OpenAI said Monday it has begun testing advertisements in the U.S. for users on its Free and Go subscription tiers, marking the first time ads will appear inside ChatGPT. The company’s newer Go plan, priced at $8 per month in the U.S., launched globally in mid-January. OpenAI said users on paid tiers—including Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education—will not see ads.
In a blog post accompanying the announcement, OpenAI sought to reassure users that ads will not affect how ChatGPT responds. “Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” the company said, adding that conversations remain private from advertisers. Ads will be clearly labeled as sponsored and separated from organic content, OpenAI said.
The move follows OpenAI’s earlier disclosure last month that it planned to introduce advertising, a decision that quickly became a point of public rivalry. During Super Bowl broadcasts on Sunday, competitor Anthropic ran ads mocking the idea of advertising inside AI chatbots, portraying exaggerated examples of poorly placed and irrelevant ads disrupting user interactions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded sharply to the campaign, calling the ads “dishonest” and criticizing Anthropic publicly.
User skepticism around ads in AI tools has been building for months. OpenAI faced backlash late last year after testing app suggestions that some users felt resembled unwanted advertising. Despite that resistance, the company is under pressure to diversify revenue sources as it continues to scale a computationally intensive product with millions of users.
OpenAI said ads shown in ChatGPT will be optimized based on what it describes as “what’s most helpful to you,” including the subject of current and past conversations and previous ad interactions. For example, users researching recipes might see ads for grocery delivery services or meal kits. Advertisers will not have access to individual user conversations, OpenAI said, receiving only aggregated performance data such as views and clicks.
The company is also emphasizing user controls. Users will be able to view and clear their ad interaction history, dismiss ads, provide feedback, see why an ad was shown, and manage ad personalization settings. Ads will not be shown to users under 18 and will be excluded from sensitive or regulated topics such as health, politics, and mental health.
For now, OpenAI is positioning the rollout as a test rather than a full shift in strategy. But the introduction of ads—even in limited tiers—signals a notable change in how the company is thinking about monetizing ChatGPT as it balances user experience concerns against the rising costs of operating large-scale AI systems.
This analysis is based on reporting from TechCrunch.
Image courtesy of OpenAI.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
