What you can actually buy on AI search surfaces
Paid placement inside AI answers is real on some surfaces, in limited testing on others, and unverifiable on the rest. This page keeps those apart. Every row states what its primary source actually establishes, carries that source, and carries the date we last checked it. Where a status cannot be established, the row says unverified rather than guessing, because the alternative is the confident guesswork this page exists to replace.
The record
- Google: Ads in AI Overviews
Live. Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. No separate bidding or reporting for the placement.
Google documents ads as eligible to show above, below or within AI Overviews, placed by existing signals and systems. Advertisers cannot target the placement directly and cannot opt out of it. Impressions are reported as Top Ads, so there is no separate reporting line for the placement.
Source: Google Ads Help - About ads and AI Overviews. Checked 2026-08-27.
- Microsoft: Ads in Copilot conversations
Live. Microsoft Advertising. All eligible campaign and ad types are opted in automatically, and advertisers cannot opt out.
Microsoft's own documentation states that eligible Search, Shopping and Performance Max ads serve inside Copilot with no opt-out and no Copilot-specific metrics. The January 2026 Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents announcement centers on commerce.
Source: Microsoft Advertising documentation. Checked 2026-09-04.
- OpenAI: Sponsored units in ChatGPT
Live. Self-serve Ads Manager across the US, the UK, 31 European countries, India, the Middle East and North Africa, plus OpenAI's Ads Solutions team and agency or technology partners. Self-serve accounts pass a verification step.
OpenAI opened a beta self-serve Ads Manager on 2026-05-05 with CPC bidding alongside CPM, and documents conversion-optimized (oCPC) campaigns, a Measurement Pixel and a Conversions API. Expansion to 31 European markets was announced on 2026-08-18, and self-serve access opened across those markets, India, the Middle East and North Africa on 2026-08-31. Sponsored units are shown to Free and Go tiers only.
Source: OpenAI announcement. Checked 2026-09-04.
- Google: AI Mode formats (Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers)
Testing. Not generally available. US test, mobile and desktop.
Announced at Google Marketing Live on 2026-05-20 and still described as testing. General availability, pricing and dedicated AI Mode bidding controls are not established.
Source: Google announcement. Checked 2026-08-25.
- Perplexity: Sponsored answers
Unverified. None known.
Perplexity launched advertising in November 2024 and stopped accepting new advertisers in October 2025. The wind-down rests on reporting; Perplexity has not published its own announcement, so the current status cannot be confirmed from a primary source.
Source: Campaign US reporting. Checked 2026-07-14.
What the statuses mean
Live. An advertiser can buy this today.
Testing. The platform has confirmed a limited test.
Announced. Announced, but not yet buyable or in a confirmed test.
Unverified. Current status cannot be established from a primary source.
Rows are re-checked when a platform moves, not on a schedule, which is why the dates differ. The oldest row here was last checked 2026-07-14.
Because it changes. A dated article about what was buyable in July is a historical document by September. This is maintained instead, and the checked dates are the honest version of how current it is.
Whether a placement is worth buying. Availability is not a recommendation, and a surface you cannot measure against a qualified outcome produces a spend figure and an opinion.
The same read, on your account
The diagnosis is the first step and it is not charged for. What is offered is an honest read and sensible, evidence-backed decisions, not a promise about lead volume.