Home Depot Joins ChatGPT Ad Push as OpenAI Triples Advertiser Count

OpenAI is running a lot more advertising on ChatGPT, and some of the biggest U.S. retailers are buying in. New data from Sensor Tower shows Home Depot, L.L.Bean, and Booking Holdings are among the top advertisers on the chatbot this July, a shift from April when the list was dominated by smaller tech companies like Speechify and Jotform.

ChatGPT users on mobile saw roughly twice as many ads per hour in July as in April, Sensor Tower estimated. The number of advertisers on the platform nearly tripled over the same period, from about 300 to more than 820, with at least 160 joining this month alone.

Home Depot is the only retailer among the five that appear in Sensor Tower's top 10 for July. The others are travel companies Expedia and GetYourGuide Deutschland, financial services firm BestMoney.com, and recruitment platform Talent Inc. The sports retailer Scheels was the only company in the top 10 in both April and July, though its share of ad impressions has declined.

Sensor Tower's estimates are based on a user panel and third-party data, Abe Yousef, senior insights analyst at the firm, told Business Insider. OpenAI declined to comment.

Retail still leads, but financial services are catching up.

Shopping remains ChatGPT's biggest sector by ad spend, Sensor Tower said. But its share has shrunk as financial services, travel, and education have taken more of the pie. Financial services companies saw the largest increase in share of ad spending, rising from 2% in April to 12% in July. BestMoney.com, a financial services firm, was one of the month's top advertisers on ChatGPT.

For Home Depot, the move onto ChatGPT signals a bet on the platform's growing reach. OpenAI's app hit an estimated 1 billion monthly users in May. The company generates most of its revenue from subscriptions, but advertising is becoming a meaningful second stream. OpenAI reported $100 million in annual recurring ad revenue in May, according to a person familiar with the matter. That is still a fraction of the billions Google and Meta report each quarter, but the growth rate is rapid.

OpenAI's ad chief said the company started conservatively.

Dave Dugan, OpenAI's vice president of advertising, told Business Insider in June that the company placed ads "very conservatively" in the first weeks to protect the user experience. "We've learned so much about user satisfaction, and as we've now, four months in, we've gotten more confidence about how we can deliver volume," he said.

OpenAI places ads beneath the AI's answer to a user's prompt. It does not show ads next to queries about personal health or politics. The self-serve ad product, launched in May, is still rudimentary compared with Google's or Meta's offerings, advertisers told Business Insider.

Sensor Tower said the diversification of the advertiser base "bodes well for ramping monetization and expanding ad formats." The firm noted that ChatGPT's ad platform is still in its infancy, but the trajectory is clear: more brands, more spending, and more formats.

Home Depot's Alpha Score suggests mixed sentiment.

Home Depot's Alpha Score stands at 45 out of 100, with a "Mixed" label. The stock is in the Consumer Discretionary sector. The company's advertising strategy on emerging platforms like ChatGPT reflects a broader push to reach younger, digitally native consumers. Whether that spend translates into measurable sales growth is an open question. The Alpha Score of 45 implies the stock's current setup offers neither a compelling risk-reward nor a clear catalyst for a breakout.

For now, the ad push at OpenAI is a small but growing line item for Home Depot's marketing budget. The retailer did not respond to a request for comment on its ChatGPT ad spend.

OpenAI's ad revenue remains a rounding error next to the $81.6 billion Google reported in its most recent quarter. But the speed of the ramp – from zero to $100 million ARR in a few months – has caught the attention of ad buyers and investors alike. If the trend holds, ChatGPT could become a meaningful channel for consumer brands looking to reach an audience that is increasingly comfortable getting answers from a machine rather than a search engine.