OpenAI begins testing Ads on ChatGPT as revenue push intensifies

OpenAI has begun testing advertisements on ChatGPT, marking a significant shift in the artificial intelligence company’s monetisation strategy as it seeks to generate revenue beyond subscriptions amid soaring valuations and operating costs.

In a blog post published on Friday, the company said it would roll out a limited ad pilot in the United States for users on its Free and newly launched Go tiers. The Go plan, priced at $8 per month, was introduced globally this week. More expensive plans, including Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, will remain ad-free for now.

The ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT conversations and will be contextually aligned with the topic being discussed. OpenAI said users will be able to dismiss ads, view explanations for why particular ads are shown, and turn off ad personalisation, a move designed to give users greater control over how advertising functions on the platform.

The company also said it will not serve ads to users it believes are under the age of 18 and pledged not to sell user data to advertisers. According to OpenAI, the introduction of ads will not affect how ChatGPT responds to questions, stressing what it described as “answer independence” between advertising and the chatbot’s outputs.

The move comes as OpenAI, currently valued at about $500 billion, faces mounting pressure to build sustainable revenue streams to support its rapidly expanding infrastructure and research ambitions. While subscription services remain a core source of income, advertising offers a potentially large new revenue pool, particularly given ChatGPT’s massive global user base.

Industry analysts say the strategy could work on two fronts: generating advertising revenue from free and lower-tier users while nudging some users toward higher-priced subscriptions to avoid ads altogether. Similar freemium models have long been used by social media and streaming platforms, though applying them to conversational AI raises new questions about trust, neutrality and user experience.

OpenAI sought to pre-empt those concerns in its announcement, framing advertising as a means of sustaining free access to AI tools while advancing its broader mission. The company said its “pursuit of advertising is always in support of” its goal of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

The ad pilot is expected to run for several months as OpenAI evaluates user feedback, advertiser interest and potential expansion to other markets.

Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.

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