OpenAI said on Friday it will start testing advertisements in ChatGPT for some users in the United States, marking a significant shift in how the company monetizes its flagship AI product as it seeks to fund soaring development and infrastructure costs.
The ads will be shown to users on ChatGPT’s free tier and the lower-priced Go plan, which OpenAI is now rolling out globally. The company said the ads will begin appearing in the coming weeks and will be clearly separated from ChatGPT’s generated responses.
Users on higher-priced subscription tiers—Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise—will remain ad-free. OpenAI also emphasized that advertising will not influence ChatGPT’s answers and that user conversations will not be shared with advertisers.
The move represents a notable departure for OpenAI, which until now has relied primarily on subscriptions. It highlights mounting pressure on the Microsoft-backed startup to diversify revenue streams as it invests heavily in data centers and prepares for a widely anticipated initial public offering.
OpenAI has said it plans to spend more than $1 trillion on AI infrastructure by 2030, though it has not detailed how that spending will be financed. Analysts say advertising could unlock substantial revenue from ChatGPT’s roughly 800 million weekly active users, but warned the strategy carries risks.
“If ads feel clumsy or opportunistic, users can easily switch to rival chatbots,” said Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at Emarketer, pointing to alternatives such as Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude. At the same time, he said OpenAI’s move could pressure competitors to clarify their own monetization approaches, especially those marketing themselves as ad-free.
OpenAI said ads will not be shown to users under 18 and will be blocked from appearing alongside sensitive topics such as health and politics. During the test phase, sponsored content will appear at the bottom of responses when a product or service is relevant to the ongoing conversation.
Advertisers, meanwhile, are increasingly optimistic that AI-driven systems can improve targeting and performance across search and social advertising, as the technology becomes more deeply embedded in recommendation engines.
The ChatGPT Go plan, which was first launched in India, will be available in the United States for $8 per month, OpenAI said.
