ChatGPT ads drop Max CPC. What to do before 2027

On 1 January 2027, Max Bid and Max CPC disappear from ChatGPT ads. Every campaign that still uses them gets moved to Target CPA or Target CPC.

OpenAI confirmed it in its weekly ChatGPT Ads update on 12 November, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. The same update renamed "Maximize results" to "intelligent bidding", added regional targeting for product feed campaigns and new product set filters.

My take: this is the Google Ads story again, only faster. Manual bids go away, the system bids for you, and the quality of your conversion data decides how well it works. If you run ChatGPT ads, you have 6 weeks to get the data right.

What changed

• Target CPA sets the average price you want to pay per conversion, like a purchase or a lead. Available for new campaigns since 9 November.
• Target CPC sets an average cost per click goal.
• Intelligent bidding is the new name of "Maximize results". It still adjusts bids to get the most results inside your budget.
• Regions inside a country can now be targeted in product feed campaigns.
• Product set filters can combine several conditions on the same product field.
• 1 January 2027: Max Bid and Max CPC retire for existing campaigns.

Costs can land above or below your target. OpenAI also warned that restrictive targets or weak conversion signals can reduce delivery and leave budget unspent.

Why this matters even if you spend little

With Max CPC you controlled the price of one click. With a target, you give the system a goal and it decides. That works well with clean data and badly without it.

The bidding learns from your conversions. If your pixel fires twice per purchase, counts newsletter sign-ups as sales, or misses half of the orders, the system optimises for the wrong thing. And it does that with your money.

The 5-step checklist before 1 January

1. Check the signal first. OpenAI recommends to confirm that the Pixel or the Conversions API sends the selected event to the data source linked to the campaign. Look at the Event Quality Score warnings in Ads Manager.
2. Pick one conversion per campaign. A purchase for shops, a qualified lead for B2B. Not "any event".
3. Set the first target from your own numbers. Take your real cost per conversion from the last 30 days. Start at that number or slightly above it, not at your dream number. A target that is too low means no delivery.
4. Switch one campaign now, not all of them on 31 December. You still can keep the old strategy until the end of the year. Use the time to compare one switched campaign with one old one.
5. Use the new regional targeting for product feed campaigns if you only ship to part of a country, or if one region converts much better. No reason to pay for clicks you can not deliver to.

A table to track the switch

One line per campaign, six columns:

• Campaign (example: shop, product feed)
• Old strategy (Max CPC)
• Real CPA, last 30 days (18 EUR)
• New target (20 EUR)
• Switched on (the date)
• CPA after 14 days (fill it in later)

Fill it once a week. If CPA after 14 days is clearly worse and delivery dropped, the target is too strict or the signal is weak. Fix the signal before you touch the target.

If you do not run ChatGPT ads yet

You do not need to start because of this news. But the direction is clear: ChatGPT ads now work like Google and Meta. Target CPA, product feeds, regional targeting. If your Google Ads conversion tracking is a mess, it will be a mess here too. Fix it once, use it everywhere.

Summary

Manual bids in ChatGPT ads end on 1 January 2027. Check that your Pixel or Conversions API sends one clean conversion, set the first target from real numbers, switch one campaign now and compare.

Target CPA only works on clean conversions. Check yours with the free Google Ads tracking check. If it finds gaps, the tracking repair fixes them before the switch. Or book a free 20-minute call.

Did you already switch a campaign to Target CPA, and what happened to delivery?

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable, OpenAI ChatGPT Ads updates with intelligent bidding, new cost targets, geo-flexibility and product set filters, 12 November 2026 (OpenAI weekly update e-mail) · Relevant Audience, ChatGPT Ads swaps Max Bid and Max CPC for Target CPA and Target CPC from 9 November, 6 November 2026 (quotes of the OpenAI e-mail on Pixel, Conversions API and delivery) · OpenAI Help, Bidding strategies and how pricing works in ChatGPT Ads (in the ChatGPT Ads help center).