation with your business. Every other format ends where search ads always ended: one click, one landing page, one chance. A Sponsored Agent starts there and keeps going until the buyer is ready.

OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar called the ads below ChatGPT responses the "basic starting point" at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia and Technology Conference on September 8, according to Digiday, and said the company was already seeing "early indications" of a more AI-native format. Digiday's September 14 report argued that every major ad platform has a signature format, Google's text link and Facebook's News Feed ad among them, and framed click-to-chat as an early attempt at OpenAI's own.

Two pilot brands are public. Angi announced on September 16 that it is among the first brands piloting Sponsored Agents: an Angi-branded agent appears in relevant home services conversations, talks through the project, and helps the homeowner enter Angi's service request flow. Wayfair's director of paid media, Morgan Brown, confirmed to Digiday that Wayfair is in the pilot: "We're testing at limited scale with guardrails around product accuracy, transparency and service handoffs." Lapis runs Sponsored Agents for clients in OpenAI's limited US alpha.

The format sits inside the wider shift to agentic ads, where software, not a static page, does the selling. It also builds on everything in the 10 ways to advertise on ChatGPT: the agent opens from a standard ad, so the standard ad still has to win the auction.

How Do Sponsored Agents Work?

A Sponsored Agent starts from a standard ChatGPT ad. When the user taps the ad's call to action, which Digiday reported reads like "Chat with us," ChatGPT opens a separate, labeled conversation with the brand's agent. The user describes what matters, the agent answers, and the user follows a link to the business's site when ready.

1. The trigger. A user asks ChatGPT a commercial question, and OpenAI's relevance-weighted, second-price auction selects an eligible ad using the conversation, your landing page, your creative, and your context hints.
2. The ad. Your ad appears below the answer with a chat call to action.
3. The opt-in. The user chooses to start the conversation. Nothing opens without that choice.
4. The separate conversation. OpenAI states the Sponsored Agent conversation is distinct from ChatGPT's independent answers and separate from the user's original chat.
5. The guidance. The agent asks and answers. OpenAI's own example is a shopper asking whether a dining table fits their space, how many people it seats, and how to care for its finish.
6. The handoff. The user follows a link to your site, or, in Angi's case, into the service request flow that matches them with a local pro.
7. The conversion. Your Pixel and Conversions API record what happens on the destination page.

Privacy shapes the design. OpenAI's ads FAQ states that if a user chooses to message an advertiser through an ad, the advertiser sees only the messages that user sends directly. You never see the original chat, chat history, or memories. Your agent starts cold, so it has to ask for the context it needs in its first two questions. That separation is also why the format earns trust; the comparison of OpenAI and Anthropic on AI ad trust explains why it matters to users.

How Are Sponsored Agents Different From Regular ChatGPT Ads?

A regular ChatGPT ad sends the click to your landing page, and the conversation ends there. A Sponsored Agent keeps it going inside ChatGPT with your own agent, so the qualifying, answering, and persuading a landing page does in one static screen happen in a two-way exchange before the handoff.

The same pattern is spreading across the major AI ad platforms, which tells you where the market is going:

Angi's announcement draws the app line clearly: homeowners choose to add the Angi app in ChatGPT, while the Angi-sponsored agent appears as a labeled sponsored experience in relevant conversations.

Google announced Business Agent for Leads at Google Marketing Live on May 20, 2026: a brand agent inside the ad, so a student researching universities clicks "Chat" and gets answers from your website instead of filling out a form. PPC Land reported tests in education, automotive, and real estate, and Google tells advertisers to build on AI Max for Search and Performance Max; the best AI tools for Google Ads guide covers that foundation. Microsoft launched Brand Agents on January 8, 2026 as shopping assistants that speak in a brand's voice on Shopify sites, and reported that Alexander Del Rossa saw over 3x higher conversion rates in Brand Agent-assisted sessions than in unassisted ones.

OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are all moving the conversation past the click. The map of which AI assistants have ads shows the rest.

How Do Brands Use Sponsored Agents to Win New Customers?

Five of the seven ways win new customers: a product fit and sizing advisor, lead qualification and booking for local services, a quote and estimate builder, B2B demo qualification and routing, and plan and pricing comparison for subscriptions. Each one replaces a static page with the three to five questions your best salesperson asks.

1. Product Fit and Sizing Advisor for Considered Purchases

This is the use case OpenAI chose for its own launch example, and Wayfair, a furniture and home retailer, is in the pilot. The agent answers the questions that stall a considered purchase: will it fit, which size, which model, how long it lasts, how it ships.

