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Developer reference

ChatGPT Ads currency units: micros, minor units, and CPM

Avoid budget and event-value errors by distinguishing currency units, micros, minor units, CPM, and per-impression bids.

Advertising APIs can represent money in different units for different fields. A value that is correct for a campaign budget can be wrong for a conversion event. Keep the unit next to the field name throughout preparation and review.

Understand the common representations

Micros represent one millionth of a currency unit. Minor units represent the currency’s smallest conventional unit, whose scale varies by currency. A decimal amount in a workbook is a human-readable value that the compiler normalizes.

Never infer a unit from the size of the number alone. Check the field definition and account currency.

RepresentationIllustrative USD valueMeaning
Currency units12.50Twelve dollars and fifty cents
Micros12500000The same amount in millionths
Minor units1250The same amount in cents for USD
CPM12.50Cost per one thousand impressions
Per-impression amount0.0125Equivalent to a 12.50 CPM

Use exact values for preparation

Avoid currency symbols, grouping commas, or exponent notation in workbook amounts. Advarde’s workbook normalization checks decimal precision and safe integer limits instead of accepting arbitrary floating-point values.

When an amount is too precise for the field, choose an explicit rounded amount and record that decision. Silent rounding in a spreadsheet or integration can produce a different reviewed budget than the operator intended.

Check bid semantics by objective

In the supplied workbook template, max_bid for Views campaigns is a CPM amount. The click objective uses a per-click bid. Other API fields may represent a per-impression amount, so the same human-entered CPM requires conversion before reaching that field.

Read the normalized campaign review. A value of 10 is not meaningful until the review says whether it is ten currency units per click, per thousand impressions, or a total budget.

Keep conversion values separate

Advarde’s generated measurement helper expects event amounts in integer currency minor units with an explicit currency. Do not copy max_budget_micros into an order amount. For currencies without two decimal places, do not apply a universal ×100 conversion.

Test a known business amount end to end and compare the received value with the order record. Include zero values, missing values, and refunds only where the selected event and reporting definition support them.

Sources and verification

Platform details checked on September 11, 2026. Your account may expose a different set of features. Examples are illustrative unless a dataset is explicitly supplied.

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