Ads Manager: Hosted URL for CSV product feed fails with "Unable to save the hosted URL." (TSV works)

ChatGPT Bugs
1

Environment

  • Surface: Platform (OpenAI Ads Manager > Tools > Feeds > Feeds Connection)
  • Endpoint or feature: Product feed delivery via hosted URL (CSV feed)
  • Model: N/A
  • SDK and version, if applicable: N/A

Bug

We are a feed management platform (Mergado) preparing product feeds for ChatGPT Shopping. When we enter the URL of a CSV feed as a hosted feed URL in OpenAI Ads Manager, it immediately shows the error “Unable to save the hosted URL.” The error appears right away, so it seems the file is never fetched or processed.

Expected: the hosted URL is saved and the CSV feed is fetched, the same way it works for a TSV feed.

What works:

  • Uploading the same CSV file manually works fine.
  • Uploading the same CSV file via SFTP works fine.
  • A hosted URL pointing to a TSV feed is saved and processed without any problem.

Since the identical file is accepted through manual upload and SFTP, the issue seems to be in the hosted URL validation for CSV files rather than in the file content.

Reproduction

  1. Host a CSV product feed that follows the product feed specification on a public HTTPS URL.
  2. In OpenAI Ads Manager, go to Tools > Feeds > Feeds Connection and enter this URL as the hosted feed URL.
  3. Save. The error “Unable to save the hosted URL.” appears immediately.
  4. Repeat with a TSV feed hosted the same way. The URL is saved successfully.

What we have already checked:

  • The URL returns HTTP 200 over valid HTTPS, with no redirects.
  • The response has Content-Type: text/csv; charset=UTF-8.
  • The URL also returns HTTP 200 for crawler-like User-Agents.
  • The file is UTF-8 without BOM and follows the product feed specification.
  • The same error occurs with a generic (non-ChatGPT-specific) CSV file, with a gzip-compressed version (.csv.gz), and when the file is hosted on a different domain.

Diagnostics

  • Exact error and HTTP status: “Unable to save the hosted URL.” shown in OpenAI Ads Manager; no HTTP status is displayed.
  • Request ID, if available: Not available in the UI.
  • When it happened (with timezone) and how often: First on September 25, 2026, around 17:00 CEST. Reproducible on every attempt.

Questions:

  1. Is hosted URL delivery officially supported for CSV feeds?
  2. If yes, are there any requirements for the URL, file extension or Content-Type that we should meet?

We can provide a test URL privately if that helps with debugging.

@OpenAI_Support, could OpenAI Staff please take a look? Thank you!

2

CSV product feeds are supported through Hosted URL. The URL should serve a UTF-8 product feed over HTTPS; text/csv is an appropriate content type.

Your CSV upload/SFTP and hosted TSV comparisons point to hosted-source setup or validation, but we need the failing source to confirm the cause. Please share the test URL privately with Support using the chat bubble at help.openai.com. Include a link to this topic, the affected ad account ID and feed ID, and a fresh failure timestamp with its timezone. If available, include the failed browser request’s status, response error code, and request ID.

For now, continue using the hosted TSV or automated SFTP path that works for you. Both preserve regular catalog updates.

3

Thanks for the guidance. We shared the test URL, ad account ID, feed ID and a fresh failure timestamp with Support via help.openai.com, and the case has been escalated to a support specialist.

One additional finding for anyone with the same issue: after clicking “Connect”, no request to save or validate the URL seems to be sent to the API, so the error appears to be raised client-side. We’ll post an update here once we hear back.