Outbrain Is Now Teads
Outbrain bought Teads in February 2025 and the combined company had fully rebranded as Teads by June. The advertiser dashboard, the sales reps and the invoices all changed name. Most articles comparing native platforms have not caught up — here is the current picture.
In this guide
If you have searched "Outbrain vs Taboola" recently, almost every result you got was describing a platform that no longer exists. Outbrain bought Teads, the combined company renamed itself Teads, and the Outbrain advertiser product was retired. Here is what actually happened, what changed in practice, and what it means if you are planning native spend in 2026.
What happened, in order
Outbrain completes its acquisition of Teads for roughly $900 million. Outbrain's content-recommendation network absorbs Teads' outstream video and CTV inventory. Around 200 roles are eliminated globally as overlapping functions consolidate.
The combined company completes its corporate renaming from Outbrain Inc. to Teads Holding Co. The stock ticker changes from OB to TEAD on the Nasdaq. The Outbrain brand is retired from the advertiser-facing product.
Teads pushes its inherited Outbrain advertiser base toward video and CTV formats, positioning itself as a single platform running campaigns from awareness through to conversion.
The short version
There is no Outbrain advertiser platform any more. The dashboard, the sales contacts and the invoices are all Teads. If you are comparing native networks in 2026, the comparison is Taboola versus Teads.
One detail causes genuine confusion: many publisher widgets still serve under the Outbrain name, and Outbrain's own website still exists explaining that it operates under the Teads brand. So you can still see "Outbrain" recommendation units in the wild while having no way to buy them as an Outbrain advertiser. The technology persists; the brand you buy through does not.
What actually changed for advertisers
| Area | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Outbrain Amplify | Teads platform |
| Inventory | Content recommendation widgets | Widgets plus outstream video and CTV |
| Sales contact | Outbrain rep | Teads rep, often the same person |
| Invoicing | Outbrain Inc. | Teads Holding Co. |
| Positioning | Native performance | Full-funnel: branding through performance |
| Widget branding | Outbrain | Often still says Outbrain |
Existing accounts carried across. Campaign history, billing relationships and contracts were unaffected by the corporate rename — the company was explicit that the change did not impact current contracts or operations. If you had an Outbrain account before the merger, you have a Teads account now, with the same data behind it.
The part that matters more than the name
The merger was not a rebrand for its own sake. It combined a content-recommendation business with an outstream-video business, and through 2026 Teads has been actively upselling its inherited native advertisers toward video and CTV placements.
That has a practical consequence. If you are buying native because you want cheap text-and-thumbnail clicks that feed an advertorial, you may find your account manager steering you toward formats with different economics entirely. Video CPMs and native CPCs are not comparable buys. Know which one you actually want before the conversation starts.
Taboola vs Teads in 2026
With the naming settled, the real comparison is straightforward. Neither wins outright.
| Factor | Taboola | Teads (formerly Outbrain) |
|---|---|---|
| Live creative corpus | ~206,000 | ~108,000 |
| Tier 1 CPC range | $0.30 mobile, $0.60 desktop | $0.25 – $0.90 desktop |
| Minimum CPC | Varies by auction | $0.03 floor, $0.50–$1.50 realistic |
| Daily minimum | $50 recommended | $30–$50 |
| Approval friction | Strict | Stricter on aggressive angles |
| Site-level bid control | Granular | Less granular |
| Video / CTV | Limited | Core strength post-merger |
| Best for | Direct response, long-tail scale | Brand safety, premium placements, video |
Lean Taboola if you are a direct-response advertiser chasing efficient cost per acquisition and you want site-level bid control across a much larger long-tail network. That granular control is where most of the optimisation gains come from on native.
Lean Teads if brand safety and premium publisher placements matter more than reach, or if video is part of the plan. The concentration of insurance and finance advertisers on the platform is itself evidence — regulated categories gravitate to environments their legal teams can defend.
A note on approval
Aggressive angles that clear mid-tier networks like MGID get rejected or quietly throttled on both Taboola and Teads. If your creative strategy depends on curiosity gaps that push the boundary, budget for rejections and slower ramp-up. Our headline analyzer flags the specific constructions that trigger manual review before you submit.
What this means if you are buying from India
Tier 2 and Tier 3 geography pricing was not affected by the merger, and the gap between Tier 1 and Indian inventory remains enormous. Our own campaigns have run at an average CPC of $0.019 across Indian regions — roughly a fiftieth of Tier 1 desktop pricing.
The practical advice has not changed either. Both platforms need volume before their optimisation means anything, and both will happily spend your budget on low-quality placements while they learn. Placement quality is the whole game on native: the ANA has found that made-for-advertising sites absorb roughly 15% of programmatic spend and 21% of impressions. Weekly sub-source blocking matters more than which logo is on the dashboard.
What to do now
- Update your own references. If your site, decks or reports mention Outbrain as a current platform, they are dated. Anyone technical reading them will notice.
- Check which formats your rep is selling. Post-merger, Teads reps have video and CTV targets. Make sure you are buying the format you planned for.
- Re-benchmark. If your CPC assumptions came from pre-2025 Outbrain data, revalidate them. Our budget calculator uses current ranges by vertical and country.
- Do not switch platforms over a rebrand. Nothing about your account changed. Switch only if the economics say so.
The opportunity hiding in this
Most content ranking for native platform comparisons has not been updated since the merger. If you publish anything in this space, accuracy is currently a competitive advantage — which will not stay true for long.
Not sure which platform fits your offer?
Our free budget calculator runs the numbers for Taboola, Teads, MGID and Revcontent by vertical and country — minimum viable spend, expected clicks and leads, and the learning period cost.
Open the free tools → Book a strategy callPlatform details and pricing move. Figures here reflect research current to September 2026 and are typical ranges rather than quotes. Verify against your own account before planning budget.