--- title: OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in... description: OpenAI is rolling out Sponsored Agents, a new ChatGPT ad format that drops users into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent before... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in ChatGPT, with Shopify and HubSpot as first partners | daily.dev og:description: OpenAI is rolling out Sponsored Agents, a new ChatGPT ad format that drops users into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent before... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/yqXG4sViG.png og:image:alt: OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in ChatGPT, with Shopify and HubSpot as first partners og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in ChatGPT, with Shopify and HubSpot as first partners **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenAI is rolling out Sponsored Agents, a new ChatGPT ad format that drops users into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent before linking to the business's site. Alongside it, an Ads Manager plugin lets advertisers build and manage campaigns via prompts, generating copy, images, and translations automatically. Shopify (ecommerce) and HubSpot (CRM) are the first launch partners, with businesses able to run ads starting September 16 and expansion to more markets on September 23. This follows OpenAI hitting a $1 billion annualized ad revenue run rate by August 31 and launching an Amazon advertiser pilot on September 11. ## Content OpenAI is rolling out advertising inside ChatGPT on multiple fronts, and the technical details of how it tracks users across the web are worth paying attention to. ## Sponsored Agents and the Ads Manager The headline feature is Sponsored Agents: users can click an ad inside ChatGPT and start a labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent, separate from ChatGPT's own responses, before being linked to the advertiser's site. OpenAI says these will be "clearly labeled" conversations. Alongside this, OpenAI is launching an Ads Manager plugin that lets advertisers build and manage campaigns through prompts, with AI-suggested copy, images, and automatic translation. Shopify and HubSpot are the first ecommerce and CRM partners. Businesses can run ChatGPT ads directly from those platforms starting September 16, expanding to more markets September 23. OpenAI reportedly hit a $1 billion annualized ad revenue run rate by August 31, with an Amazon advertiser pilot following on September 11. ## The tracking cookie most users probably don't know about The more technically interesting part is how OpenAI measures ad conversions. OpenAI's ad measurement system sets a cookie called `__obi`, scoped to `.openai.com` with `SameSite=None`. That cookie gets sent back to OpenAI whenever a user visits any site running OpenAI's advertiser pixel. An independent investigation traced the identifier from a signed JWT issued by ChatGPT's backend through a cross-site sync request, and observed it firing on sites including Chewy, Wayfair, ThriftBooks, Eventbrite, HelloFresh, Coursera, and SeatGeek. The mechanism works even for logged-out users via a persistent anonymous identifier. The pixel also pulls emails, phone numbers, and other identity fields from advertiser pages via tag-manager data layers. In observed traffic, scraped identity fields outnumbered advertiser-supplied ones. One important caveat: this only affects Chrome. Safari and iOS browsers block third-party cookies by default, so the cross-site tracking doesn't work there. OpenAI's cookie policy classifies `__obi` as an analytics cookie. When asked directly why a cross-site marketing identifier tied to ChatGPT accounts is categorized as analytics rather than advertising, OpenAI didn't answer. That classification matters because it affects what consent frameworks apply and what users are told when they accept cookies. Calling a cross-site ad-tracking identifier "analytics" is the kind of thing that tends to attract regulatory attention in Europe, where cookie consent rules are stricter. ## Questions this post answers ### What is OpenAI's new Sponsored Agents ad format in ChatGPT? Sponsored Agents is a ChatGPT ad format where clicking an ad drops the user into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent, separate from ChatGPT's own responses, before linking to the business's site. It launches alongside an Ads Manager plugin that lets advertisers build campaigns via prompts, generating copy, images, and translations automatically. _Marketers weighing new ad channels can follow ChatGPT advertising rollouts as they unfold on daily.dev._ ### When can businesses start running ads in ChatGPT through Shopify or HubSpot? Businesses on Shopify and HubSpot can run ChatGPT ads directly starting September 16, with expansion to additional markets on September 23. Shopify is the ecommerce partner and HubSpot the CRM partner, marking the first integrations for OpenAI's new advertising tools. _Teams evaluating ecommerce and CRM ad integrations can track platform rollout timelines on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 728 comments across lobsters, hackernews (as of 2026-09-21). **TL;DR:** The discussion treats this as a predictably grim escalation of standard adtech surveillance onto an AI product, with heavy disgust at the normalization of tracking and a long, largely off-topic tangent about AI intelligence and propaganda. