Maya Robertson
OpenAI has started testing ads inside ChatGPT for users on its Free and Go subscription tiers in the United States, marking a significant shift in how the widely used AI chatbot is funded. The rollout began on Monday and applies only to logged-in adult users, while paid tiers including Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education remain ad-free.
The company said ads will appear separately from ChatGPT’s responses and will be clearly labeled as sponsored content. According to OpenAI, advertising will not influence the answers the chatbot provides, and advertisers will not have access to user conversations, chat history, memories, or personal details. Instead, advertisers will receive only aggregated performance metrics such as views and clicks.
The Go plan, introduced globally in January, is a lower-cost subscription priced at $8 per month in the U.S. OpenAI said both the Free and Go tiers require substantial infrastructure and ongoing investment, and advertising is intended to help support continued access to the service without requiring all users to upgrade to paid plans. Users who prefer not to see ads can move to a paid tier or opt out of ads on the Free plan in exchange for fewer daily messages.
During the test, ads are selected based on broad signals such as the topic of a conversation, past chats, and previous interactions with ads. For example, a discussion about cooking may trigger ads related to meal kits or grocery delivery. OpenAI said it will not display ads alongside sensitive or regulated topics, including health, mental health, or politics, and ads will not be shown to users under the age of 18.
The company has also introduced a set of controls allowing users to dismiss ads, provide feedback, see why a specific ad was shown, delete ad-related data, and manage personalization settings. Ad personalization can be disabled entirely, and users can clear their ad history at any time.
OpenAI described the rollout as a limited test designed to gather feedback and refine how advertising fits into the ChatGPT experience before any broader expansion. The company said it plans to remain cautious about advertiser access and targeting, and to put safeguards in place to reduce the risk of misleading or harmful ads.
The move comes amid growing pressure on AI companies to develop sustainable revenue models as usage scales and development costs rise. OpenAI has previously acknowledged that it is not profitable, and that maintaining fast, reliable access to ChatGPT for hundreds of millions of users requires significant spending on computing infrastructure.
The introduction of ads has drawn attention from competitors and critics. Rival AI company Anthropic, which operates the Claude chatbot, has publicly committed to keeping its product ad-free and recently ran Super Bowl commercials mocking the idea of advertising inside AI conversations. OpenAI has defended its approach, arguing that ads can be introduced without compromising answer quality or user privacy if kept clearly separate from responses.
For now, OpenAI says its focus is on learning from this early phase. Any future expansion of advertising in ChatGPT, the company said, will depend on user feedback and its ability to balance monetization with trust, privacy, and control over the user experience.
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