Short answer
Sponsored Agents are an ad format in which a person can start a conversation with an AI representative of a business inside ChatGPT, beginning from an ad. In October 2026 they are a limited alpha for selected advertisers only, and OpenAI is not accepting early access requests.
What is known
- Announced as a US test on 16 September 2026
- The conversation is labelled and the advertiser sees only messages sent to it
- OpenAI hasn't published pricing, setup or measurement details
- The Ads Manager plugin can't create business-agent ads
What B2B teams can do now
- Write down the 20 questions buyers ask before a demo
- Make sure your website answers them in plain text, which helps both organic answers and any future agent
- Run standard ads to the pages that answer those questions
Questions
Can we apply?
Not currently. OpenAI says more details will be announced later.
Facts checked against the sources below on 12 October 2026. Platforms change quickly: if something here no longer matches what you see, tell us and we will update it.
