OpenAI to Introduce Advertising in ChatGPT for the First Time

On January 16, OpenAI announced that it will introduce advertising in ChatGPT for the first time.

Launch of Advertising in ChatGPT

Advertising tests will begin in the United States in the coming weeks and will apply to logged-in adult users of the free version of the service, as well as the ChatGPT Go plan priced at $8 per month.

Ad units will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses and will be clearly separated from the main content.

Exceptions for Paid Subscriptions

Users on the Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will not see ads. These subscriptions will remain completely ad-free.

Age and Topic Restrictions

During the testing phase, ads will not be shown to accounts where the user is under 18 or identified as a minor.

Sensitive Topics

Ad placements will also be excluded from queries related to health, mental health, and politics.

OpenAI’s Advertising Approach

The company emphasized that advertising does not influence the responses generated by ChatGPT. Answers are produced based on their usefulness to the user and are not optimized for advertising purposes.

All advertising materials will be clearly labeled and separated from the main response so users can easily distinguish sponsored content.

Data Privacy

OpenAI stated that user conversations remain private from advertisers, and chat data is not sold or shared with third parties.

Users will be able to disable ad personalization and manage the data used for displaying advertisements.

Advertising Formats

At the initial stage, OpenAI plans to test contextual advertising that appears when a sponsored product or service is relevant to the current query.

Ads may include product or service recommendations, with options to learn more or hide the advertisement.

Access to ChatGPT and Monetization Model

The company noted that the introduction of advertising is linked to the goal of expanding access to ChatGPT for users on free and low-cost plans.

Subscription-based and enterprise offerings remain central to OpenAI’s business, while advertising is viewed as an additional revenue stream to support broader access to the service.