ChatGPT Ads Begin Rolling Out in Taiwan: Which Plans Will See Them, How to Control Them, and How Businesses Can Buy

OpenAI announced on September 23, 2026 that ChatGPT Ads began rolling out in Taiwan that day, alongside Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. For readers in Taiwan: people on the Free or Go plans may start seeing ads gradually over time, not all at once on the same day; businesses and agencies in Taiwan can now place ads on ChatGPT through OpenAI's Ads Solutions team, agency partners, technology partners, or self-service Ads Manager if eligible.

The list of ad-free plans and the country table for self-service availability are both on the OpenAI Help Center, and those pages get updated; what follows reflects their content as of September 26, 2026. This site has not tested ChatGPT Ads itself, and this is not advice on placing ads or on subscriptions.

What Happened: Taiwan Is One of Seven New Markets in This Asia Expansion

This is ChatGPT Ads expanding into seven more markets across Asia, with Taiwan among them; OpenAI says it is now available in more than 60 countries. The announcement states, “Starting today, ChatGPT Ads will begin rolling out across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan.” That is a gradual rollout, not a same-day full launch.

OpenAI says this expansion follows earlier Asia-Pacific launches in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and India. Advertisers can buy through three channels: the Ads Solutions team, agency partners (the announcement gives dentsu, Havas Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Groupe, and WPP as examples only), and technology partners; eligible businesses can also buy self-service through Ads Manager.

Shopee's Executive Director, Brand and Growth Marketing, said in the announcement that following the launch of ChatGPT Ads in Brazil, the company is extending its collaboration with OpenAI to Southeast Asia and Taiwan; the announcement does not explain what ads this collaboration will actually run, when it will start, or its terms.

Impact on Users in Taiwan: Who Will See Ads and Who Won't

The announcement states that, as in existing markets, ads will only be shown to users on the Free and Go plans, while Plus, Pro, and Enterprise subscriptions remain ad-free. The Help Center's “Ads in ChatGPT” page lists a fuller set: users on the Free and Go plans “may” see ads, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads — adding Business and Edu beyond the announcement. Go is a paid plan but is still on the list of plans that may show ads; neither page gives a timeline for a full rollout to users in Taiwan.

The Help Center states that ad testing started in the United States on February 9, 2026, and OpenAI is gradually rolling out ads to eligible Free and Go users in select regions; users eligible for the test will see clear in-product information within ChatGPT. Accounts identified as belonging to users under 18 will not see ads, based on account-level age information and age prediction where available.

The Help Center also describes limits on ad placement: ads may appear below the end of a response, clearly labeled as sponsored, and visually separated from the response; Temporary Chats will not show ads, and ads will not appear near sensitive or regulated topics such as personal health, mental health, or politics; during this test, ads also do not appear in the ChatGPT Atlas browser.

How Users Can Control Ads: Turning Off Personalization Doesn't Mean No Ads

The Help Center states that ad controls are in Settings (the English version writes Settings > Ad Controls, and elsewhere on the same page, Settings → Ads controls, noting the wording may vary by platform); from there, users can turn off ad personalization, dismiss an ad and share feedback, see why a particular ad was shown, and clear the data used to serve ads.

But turning off personalization does not mean no ads: the Help Center explicitly states that ads will still be shown based on the context of the conversation after that, only without using other conversations, ad history, or topics to choose them. To have truly no ads, the Free plan can switch to the Ads-Free experience, at the cost of lower usage limits and fewer available features — for example, fewer messages, and no access to image generation or deep research. The Help Center states, “Ads-Free is a Free-plan option,” so to use it, Go would first need to switch back to Free, or upgrade to a plan that is inherently ad-free, such as Plus or Pro.

The Help Center also notes that ads and Ads-Free controls “may” only appear in regions where ads are being tested, so users who are not eligible may not see these options; ad controls are available only to Free and Go users in regions where ads are available or will soon be available. After ad data is deleted, it is retained for up to 30 days before being removed from OpenAI's servers.

Impact on Businesses in Taiwan: Self-Service Depends on Where the Legal Entity Is Based

The announcement states that advertisers can buy through three channels: the Ads Solutions team, agency partners, and technology partners; self-service buying is through Ads Manager, available to eligible businesses. The Help Center's “Ads Manager Availability” page states that to use self-service Ads Manager, the legal entity that will advertise and be billed must be based in a country listed as available in the country table; the country table lists Taiwan as available for self-service (Available).

The Help Center also notes that creating an account and gaining self-service eligibility are two different things: whether self-service is usable depends on the company's country; a Coming Soon label or a country not listed on the table means self-service is not yet available, though a business can still register at ads.openai.com and will be notified when it opens. Creating an account before your country is supported will not grant access ahead of time.

Neither the announcement nor the Help Center gives pricing, currency, minimum budgets, or billing methods for advertisers in Taiwan, and neither names any Taiwan-based agency or technology partners; the agency list is an example introduced by “including,” not a complete list.

Numbers and Limits: What OpenAI Self-Reports, and What It Doesn't Say

The figures OpenAI cites in the announcement are all self-reported numbers from the company itself: it says tens of thousands of advertisers are now running ads on ChatGPT, many reaching users across multiple countries at once; the $1 billion annualized revenue run rate (a figure that converts the revenue pace at a given moment into what it would total over a year, not money actually collected over a year) is a number OpenAI announced at the end of August 2026, reached in under 200 days after launch — the September 23 announcement merely recaps it, not a new figure. OpenAI also says that over the next few months it will continue to expand into new markets and roll out new ad formats, optimization tools, and measurement solutions, but gives no specific timeline.

The announcement also makes several statements: that conversations will not be given to advertisers and user data will not be sold; that ads are always clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT's answers; and that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives. These are all OpenAI's own claims, and this site has no way to verify them; neither the announcement nor the Help Center says anything about the status of personalized ads in Taiwan, and neither mentions any Taiwan regulator, law, or personal-data statute.

To check the latest rules, or for businesses to check whether self-service is available, readers can go directly to the Help Center's “Ads in ChatGPT” and “Ads Manager Availability” pages. Ads Manager itself is the self-service buying tool that launched in May 2026; for the tool's details and billing, see the May roundup linked below.

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