OpenAI has announced it will begin testing advertisements in ChatGPT, marking a significant step toward diversifying revenue beyond subscriptions. The move comes as the company faces enormous costs for AI development and infrastructure, while preparing for a potential initial public offering.
The tests will target users on the free tier and the lower-priced Go plan, starting with some logged-in U.S. adults in the coming weeks. Premium tiers—Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise—will remain ad-free.
How Ads Will Appear and Safeguards
Ads will show at the bottom of ChatGPT responses when a relevant sponsored product or service matches the ongoing conversation. For example, a query about Mexican food might include a link to a sponsored hot sauce brand.
OpenAI emphasized that ads will be clearly separate from AI-generated answers and will not influence ChatGPT’s outputs. User conversations will stay private and not be shared with advertisers. Ads will be blocked for users under 18 and on sensitive topics like health or politics.
The company plans to gather early user feedback and quality signals before any broader rollout.
Business Context and Challenges
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, remains a money-losing operation despite ChatGPT’s massive scale—800 million weekly active users. Heavy spending on data centers and AI infrastructure, projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030, drives the need for new revenue streams.
The Go plan, initially launched in markets like India, is expanding globally and costs $8 per month in the U.S. Analysts note ads could unlock significant income from non-paying users but ris]k alienating them, potentially driving switches to competitors like Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude.
Sam Altman has previously described ads as a “last resort” but now supports testing to make AI accessible without requiring payment for everyone.