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 15% mixed · 80% skeptical **The case for** - A few argue this is just standard ad-measurement partnership between companies that benefits ad relevance and isn't really 'spying'. - One commenter frames third-party cookie tracking as a decades-old accidental byproduct of early web specs rather than deliberate malice. **The pushback** - Many feel visceral discomfort ('icky') at adtech-style tracking being embedded in an AI chat product with no precedent. - Commenters argue this reflects a broader tragedy of private surveillance capitalism enabled by weak regulation and complicit engineers. - Some say classifying the tracking cookie as 'analytics' while it functions as a marketing identifier is a normalization tactic akin to euphemism. - Several blame individual engineers and workers for building tracking systems rather than excusing it as inevitable ('if I don't build it, someone else will'). **By community** - hackernews (heated): Initial reactions are strongly critical of OpenAI's ad-tracking mechanism, but the thread quickly spirals into an extended, contentious tangent debating AI intelligence, propaganda, and EU tech regulation. **Hottest debate:** Whether AI systems demonstrate genuine intelligence or are merely convincing pattern-matchers, a debate that consumed most of the thread and overshadowed the tracking story itself. **Open questions** - Whether OpenAI's classification of the __obi cookie as 'analytics' rather than advertising/tracking will face regulatory scrutiny. - Whether EU-style regulation can meaningfully curb this kind of cross-site tracking without stifling innovation, as debated by commenters. **Highlights** > To me, this quote just about sums it up: > The mechanism is standard adtech. What has no precedent is running it on an AI chat product. As someone who has been well aware of this mechanism for quite some time, I still feel icky anytime I re-read the details of it. What a time to be alive. > — [mavsman on hackernews · 6 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777671) > Whenever I say something like “that’s a cool feature, but to do it you would have to build spyware”, everyone else is just like “the cat is out of the bag ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”. (I don’t build spyware, or work on projects that do). It blows my mind that people don’t care about the world they are building with this stuff. It’s a real tragedy of the commons. People see these collaborators from different wars and regimes and think “I’d stand up against the bad guy”… well I’ve got news for you if you build spyware, you are not the person you think you are. > — [clickety\_clack on hackernews · 6 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777865) > Your issue is you are defining spyware too broadly. This is not spying on users, but rather 2 companies partnering and sharing data to result in either a better ads system or better understanding on how ads are performing. This is a positive value to society and the commons. Wasting space in a site or app with an ad that won't convert is the true tragedy of the commons. It's a waste of time and money for all parties involved. > — [charcircuit on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49778547) > "standard adtech" I hate stuff like this. Sometimes euphemisms are kind, like "senior citizen" instead of "old person". But this is an attempt to normalize bad behavior that is really quite terrible for society. > — [m463 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49782981) > Yeah, this is just standard third-party cookie functionality, which has always been sketchy. It honestly seems like it was only possible by accident; browsers have long prevented sites from reading cookies from other domains, but it seems like the people working on early specs might not have considered the ramifications of being able to set cookies for domains other than your own. A couple decades ago it might have seemed like no one would have any reason to set a cookie they couldn't read. > — [saghm on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49782279) **Source threads** - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/jbnmj9/chatgpt_now_knows_what_you_do_on_other) · 55 points · 5 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49776729) · 631 points · 723 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I didn't realize ChatGPT was serving ads until I dug into how it actually works](https://daily.dev/posts/i-didn-t-realize-chatgpt-was-serving-ads-until-i-dug-into-how-it-actually-works-iywrshaes) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [How ChatGPT serves ads. Here's the full attribution loop.](https://daily.dev/posts/how-chatgpt-serves-ads-here-s-the-full-attribution-loop--n31nsws5c) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenAI COO says ads will be 'an iterative process'](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-coo-says-ads-will-be-an-iterative-process--sz84uwkxr) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#shopify](https://daily.dev/tags/shopify), [#advertising](https://daily.dev/tags/advertising), [#hubspot](https://daily.dev/tags/hubspot) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in ChatGPT, with Shopify and HubSpot as first partners","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig"},"datePublished":"2026-09-16T23:41:10.579Z","dateModified":"2026-09-21T14:33:36.091Z","description":"OpenAI is rolling out Sponsored Agents, a new ChatGPT ad format that drops users into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent before...","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"openai,chatgpt,shopify,advertising,hubspot","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OpenAI launches Sponsored Agents and an Ads Manager in ChatGPT, with Shopify and HubSpot as first partners"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-launches-sponsored-agents-and-an-ads-manager-in-chatgpt-with-shopify-and-hubspot-as-first-pa-yqxg4svig#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is OpenAI's new Sponsored Agents ad format in ChatGPT?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Sponsored Agents is a ChatGPT ad format where clicking an ad drops the user into a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored AI agent, separate from ChatGPT's own responses, before linking to the business's site. It launches alongside an Ads Manager plugin that lets advertisers build campaigns via prompts, generating copy, images, and translations automatically. Marketers weighing new ad channels can follow ChatGPT advertising rollouts as they unfold on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"When can businesses start running ads in ChatGPT through Shopify or HubSpot?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Businesses on Shopify and HubSpot can run ChatGPT ads directly starting September 16, with expansion to additional markets on September 23. Shopify is the ecommerce partner and HubSpot the CRM partner, marking the first integrations for OpenAI's new advertising tools. Teams evaluating ecommerce and CRM ad integrations can track platform rollout timelines on daily.dev."}}]} ```