Ads will soon begin running on OpenAI’s flagship chatbot ChatGPT as the company looks for new ways to monetize one of the world’s most used AI tools.
OpenAI has confirmed that it will test advertising in ChatGPT in the United States, showing some users ads in the free version of the service as well as in a new, lower-cost subscription tier, ChatGPT Go.
ChatGPT Go is priced at $8 per month in the US, with equivalent pricing rolling out worldwide. The tier is below existing paid plans, which include ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month and ChatGPT Pro for $200.
During the trial, ads will appear at the top of the interface after a user submits a prompt. For example, if someone asks ChatGPT for Mexico travel recommendations, you may see vacation-related ads as banner placements. OpenAI emphasized that the ads have no influence on ChatGPT’s responses and that conversation data is not shared with advertisers.
The company said it was exploring advertising “so that more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage restrictions,” signaling that ads could help subsidize broader access to the platform.
The move comes amid increasing scrutiny of the economic aspects of the AI sector. Despite explosive user growth, many leading AI companies are still operating at significant losses. The Financial Times reported that OpenAI lost around $8 billion (£6 billion) in the first half of 2025 alone, as only around 5 percent of ChatGPT’s estimated 800 million users paid for a subscription.
Henry Ajder, an expert in AI, deepfakes and synthetic media, said the decision was not surprising given the company’s financial position.
“OpenAI has seen tremendous user growth, but it continues to devour investor money and is not yet a profitable company,” he said. “To change that, you need revenue streams that go beyond subscriptions. For many software companies, advertising is a proven and reliable model.”
OpenAI was originally founded as a nonprofit research organization but has steadily evolved into a more commercial venture as the costs of building and operating large AI models have increased. Advertising has been the foundation of much of the Internet economy for more than two decades, funding everything from search engines to social media platforms.
Still, OpenAI boss Sam Altman has previously been skeptical of ads, once describing them as a “last resort.” However, OpenAI is not the only one rethinking the approach. Rival AI company Perplexity created a senior advertising position last year, while Google has denied reports that it plans to introduce ads to its Gemini AI assistant in 2026.
Analysts say OpenAI’s experiment will be closely watched across the tech sector. If successful, this could mark a turning point in the funding of consumer AI products – and perhaps signal that the era of ad-free chatbots is coming to an end.
