Brands are heading into the 2026 holiday season with their ad budgets on Meta and Google, and ChatGPT ads are staying in the test column. Modern Retail reported on October 9, 2026 that hundreds of brands are trying OpenAI's ad offering, and that advertisers treat it as a costly place to experiment with little expectation of significant holiday sales.
The sharpest detail in that report comes from Terence Einhorn, head of insights at the measurement firm Measured. He told Modern Retail that a click on ChatGPT costs around six times its Google equivalent, that results so far have been "pretty bad", and that most of the sales those ads record would have happened anyway. Sensor Tower counted more than 1,400 advertisers running ChatGPT ads in August 2026, most of them large companies. Einhorn's advice to everyone else was a small learning budget. If your fourth-quarter plan is tight, that is a reasonable ceiling.
The same week brought two launches for the other way an AI assistant can bring you revenue, which is by completing the purchase itself. On October 8, 2026, Crossmint released its Agent Commerce Toolkit, a self-serve developer kit that lets an AI agent store a shopper's card and check out at an online store through one integration. It uses tokenized credentials from Visa Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard Agent Pay where a card is eligible, and it chooses a checkout path for each purchase, including Shop Pay and the Universal Commerce Protocol. Crossmint says merchants do not need to add anything to accept these orders. Co-founder Alfonso Gómez-Jordana Mañas described what agent developers run into without it: "One card works and another doesn't. One store has an API and the next has a bot check."
Also on October 8, Riskified announced Agent Identity Risk Intelligence, which identifies the AI assistant behind an order or a customer service request, connects it to a real customer, and returns a risk signal in real time. Riskified's announcement describes a change that matters to any store with a returns desk. An assistant keeps working after the purchase. It can compare prices across sites, check for a refund when a price drops, and look for no-fee returns, on every order it places.
Put those together and an order placed by an assistant can reach your checkout without any work on your side. For the fourth quarter, the useful preparation is on your product pages and in your policies. An assistant comparing prices and reading return terms for a shopper acts on exactly what you publish, so your price, availability and return terms need to be accurate and easy to find. Ask your fraud provider how it treats an order placed by an AI assistant before holiday volume arrives.
Modern Retail's sources described the same priority. Anders Bill of Superfiliate said brands are "very invested" in ranking at the top of AI recommendations on their own merits. The paid placement can wait for better evidence. The assistant's own recommendation, and the order that follows it, are already in play.
Common questions
Should my brand advertise on ChatGPT this holiday season?
Most advertisers quoted by Modern Retail on October 9, 2026 are keeping holiday budgets on Meta and Google. Measured's Terence Einhorn suggests a small learning budget if you can afford one, and no more until the channel has a track record.
How much do ChatGPT ads cost compared with Google?
Einhorn told Modern Retail that the cost of a click on ChatGPT is around six times the Google equivalent. He also said most of the sales those ads record are ones the brand would have made anyway.
Do I need to change my store for AI agents to buy from it?
Crossmint says its toolkit completes checkout through Shop Pay, the Universal Commerce Protocol or browser automation, with no agent support required from the merchant. Accurate prices, availability and return terms matter more, because the assistant acts on what your pages say.
How will I know an order came from an AI assistant?
Fraud tools are starting to report it. Riskified's Agent Identity Risk Intelligence, announced October 8, 2026, identifies the assistant behind an order or service request and connects it to a real customer. Ask your own provider what it offers.
Sources
Modern Retail: Why ChatGPT ads won't likely impact holiday sales in a major way this year
Crossmint: Agent Commerce Toolkit launch announcement
Riskified: Agent Identity Risk Intelligence launch announcement