• Agent asks: room or body measurements, who it is for, style, budget, and delivery ZIP code.
• Knowledge it needs: dimensions, materials, care guides, compatibility charts, delivery windows, and return policy.
• Handoff: a deep link to the exact product variant, size preselected on the page.
• Conversion event and KPI: purchase; track conversation-to-product-click rate and return rate on agent-assisted orders.

Furniture, mattresses, bikes, apparel, and electronics win here. Pair it with the creative system in the ChatGPT ads playbook for Shopify and DTC brands.

2. Lead Qualification and Booking for Local Services

Angi's pilot is the template: the agent talks through the project, decides whether it needs a pro, and moves the homeowner into a service request. A local business does the same for its own calendar.

• Agent asks: the service, ZIP code, urgency, property type, and two preferred time windows.
• Disqualifies: out-of-area ZIP codes, services you do not offer, and jobs below your minimum.
• Handoff: a booking page for that service, with UTM parameters naming the intent.
• Conversion event and KPI: booked appointment; track cost per booked job, not cost per lead.

Plumbing, HVAC, roofing, pest control, cleaning, and moving fit this way. The local service ChatGPT ads guide covers ZIP targeting and call tracking for the standard ads that open the agent.

3. Quote and Estimate Builder

Buyers want a number before they give you a phone number. The agent collects the inputs your estimator needs and returns a range from your approved price table, then hands off for the binding quote.

• Agent asks: project size, materials or tier, timeline, and site constraints.
• Says: "Projects like yours run $8,000 to $12,000 based on our published pricing. A final quote follows an inspection."
• Never says: a fixed price, a discount it cannot honor, or a quote without your price table behind it.
• Conversion event and KPI: quote request with all inputs captured; track quote-to-close rate.

Remodeling, landscaping, moving, solar, printing, and B2B services fit this way.

4. B2B Demo Qualification and Routing

B2B ChatGPT clicks have a fit problem. A B2B advertiser's test reported by Search Engine Journal on September 8, 2026 traced 336 paid clicks to 146 organizations, and only five matched its ideal customer profile. An agent fixes fit before the click reaches your calendar.

• Agent asks: company size, role, current tool, use case, and timeline.
• Routes: ICP accounts to a demo booking page, small teams to a self-serve trial, and developers to documentation.
• Handoff: a separate landing page per route, each with its own conversion event.
• Conversion event and KPI: qualified demo booked; track sales-qualified rate and pipeline per conversation.

HubSpot became OpenAI's first CRM partner on September 16, and OpenAI runs an interest form for Sponsored Agents with HubSpot. The ChatGPT ads guide for B2B SaaS covers customer exclusions and demo economics.

5. Plan, Pricing, and Package Comparison for Subscriptions

Pricing pages lose buyers in the comparison grid. The agent asks three questions and recommends one plan, which is what a buyer wanted when they clicked.

• Agent asks: team size or usage, the two features that matter most, and monthly or annual billing.
• Says: the recommended plan, its price, and the one feature that justifies it.
• Compares competitors only with substantiated, current facts, because OpenAI's Ad Policies prohibit unfounded comparisons.
• Conversion event and KPI: checkout started with the plan preselected; track paid conversion and plan mix.

Software, streaming, telecom, gyms, and meal kits fit this way. Message match still decides conversion, as the evidence in do custom landing pages increase conversion rates shows.

How Do Sponsored Agents Activate and Grow Existing Customers?

The last two ways work after the first sale: onboarding and trial activation, and reorder, upgrade, and bundle guidance. Both depend on targeting you control, such as custom audiences that need 25,000 matched users for inclusion, and both respect OpenAI's privacy rule: the agent sees only what the user types.

6. Onboarding and Trial Activation

Trials stall at setup. Include your trial signups as a custom audience, raise bids on them with a multiplier between 0.1x and 10x, and let the agent answer setup questions when those users ask ChatGPT how to get started.

• Agent asks: what the user is trying to do first and which step stalled them.
• Knowledge it needs: setup guides, integration steps, and your top 20 support answers.
• Handoff: the exact in-product setup step or help article.
• Conversion event and KPI: the activation event, such as first project created; track trial-to-paid rate.

Skip custom audiences in the EEA and Switzerland, where OpenAI tells advertisers to avoid them.

