OpenAI is preparing to put advertising inside ChatGPT, a sharp turn for a product that has so far relied on subscriptions and licensing fees to fund its rapid growth. The company is pitching the move as a way to keep access to powerful models affordable while it spends heavily on computing and research, but it also risks reshaping how people experience one of the most influential AI tools on the internet.
The test will start with a subset of users in the United States and focus on the free and lower priced tiers, giving brands a chance to appear directly inside AI-generated answers at the moment people are asking for recommendations or advice. How OpenAI handles that experiment will help define not just its own business model, but also the broader rules of engagement for advertising inside conversational AI.
How the ChatGPT ad test will actually work
OpenAI has told users that ads will begin appearing inside ChatGPT in the coming weeks for adults who are logged in to the Free and Go tiers, with the initial rollout limited to the United States. The company has said that the promotions will show up at the bottom of the chatbot’s responses, clearly labeled as sponsored, so they sit alongside the answer rather than replacing it, and that the test is meant to expand its commercial footprint beyond subscriptions and enterprise deals that helped drive a multibillion dollar revenue run rate last year, according to Ads. In practical terms, that means a user asking for a list of hotels, productivity apps, or meal kits could see a sponsored suggestion tucked under the main answer, formatted to look native to the chat interface but marked as paid content.
The company has also described a more interactive format in which people can engage directly with sponsored products inside the conversation, rather than being pushed out to a separate web page. In one example, a user asking the assistant for a recipe could see a promoted ingredient or grocery service that can be expanded for more details, a format that aligns with plans to let people interact with brands while staying inside the chat window for both the Free and Go plans, as outlined in Free and Go. That approach borrows from search and social advertising, but it also leans into the unique intimacy of a one-on-one AI conversation, where a sponsored suggestion can feel like part of the answer rather than a separate banner or pre-roll clip.
Targeting, guardrails, and what advertisers can (and cannot) do
OpenAI is not just selling static placements, it is offering targeted ads that respond to what people are talking about in the chat, which is why marketers see the test as a major new channel. The company has said that the promotions will be driven by the context of a given conversation, so a query about planning a vacation might trigger travel offers while a question about home workouts could surface fitness brands, a capability that has been framed as a step up in its revenue push in Gift Article. At the same time, the company has outlined restrictions on sensitive categories, saying that topics such as health, mental health, or politics will not be used to target ads, a boundary that reflects both regulatory pressure and the reputational risk of mixing AI advice with persuasive messaging on those issues.
To reassure users, OpenAI has emphasized that the ads will not change the underlying answers that ChatGPT provides and that conversations will be kept private from advertisers, even as the system uses context to decide which promotions to show. The company has said that the assistant’s responses will continue to be driven by what is objectively useful rather than by advertising pressure, a promise that echoes its earlier positioning of ChatGPT as an ad free oasis in a web crowded with pop ups and sponsored results, a contrast that has been highlighted in Now. Early breakdowns of the program shared with marketers also stress that the initial test will focus on brand safe categories and that OpenAI will adjust formats and policies based on feedback from both advertisers and users, according to a detailed community discussion of What.
Why OpenAI is turning to ads now
The shift toward advertising comes as OpenAI spends heavily on the computing infrastructure needed to train and run its largest models, a cost structure that has been described as burning through billions of dollars even as usage soars. The company has already leaned on paid tiers like ChatGPT Plus and enterprise licenses to large customers, but it has also acknowledged that subscriptions alone will not cover the long term cost of serving advanced models to hundreds of millions of people, a tension that has been described as mounting Financial pressures. Advertising offers a way to monetize the free tier more directly, which is especially important as the company eyes a potential public listing and faces investor expectations for sustained revenue growth, a link that has been made explicit in coverage of its plan to Start Testing ads ahead of an IPO push.
Executives and analysts have also framed the move as a competitive response to other tech giants that are weaving generative AI into search and social products that already run on advertising. If ChatGPT remains entirely subscription funded while rivals like Google and Meta integrate conversational answers into ad supported feeds, OpenAI risks ceding both market share and advertiser relationships, a dynamic that has been described as a broader redefinition of AI monetization in ChatGPT. At the same time, some industry observers have argued that OpenAI’s decision could pressure competitors to spell out their own philosophies on how far they will go in blending AI answers with commercial messages, a point underscored by one analyst who said the move could force rivals to clarify their monetisation strategies, a view captured in a But passage.
User trust, privacy promises, and the risk of “search all over again”
For users, the biggest question is whether ads will subtly warp how ChatGPT responds, even if the company insists that sponsored content will never override what is most useful. OpenAI has said that the assistant’s core answers will remain independent and that any paid placements will be clearly labeled and separated, a stance that mirrors its public commitment that results will be driven by what is objectively useful, never by advertising, language that has been highlighted in a detailed breakdown of Ads Are Coming. The company has also told users that conversations will not be shared with advertisers and that ad targeting will rely on real time context rather than building long term profiles, a distinction meant to separate its approach from the cross site tracking that has fueled backlash against traditional digital advertising.
Still, the optics of inserting paid messages into a tool that many people use for research, study help, and even quasi therapeutic conversations are delicate, especially given how quickly ChatGPT has become embedded in workflows from classrooms to offices. Some early reactions have compared the moment to the early days of search advertising, when text ads first appeared next to organic results and raised concerns about bias, a parallel that has been echoed in coverage of how the assistant is moving from an ad free oasis to a more commercial environment in ads era. OpenAI has tried to get ahead of that skepticism by stressing that there will always be an ad free paid tier for people who want to avoid promotions entirely, a promise that aligns with its statement that it has relied largely on subscriptions and that user trust will not change, as reflected in its comments about an ad free tier in OpenAI said.
What this means for the future of AI products and advertising
Supporting sources: ChatGPT to start.
