OpenAI is preparing to introduce advertising inside ChatGPT as it rolls out a cheaper subscription globally, seeking another revenue stream alongside its subscriptions and enterprise deals.
Ads Coming to Free and Go Users
The company said it plans to begin testing ads “in the coming weeks” for adult users of its free and ChatGPT Go plans in the United States, while keeping Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education accounts ad-free.
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Go, priced at $8 a month, offers messaging, image generation, file uploads, and memory, and is now being expanded to the United States, among other markets, after first rolling out in 171 countries in August.
During the trial, ads are expected to appear at the bottom of ChatGPT’s responses when there is a sponsored product or service deemed relevant to the ongoing conversation. OpenAI says these products will be marked as advertising, separated from the model’s answer, and can be dismissed by users, who will also be able to see why a specific ad was shown.
Guardrails on Privacy and Content
The company says advertisers will not see users’ conversations with ChatGPT and that it keeps user data private. If a person chooses to engage with a brand through an ad, the advertiser will only see the messages sent directly in that thread.
OpenAI plans to exclude accounts that belong to, or are predicted to belong to, people under 18 from the test. Additionally, ads will not be eligible to appear next to sensitive or regulated topics such as health, mental health, or politics.
From Nonprofit Roots to Revenue Pressures
OpenAI was set up in 2015 as a nonprofit lab with a stated mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits “all of humanity” and for several years relied heavily on that identity.
As its models grew pricier to build and run, the organization created a capped-profit subsidiary in 2019, OpenAI LP, allowing it to raise billions of dollars from investors, such as Microsoft, while formally keeping the nonprofit entity in control.
In 2025, OpenAI underwent a recapitalization that turned its main operating arm into a public benefit corporation, OpenAI Group PBC, with the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation retaining a minority stake. This change paved the way for conventional fundraising methods and the possibility of a listing.
The planned introduction of advertising in ChatGPT sits inside that broader shift, as executives describe ads as one strand in a “diverse revenue model” alongside subscriptions and enterprise contracts, while the company faces heavy infrastructure costs and looks to monetize hundreds of millions of mostly free users.