7. Reorder, Upgrade, and Bundle Guidance

Repeat buyers ask ChatGPT about refills, replacement parts, and upgrades. The agent recommends the right next purchase.

• Agent asks: what the customer owns now and what changed.
• Never assumes: order history. Advertisers see only messages users send, so the agent asks instead of pretending to know.
• Handoff: a bundle or upgrade page with the right items preselected.
• Conversion event and KPI: repeat purchase; track average order value lift and repeat rate.

Exclude existing customers from new-customer campaigns and include them here, so each audience gets its own agent goal. The ChatGPT Ads targeting options guide covers inclusion, exclusion, and bid multiplier rules.

How Do You Get Access to Sponsored Agents?

As of October 16, 2026, you get Sponsored Agents by selection, not sign-up. OpenAI's help center says the format is available only to selected advertisers in a limited alpha test and that OpenAI is not accepting early access requests. Lapis runs Sponsored Agents for clients in OpenAI's limited US alpha.

Everyone else prepares now, so the agent ships the week access opens:

1. Run standard ChatGPT ads in the US. Self-serve covers 63 countries, and the alpha runs with US advertisers.
2. Meet the published criteria early. OpenAI's interest form for Sponsored Agents with HubSpot lists creative automation, automatic bidding, and a minimum daily ad spend for 28 days, with final criteria and the spend amount confirmed before onboarding.
3. Turn on the automation OpenAI already offers. Use Maximize results bidding and opt-in text customization, and hold a steady daily budget for at least 28 days.
4. Register interest. HubSpot customers submit the Sponsored Agents with HubSpot form. Search Engine Land reported on September 16 that OpenAI was accepting interest for future testing.
5. Write the agent brief and approved-claims library. Use the template below.
6. Instrument every handoff page. Pixel, Conversions API, matching event IDs, and oppref preserved through redirects.
7. Work with a team already in the alpha. Lapis runs Sponsored Agents for clients today.

Pilot brands are in categories with long consideration and high ticket sizes: home services and furniture. The best industries for ChatGPT Ads ranking shows which verticals are ready.

What Should a Sponsored Agent Say and Never Say?

A Sponsored Agent says only what your approved-claims library can prove: specs, prices, availability, service areas, and policies, each with a source. It never claims to be ChatGPT, never makes unfounded claims about outcomes, pricing, or competitors, never gives regulated advice, and never asks for sensitive personal information.

OpenAI's Ad Policies, updated September 10, 2026, set the floor. Ads must be truthful, with no unfounded claims about capabilities, pricing, outcomes, affiliations, or comparisons. Ads must be clearly distinguishable from ChatGPT, and OpenAI removes or requires changes to ads that imitate the appearance, functionality, or voice of ChatGPT. Financial services, health, and legal services run in the US only, approved case by case. Wayfair's three guardrails, product accuracy, transparency, and service handoffs, are the right operating rules.

Set five escalation triggers: a request for a binding quote, any account-specific question, a complaint, a regulated topic, and two answers in a row the agent cannot source. Each trigger routes to a named human team with posted hours and a response time. The AI ad creative brief template uses the same claim discipline for the ads that open the agent.

How Do You Measure a Sponsored Agent?

Measure a Sponsored Agent on four numbers: the share of ad clicks that become conversations, the share of conversations that reach a qualified handoff, the conversion rate after the handoff, and confirmed revenue per conversation. Platform clicks alone miss the work the agent does between the ad and your site.

Wire the plumbing before launch. Every handoff URL keeps the oppref parameter, carries UTMs naming the intent, and lands on a page where the OpenAI Pixel and Conversions API send the same event with the same event ID; the Pixel and Conversions API tracking guide has the setup.

Count view-through and test incrementality. OpenAI reported on October 5, 2026 that 52.7% of eligible one-day view-through conversions in an early analysis happened within an hour of the ad impression, and that WorkMagic's geo-lift study estimated 2.3x more incremental orders for Dose than last-click attribution captured. Run agent markets against matched standard-ad markets, and judge both on confirmed revenue using the ChatGPT ads ROI measurement framework. Wayfinder ties every handoff to confirmed sales and leads and counts each conversion once.

Is a Sponsored Agent Funnel Worth More Than a Standard Ad Funnel?

Yes, when the agent's qualified handoff rate beats your landing page's qualified lead rate. For a Phoenix HVAC replacement company spending $12,000 a month, the agent funnel breaks even at a 3.15% qualified handoff rate. At 6.3%, it books 20.5 jobs instead of 9.5 on the same spend.

