Jan 17, 2026Ravie LakshmananArtificial Intelligence / Knowledge Privateness
OpenAI on Friday stated it might begin displaying advertisements in ChatGPT to logged-in grownup U.S. customers in each the free and ChatGPT Go tiers within the coming weeks, as the substitute intelligence (AI) firm expanded entry to its low-cost subscription globally.
“You want to know that your knowledge and conversations are protected and by no means offered to advertisers,” OpenAI stated. “And we have to hold a excessive bar and provide you with management over your expertise, so that you see really related, high-quality advertisements—and may flip off personalization in order for you.”
The corporate has positioned promoting as a approach to make sure that the advantages of synthetic common intelligence – a time period used to explain a stage in machine studying when an AI system can attain or surpass human-level intelligence – might be made extra accessible to the plenty. As well as, it may be “transformative” for small companies and rising manufacturers attempting to compete, it added.
It additionally emphasised that advertisements don’t affect responses from the chatbot, consumer knowledge and conversations are stored personal from advertisers, and that customers are accountable for the advert expertise. The advertisements can be clearly labeled and can present up on the backside of a consumer’s dialog.
OpenAI didn’t element precisely what knowledge it is going to acquire on customers to serve related advertisements. Customers will be capable to study extra about why they’re seeing particular advertisements, or dismiss them and submit suggestions. Customers on the dearer Plus, Professional, Enterprise, and Enterprise tiers is not going to see advertisements.
“To begin, we plan to check advertisements on the backside of solutions in ChatGPT when there is a related sponsored services or products based mostly in your present dialog,” it stated. “Throughout our take a look at, we is not going to present advertisements in accounts the place the consumer tells us or we predict that they’re below 18, and advertisements will not be eligible to seem close to delicate or regulated subjects like well being, psychological well being, or politics.”
In a put up on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman famous that the corporate is not going to “settle for cash” to affect the responses ChatGPT serves to the customers. “It’s clear to us that lots of people need to use lots of AI and do not need to pay, so we’re hopeful a enterprise mannequin like this will work,” Altman added.
The event marks a significant departure for the corporate that had to this point primarily relied on subscriptions. At an occasion at Harvard College in Could 2024, Altman described advertisements “as like a final resort for us for a enterprise mannequin,” characterizing “advertisements plus AI is kind of uniquely unsettling.”
Altman’s softened stance is indicative of how OpenAI views promoting as a strategy to unlock a brand new income stream so as to maintain the pricey endeavor. ChatGPT had 800 million weekly energetic customers as of early October 2025.
