OpenAI Turns on the Ad Spigot Inside ChatGPT (Paid Users Remain Untouched, For Now)

OpenAI said Friday it will begin testing ads inside ChatGPT in the coming weeks, a change that brings advertising into a product that has so far relied mostly on subscriptions.

The ads will show up at the bottom of ChatGPT’s responses and will be clearly labeled. OpenAI said the test will roll out to adult users on the free version of ChatGPT in the U.S., along with users on its lower-priced Go plan. Anyone on Plus, Pro, Business, or Enterprise plans won’t see ads.

OpenAI stated the ads will not affect ChatGPT’s answers and that user conversations won’t be shared with advertisers. Ads also won’t appear for users under 18, and they’ll be blocked from showing up near sensitive topics like politics, health, and mental health.

CEO Sam Altman voiced the move reflects how many people want access to AI tools without paying for them.

“A lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don’t want to pay,” Altman wrote in a post on X. “So we’re hopeful a business model like this can work.”

According to OpenAI, users will be able to see why they’re being shown a particular ad, dismiss ads they don’t like, and leave feedback during the test.

Ads have long been the main money-maker for tech companies like Google and Meta, and OpenAI has been under growing costs as it builds out the infrastructure needed to run ChatGPT at scale. The company has signed more than $1.4 trillion in infrastructure deals and continues to invest heavily in data centers.

Altman has previously said he was uneasy about bringing ads into ChatGPT, arguing in past interviews that ads could chip away at user trust if handled poorly. Still, he has also said the company would likely try ads at some point.

There’s also little room for error. If ads feel distracting or out of place, users can easily switch to other chatbots, including Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude.

OpenAI said ads will only appear when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service tied to the conversation, and that they’ll remain separate from ChatGPT’s responses.

For now, the company says it will use the testing phase to see how users respond and make changes as needed before deciding whether to expand ads more widely.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Google and Meta as mentioned in the article.