Amazon buys ads in ChatGPT to promote Prime Day

The Amazon Effect // June 26, 2026 Amazon buys ads in ChatGPT to promote Prime Day By Allison Smith Ivy Liu Amazon is turning to ChatGPT to promote Prime Day, using the AI chatbot as a new advertising channel for its biggest shopping event of the year.

A search for “best deal on Apple 11-inch iPad” surfaced a sponsored Prime Day ad directing shoppers to Amazon’s sale, according to independent e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukėnas. When clicked upon, the ad sends shoppers to Amazon’s e-commerce site. Kaziukėnas shared a screenshot of Amazon’s Prime Day ad with Modern Retail.

Kaziukėnas told Modern Retail that Amazon’s decision to advertise Prime Day on ChatGPT “is really just a test,” as companies experiment with the AI chatbot’s advertising offerings. OpenAI began selling sponsored placements in ChatGPT earlier this year, with advertisers including Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath and Beyond, and The Knot.

“Many other companies are trying to understand how well this platform can perform,” Kaziukėnas said. “That’s why Amazon and everyone else is doing these ads. You need to figure out how to target them well, and then you can see if it makes sense economically to run them.” Amazon declined to comment.

Screenshot of Prime Day ad on ChatGPT via Juozas Kaziukėnas Amazon’s four-day Prime Day event kicked off Tuesday and runs through the end of Friday. Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that Amazon had begun buying ads in ChatGPT. So far, Prime Day itself has gotten off to a relatively cautious start.

Early data from Numerator showed average household spending running below last year’s pace. Shoppers have largely focused on household essentials and lower-priced items while waiting for deeper discounts on bigger-ticket purchases.

Amazon’s Prime Day ad on ChatGPT arrives as the e-commerce giant continues to tweak its AI strategy while remaining cautious about letting outside AI companies access its marketplace. Earlier this year, the company replaced its Rufus chatbot with Alexa for Shopping.

Amazon also joined the technical council overseeing Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to power AI-driven shopping. At the same time, Amazon has been cozying up to OpenAI. In November, OpenAI signed a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services. In late February, Amazon said it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI.

And Amazon and OpenAI also agreed to jointly build custom models for Amazon’s engineering teams to support its consumer-facing products. Still, Amazon has largely resisted opening its marketplace to outside AI shopping agents.

CEO Andy Jassy has said the company expects to eventually partner with third-party agents, though Amazon continues to block around 100 bots from accessing its site, including ChatGPT, according to a Modern Retail review of the company’s robots. txt file.

Earlier this year, Amazon won a court order against Perplexity to block its AI-powered Comet browser from scraping its web store. The company has also rolled out AI shopping tools such as “Buy for Me,” which uses AI to purchase products from other retailers’ websites on a customer’s behalf.

Some retailers criticized the feature, saying they never opted into the program, Modern Retail previously reported. Earlier this year, OpenAI pulled back from parts of its AI shopping ambitions by phasing out Instant Checkout, a tool that let users check out directly from ChatGPT. Now, purchases are completed within third-party apps that plug into ChatGPT.

Retailers are paying closer attention to AI platforms as a potential source of shoppers. Shopify last week rolled out new analytics tools that let merchants measure traffic and sales coming from AI services such as ChatGPT. Kaziukėnas said that advertisers are often eager to test new platforms before prices increase.

“I’m not surprised that so many companies are looking to OpenAI ads,” he said. “They are so new that I’m sure there are opportunities to be first and acquire users more cheaply than through other alternatives, or at least use them as a learning opportunity to understand what will seemingly inevitably become a large advertising network in the years to come.”

Amazon’s willingness to buy ChatGPT ads also stands out because the company pulled its U. S. Google Shopping ads last year. Kaziukėnas said Amazon advertising individual products, rather than broad Prime Day campaigns, would be a stronger sign that the company sees ChatGPT as a long-term advertising channel.

For now, Amazon’s restrictions on AI shopping agents generally prevent ChatGPT from promoting specific products sold on Amazon. com. Indeed, a search for “the best Prime Day deals” in ChatGPT instead surfaces recommendations that link to other retailers’ websites, including Best Buy, Walmart and Williams Sonoma. “A much bigger test will be if Amaz