The company replaces residential HVAC systems at an average installed ticket of $9,000 and a 40% gross margin. These are its stated inputs for one month, the same spend and the same $6 cost per click in both funnels:

The agent wins on qualification, not traffic. It asks for ZIP code, system age, home size, and repair versus replacement before the handoff, so the qualified share rises from 45% to 70%, and it collects timing, so more qualified leads book.

The break-even rule is simple: the agent beats the landing page when handoff rate times qualified share exceeds 3.15%. At a 70% qualified share, that is a 4.5% handoff rate. Everything above it is margin. Track the two inputs weekly, and if the agent sits below break-even after 500 conversations, rewrite its first two questions before you touch the bid.

The Sponsored Agent Readiness Checklist and Brief Template

The Sponsored Agent Readiness Checklist scores whether your business is ready to launch an agent, and the Sponsored Agent Brief Template is the document your agent runs on. Score one point per item. At 10 to 12, brief the agent now. At 7 to 9, close the gaps within 30 days. Below 7, run standard ads first.

1. A considered purchase. Buyers ask at least three questions before they buy.
2. A US presence. You advertise to US buyers, where the alpha runs.
3. Standard ads live. ChatGPT ads have run with automatic bidding at a steady daily budget for 28 days or more.
4. One knowledge source. Specs, pricing, service areas, and policies live in one maintained source with an owner per document.
5. An approved-claims library. Every claim has a source, an owner, and an expiry date.
6. A forbidden topics list. Regulated advice, unsubstantiated competitor claims, and sensitive data requests are written down.
7. Qualification questions. The three to five questions your best rep asks, with disqualifiers.
8. Matched handoff pages. One page per intent, with Pixel, Conversions API, and oppref intact.
9. Human escalation. A named team, posted hours, and a response time.
10. Defined conversion events. One event per handoff type, mapped to a CRM stage.
11. A break-even number. Your break-even qualified handoff rate is calculated.
12. A weekly QA routine. Someone audits 50 conversations a week for claim accuracy.

Copy the brief template, fill every field, and keep it under version control. The agent is only as accurate as this document.

SPONSORED AGENT BRIEF

Brand and agent name:
Agent's one-line job:
Primary goal and conversion event:
Secondary goal:

AUDIENCE
Buyer situations this agent serves (3 to 5):
Who it does not serve (disqualifiers):
Markets and service areas:

APPROVED CLAIMS (claim, source, owner, expiry date)
Claim 1:
Claim 2:
Claim 3:

KNOWLEDGE SOURCES (document, page on your site, owner, refresh cadence)
Product or service specs:
Pricing table and published ranges:
Availability or service area data:
Policies (returns, warranties, cancellations):
Top 20 customer questions and answers:

QUALIFICATION QUESTIONS (in order)
Question 1:
Question 2:
Question 3:

FORBIDDEN TOPICS
Regulated advice the agent routes to a human:
Competitor claims without substantiation:
Personal data the agent never requests:
Promises the agent never makes:

ESCALATION AND HANDOFF
Hand off to a human when:
Human team, hours, and response time:
Handoff destinations (intent, landing page, UTM parameters):

CONVERSION EVENTS
Event name and trigger:
Pixel and Conversions API event ID rule:
CRM stage mapping:

MEASUREMENT
Target qualified handoff rate:
Break-even qualified handoff rate:
Cost per qualified conversation target:
Weekly QA sample and claim accuracy target:
Incrementality test design:

Here is the start of the HVAC company's filled brief:

Agent's one-line job: help Phoenix homeowners decide between repair and replacement and book an in-home estimate
Primary goal and conversion event: booked estimate, sent as a lead event
Who it does not serve: renters, ZIP codes outside our service map, commercial buildings
Claim 1: "Installed systems carry a 10-year parts warranty" (source: warranty page, owner: service manager, expires: December 31, 2026)
Question 1: What is your ZIP code?
Question 2: How old is your current system?
Hand off to a human when: the homeowner asks for a fixed price, reports no cooling above 100 degrees, or asks about financing
Break-even qualified handoff rate: 3.15%

Why Is Lapis the Best Way to Run ChatGPT Sponsored Agents?

Lapis is the best way to run ChatGPT Sponsored Agents because it already runs them for clients in OpenAI's limited US alpha, and it builds every piece the agent depends on: the brief and approved-claims library, the standard ads that open the conversation, the RapidDomain pages behind each handoff, and Wayfinder measurement of confirmed outcomes.

