OpenAI said it will begin testing advertising inside its ChatGPT service for users on the free tier and its new $8-a-month ChatGPT Go plan in the coming weeks, starting in the United States. The ads are intended to appear below the chatbot’s responses when there is a relevant sponsored product or service, but will not influence the answers ChatGPT generates and will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic content. Higher-tier plans, including Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, will remain ad-free.
The company said the move reflects a shift in its monetization strategy, diversifying beyond subscriptions to help sustain and expand access to its AI tools for a broad global audience. OpenAI, which recently expanded ChatGPT Go to more countries, positioned advertising as a way to support lower-cost and free access without selling personal conversations to advertisers or compromising user privacy. In announcing the change, OpenAI emphasized that trust and response independence remain priorities as it pilots a traditional revenue stream long associated with internet platforms.
Industry observers note that introducing ads in a high-trust AI product marks a notable inflection point for the conversational AI market, where balancing financial pressures against expectations for objectivity and privacy will be critical. OpenAI’s approach—testing clearly labeled ads only within specific user tiers and safeguarding data—seeks to preserve the core value proposition of ChatGPT while adapting its business model to support ongoing infrastructure and innovation needs.