Amazon Rufus Ads 2026: What Sellers Need to Know About AI-Powered Prompts
Amazon Rufus ads let sellers appear inside AI shopping conversations. Here’s how Sponsored Products Prompts work, what they cost, and how to optimise.
Amazon is embedding advertising directly into its AI shopping assistant, and sellers who understand the mechanics early will have a significant edge. Rufus – Amazon’s generative AI tool launched to all US shoppers in Q3 2025 – now serves over 250 million monthly active users across the Amazon app and website. With the introduction of Sponsored Products Prompts, sellers can place their products inside these AI-driven shopping conversations for the first time.
Here’s what Amazon sellers need to know about Rufus ads in 2026 – including what’s working, what the data actually shows, and how to position your products.
What Are Amazon Rufus Ads?
Amazon officially calls these placements Sponsored Products Prompts. They appear as product recommendations within Rufus AI conversations when shoppers ask buying-related questions like “What’s the best dog food for sensitive stomachs?” or “Does Under the Weather have a dog supplement with appetite stimulant?”
Unlike traditional Sponsored Products that appear in search results and product pages, these ads surface inside a conversational AI interface. The placement is contextual – Amazon’s AI matches your product to the shopper’s natural language query rather than exact keyword matches.
Amazon first announced the feature at unBoxed 2025 in October and has been rolling it out in phases since. The format is currently in open beta across the US marketplace.
How Do Sponsored Products Prompts Work?
Sellers do not create separate Rufus campaigns. Amazon automatically extends eligible Sponsored Products campaigns into Rufus placements. If you’re running Sponsored Products with automatic or broad match targeting, your products may already be appearing in Rufus conversations.
The key mechanics:
- No separate campaign setup required – existing Sponsored Products campaigns are automatically eligible
- Conversational matching – Amazon’s AI interprets natural language queries and matches relevant products
- Standard Sponsored Products reporting – prompts appear in their own dedicated report tab
- Currently free beta – Amazon is not charging for Rufus ad clicks during the beta period
What Does Rufus Advertising Actually Cost?
This is where misinformation has spread. Several blogs have cited CPC ranges of $0.80-$1.50 for Rufus placements. That is not accurate.
As of March 2026, Sponsored Products Prompts are in a free open beta. Amazon is not currently charging for clicks on these placements. In our experience managing Amazon advertising accounts, we can confirm $0.00 CPC across all Rufus prompt impressions and clicks in current campaign data.
This will almost certainly change. Amazon has a pattern of offering new ad formats free during beta to drive adoption, then introducing auction-based pricing once the format is established. The smart move is to optimise your campaigns now while there’s no cost, so you’ve built relevance signals before the auction goes live.
Does Amazon Provide Rufus Ad Reporting?
Yes – and this is another area where early coverage got it wrong. Amazon has added a dedicated Sponsored Products Prompts report in Seller Central, available since late 2025.
You can access this data in two ways:
- Seller Central Reports: Navigate to Advertising > Reports > Sponsored Products > Prompts tab. Download the report to see impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, spend, and attributed sales for each prompt placement.
- Campaign Manager: Prompt placements also appear within the campaign manager interface alongside your other Sponsored Products data.
The report includes granular detail – specific prompt text that triggered your ad, the ASIN shown, and standard performance metrics (impressions, clicks, CTR, spend, 7-day sales, orders, units, ACOS, ROAS).
This is actually more transparency than Amazon typically provides for new ad formats at this stage.
How Big Is the Rufus Opportunity?
The scale of Amazon’s AI shopping assistant makes this significant:
- 250 million+ monthly users interacting with Rufus as of Q3 2025
- Amazon’s ad revenue reached approximately $12 billion in Q3 2025 alone, and AI-integrated formats are a growing share
- Rufus handles product research, comparison shopping, and purchase decisions – high-intent touchpoints
- Amazon has stated that AI-powered shopping is a strategic priority, with continued investment planned through 2026
Early adopters of new Amazon ad formats have historically benefited from lower competition and costs before broader rollout. The free beta period amplifies this advantage.
What Sellers Need to Do
Immediate Actions (All Sellers)
- Check your Sponsored Products campaigns ensure you have automatic or broad match campaigns running. These are the campaigns eligible for Rufus placements.
- Pull the Prompts report from Seller Central (Advertising > Reports > Sponsored Products > Prompts) to see if you’re already getting Rufus impressions.
- Review your product listings for conversational relevance Rufus matches based on natural language, so detailed bullet points and A+ content that answer common questions will improve matching.
For Brand Owners
- Optimise backend keywords with question-based phrases shoppers might ask Rufus (e.g., “best organic dog food for puppies” rather than just “organic dog food”).
- Update product descriptions to directly answer buying questions Rufus pulls from listing content to generate responses.
- Monitor the Prompts report weekly during the beta track which queries trigger your products and adjust listings accordingly.
For Agencies and Advertisers
- Build Rufus performance into client reporting now the dedicated report tab provides the data you need.
- Set baseline metrics during the free beta so you can measure impact accurately when Amazon introduces pricing.
- Document which product types and categories get the most Rufus impressions this intelligence will be valuable for PPC budget planning in 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Rufus ads (Sponsored Products Prompts) are free during the open beta – there’s no reason not to be capturing these impressions now
- Dedicated reporting already exists in Seller Central – pull the Sponsored Products Prompts report to see your data
- No separate campaign needed – existing Sponsored Products campaigns automatically serve in Rufus conversations
- Optimise listings for conversational queries – Rufus uses natural language matching, not just keyword matching
- Build baselines now before Amazon introduces auction pricing, likely later in 2026
The Bottom Line
Amazon Rufus ads represent a genuine shift in how shoppers discover products – through AI conversations rather than search bars. The fact that Amazon is offering these placements free during beta tells you they want broad adoption before flipping the switch on monetisation.
Sellers who take the time now to ensure their campaigns are eligible, their listings are conversationally optimised, and their reporting is tracking Rufus performance will be positioned well when competition intensifies. The data infrastructure is already there – it’s a matter of using it.
For a broader view of how Amazon’s advertising landscape is evolving, including budget strategy and new video ad formats, our PPC guides cover the latest changes across all Sponsored Products formats.
Need help optimising your Amazon advertising for AI-powered placements?
Contact ScaledOn to get your Sponsored Products strategy Rufus-ready.
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