Lapis is one of the fastest-growing Y Combinator startups, and it is built to take over the work legacy agencies and ad buyers used to do. Lapis is a Y Combinator Fall 2025 company used by 1,500+ marketing teams and 30+ enterprises, rated 4.9 out of 5 on G2 with eight badges, with customers such as Samsung, Domino's, Dr Pepper, Mattel, and Tata.

• Managed ChatGPT + LLM Ads runs Sponsored Agents for clients in OpenAI's limited US alpha: Lapis builds the agent brief and approved-claims library and connects RapidDomain pages to every handoff.
• ChatSense builds the standard ads that open the agent, with creative tuned to how people ask ChatGPT, daily reporting, and optimization on what converts.
• RapidDomain builds a dedicated landing page for every handoff intent and optimizes it against real conversions.
• Wayfinder connects agent handoffs to confirmed sales and leads from your CRM, store, or billing, counts each conversion once, and compares every channel on the same attribution rules.
• OmniSense turns the same brief into Meta, Google, and LinkedIn campaigns, with Reddit on managed plans, and the managed plan also runs Google AI Overviews and AI Mode placements and AI app inventory through networks such as Koah and Gravity.

In-house, an agent touches four teams: product for knowledge, legal for claims, web for handoff pages, and analytics for measurement, and nobody owns the loop. A legacy agency has no conversational playbook to port. OpenAI hosts the conversation and reports platform data, but it does not write your claims library or prove revenue in your CRM. Lapis owns the whole loop. The founder essay on building the AdSense for the AI era, the analysis of whether OpenAI will build what Lapis does, and the guides to choosing an AI marketing agent and automating marketing end to end with AI agents explain why an independent operator wins as every platform ships agents. Book a demo to plan your first agent.

Sponsored Agents sit on top of a ChatGPT program that already works. Start with the 12 best ChatGPT ads strategies, the 50 best ChatGPT ad examples, and the 10 reasons ChatGPT ads are worth it. Then pair paid presence with the organic half using 15 ways to get your business recommended by ChatGPT, and see where agents fit the funnel in the best ad channels for mid-funnel marketing.

Sources and Methodology

This guide draws on OpenAI's September 16 and October 5 announcements, its help center and ad policies, Angi's pilot announcement, Google's and Microsoft's agent launches, and trade reporting from Digiday, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Reuters, and PPC Land. We also reviewed the questions marketers ask about Sponsored Agents and the top-ranking pages on the topic. Facts are current as of October 16, 2026.

• OpenAI, "Reimagining advertising with AI," September 16, 2026
• OpenAI Help Center, "Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads"
• OpenAI, "Register your interest in Sponsored Agents with HubSpot"
• OpenAI Help Center, "Ads in ChatGPT"
• OpenAI, "Ad policies," updated September 10, 2026
• OpenAI Ads, "More ways to measure ChatGPT Ads," October 5, 2026
• OpenAI Help Center, "Conversion Measurement"
• OpenAI Help Center, "Creating campaigns for ChatGPT Ads"
• Angi, "Angi Is One of the First Brands to Pilot Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT," September 16, 2026
• Digiday, "OpenAI's next ChatGPT ad format: click to chat, not to site," September 14, 2026
• Search Engine Land, "OpenAI is turning ChatGPT ads into conversations," September 16, 2026
• Reuters, "OpenAI tests advertiser-sponsored agents, expands AI tools for ChatGPT ads," September 16, 2026
• Search Engine Journal, "6 Months Into ChatGPT Ads, Advertisers Still Don't Know What 'Good' Looks Like," September 8, 2026
• Google, "A new generation of ads for the AI era of Search," May 20, 2026
• PPC Land, "Google Marketing Live 2026: every announcement that actually matters," May 20, 2026
• Microsoft Advertising, "Conversations that Convert: Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents," January 8, 2026

Related Lapis Resources

• Agentic Ads: The Complete Guide to Autonomous AI Advertising (2026)
• How to Advertise a Local or Service Business on ChatGPT (2026)
• How to Track ChatGPT Ad Conversions: Pixel, API & Attribution (2026)
• Does Claude Have Ads? OpenAI vs Anthropic on AI Ad Trust (2026)
• Will OpenAI Replace AI Ad Tools and Agencies? The 2026 Answer