New ChatGPT advertisers: 2,963 joined, 587 went dark
2,963 new ChatGPT advertisers joined in the last 30 days, while 587 incumbents went dark across our 5,486-brand tracker.
As of August 2026, 2,963 new advertisers started advertising on ChatGPT in a 30-day window, while 587 incumbents went dark per our first-seen and last-seen tracking across 5,486 active brands. Lemonade, Darktrace, and Wiz lead the new-entrant list, while Mastercard and Cloudflare headline the brands that stopped showing up.
Of 5,486 active ChatGPT advertisers tracked in August 2026, 2,963 joined in the last 30 days while 587 went dark, a net gain of more than 2,300 brands and the clearest signal yet that ChatGPT ad inventory is being filled, not drained.
The new entrants: 2,963 brands in 30 days
In a single 30-day window, 2,963 brands appeared in ChatGPT for the first time across our tracked prompts and placements. That is more than half of the entire active advertiser base replacing itself through new arrivals. 2,963 represents 54% of the 5,486 active advertisers we track, a wholesale refresh of the long tail in a single window. The biggest new-entrant volumes in our sample, captured in our advertiser intelligence feed, were spread across insurance, cybersecurity, and B2B SaaS, with consumer brands like Lemonade and Harbor Freight appearing alongside developer-focused names such as Wiz and Darktrace.
The shape of the new-entrant list tells a sector story. Cybersecurity names (Darktrace, Wiz, and Expel) cluster near the top alongside consumer brands (Lemonade, Capital One, Harbor Freight, and TCL) and HR platforms (Sage, People Element), suggesting both B2B and mainstream consumer buyers are now testing the surface. The presence of Capital One and Harbor Freight in the top 12 is the clearest sign that consumer brands are now testing ChatGPT ads in volume, not just B2B software. The top 12 new entrants combined hold 727 placements, less than a quarter of Mastercard alone. The cohort is broad, but individually small.
Who went dark: 587 advertisers stopped showing up
On the other side of the ledger, 587 advertisers that previously held placements have gone quiet in the last 30 days. The list of highest-historical-volume drop-offs is striking: Mastercard (3,490 lifetime appearances), Cloudflare (2,633), and SAP (1,262) headline the names that have stopped appearing in our recent captures. Smaller but still meaningful exits include ClickUp, Mixpanel, Inc, and Sitetracker Inc, each of which had built up meaningful placement history before pausing. The pattern matters because it shows that even well-funded advertisers are still experimenting with whether ChatGPT is worth the spend.
The 587 exits are more interesting than the headline number suggests. Several of the highest-historical-volume brands that show as gone-dark in our 30-day window also remain in the top 15 by lifetime volume, including Mastercard and Cloudflare. That is consistent with campaign pauses, though we cannot tell from the placement data alone whether the absence is temporary or permanent. We frame them as gone-quiet rather than gone-forever, which is the most the data supports. The real churn signal sits in the long tail: hundreds of smaller advertisers that placed briefly and stopped, which is normal for a new ad surface.
The incumbents: who is still dominating
The top 15 advertisers by volume all sit above 1,000 lifetime placements. Combined, they account for roughly 25% of all placements, and a long tail of thousands of smaller advertisers fills the remaining 75%. Within the leaderboard, B2B software dominates: HR (HiBob, Planhat), CRM (Salesforce), security (Crowdstrike, Aikido Security), and dev tools (Cloudflare, ZoomInfo) all appear. The lone consumer names are BestMoney and Angi. That mix tells you ChatGPT ads still reward prompt relevance over brand recognition, which favors B2B categories where users ask specific product questions.
What this churn means for buyers
For brands considering ChatGPT ads, the data has two practical implications. First, the auction is still wide open at the long tail, and there is less direct competition from the top 15 on niche prompts than on broad commercial queries. Second, churn is real, and brands that pause after a few weeks are common. A 30-day test campaign is not enough to validate the channel. The brands that stick around past 60 days tend to be the ones with clear category fits, like HR (HiBob, Planhat), CRM (Salesforce), and security (Crowdstrike, Aikido Security), where users ask ChatGPT specific product-comparison questions rather than generic brand queries. Those are the prompts where buying an ad slot still feels native rather than intrusive. Browse the full advertiser library for the rest.
A new advertiser entering ChatGPT today is bidding into an auction where the top 15 brands still control about 25% of placements, and where 587 of last month's buyers have stopped running entirely. The math is simple: more than 2,300 net new brands per month is healthy channel growth, but the long tail churn means any single campaign is more likely to be one of the 587 exits than one of the durable incumbents. Plan for at least a 60-day test before judging performance.
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We probe ChatGPT with realistic consumer prompts and capture the sponsored ad cards it returns — every creative, the triggering prompt, and the advertiser. Figures reflect our captured sample, not OpenAI's internal data. Explore the live ad library and market intelligence.