OpenAI Begins Testing Ads in ChatGPT as It Seeks New Revenue Streams
GeokHub
SAN FRANCISCO — January 16, 2026 OpenAI has announced plans to begin testing advertising within ChatGPT for a limited group of users in the United States, marking a significant shift in how the company monetizes its widely used artificial intelligence chatbot.
The ads will initially appear for users on ChatGPT’s free tier and its lower-cost Go subscription plan, which OpenAI is in the process of rolling out globally. The company said the ads will be introduced in the coming weeks and will be clearly separated from AI-generated responses.
Subscribers on higher-priced plans — including Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise — will remain ad-free, OpenAI confirmed.
The move signals mounting pressure on the Microsoft-backed company to generate additional income as development costs surge. OpenAI is investing heavily in data centers and computing infrastructure and is widely expected to pursue a public listing in the future.
OpenAI emphasized that advertising will not influence ChatGPT’s responses and that user conversations will not be shared with advertisers. Ads will appear at the bottom of responses only when a sponsored product or service is considered relevant to the conversation.
The company also said it will not display ads to users under the age of 18 and will restrict advertising around sensitive topics such as health and politics.
Until now, OpenAI has relied primarily on subscription revenue. Analysts say introducing ads could unlock a substantial new income stream, given ChatGPT’s estimated 800 million weekly active users. However, they caution that poorly integrated advertising could damage user trust and push some customers toward rival AI platforms, including Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude.
At the same time, the decision may force competitors to more clearly define their own monetization strategies, particularly those positioning themselves as permanently ad-free.
OpenAI has previously disclosed plans to spend more than $1 trillion on artificial intelligence infrastructure by 2030, though it has yet to outline how those investments will be financed.
The ChatGPT Go plan, first launched in India, will be priced at $8 per month in the United States.
