Study values a paid ChatGPT ad visit at $0.89 versus $2.45 for Google

A working paper concluded that a visit from a paid ad on ChatGPT generated $0.89 in revenue in US traffic, compared with $2.45 for a visit from a paid Google search ad. The paper was written by Maximilian Kaiser of WU Vienna and Christian Schulze of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and is dated October 2026.

The study analysed 1,898 online shops and nearly 10 billion visitor sessions over 60 weeks, from 29 June 2025 to 22 August 2026. It found that paid ChatGPT visitors converted at 0.37% against 1.17% for paid Google search visitors, and that ads bring in about $1 per free user a year against roughly $5 in inference cost.

The authors estimate a ChatGPT click is worth about $0.26 when measured at paid search's rate of return, while the largest publicly known account paid $1.72 a click, more than six times the parity price. The paper says ChatGPT ads do not cover the cost of a free user, and that the obvious fix, placing ads inside answers, could weaken user trust.

The paper acknowledges limits: it is a first version under review, its data window closed before ads reached the European Union and before most later product changes, and its paid evidence covers the first 28 weeks of advertising and relies heavily on the US market.

What do these terms mean?

Working paper: An academic study published before peer review, whose findings may change after review.

Conversion rate: The share of visitors who complete the desired action, such as a purchase, out of all visitors.

Inference cost: The cost of running an AI model to answer user requests after it has been trained.

Parity price: The price at which a click returns the same as a click from another advertising channel.