OpenAI Starts Running Ads in ChatGPT
5 70OpenAI has started testing ads inside ChatGPT for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go subscription tiers in the United States, the company said. The Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education tiers remain ad-free. Ads are matched to users based on conversation topics, past chats, and prior ad interactions, and appear clearly labeled as "sponsored" and visually separated from ChatGPT's organic responses.
OpenAI says the ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers, and advertisers receive only aggregate performance data like view and click counts rather than access to individual conversations. Users under 18 do not see ads, and ads are excluded from sensitive topics such as health, mental health, and politics. Free-tier users can opt out of ads in exchange for fewer daily messages.
Further reading: Anthropic Pledges To Keep Claude Ad-free, Calls AI Conversations a 'Space To Think'.
5 comments
OK that seals the deal! (Score: 5, Insightful)
by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Monday February 09, 2026 @04:14PM (#65978570)
I probably won't be a user, ever. This type of product is not an Ad Platform no matter how much they want it to be.
I will not use a tool that insists on stealing and plagiarizing my work so they can spew ads at me and make backdoor improvements to their product with me paying the tab..
Re:OK that seals the deal! (Score: 5, Insightful)
by XopherMV ( 575514 ) on Monday February 09, 2026 @05:34PM (#65978760)
They're looking to spend over a trillion dollars while earning $20 billion per year.
Going from earning $0 in ad revenue to a trillion in ad revenue seems a bit... optimistic.
Ads aren't going to be enough to save them.
Welcome To The Hater's Ball (Score: 5, Insightful)
by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Monday February 09, 2026 @04:34PM (#65978612)
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
And especially fuck you, openAI.
I hate you all.
What happens if? (Score: 5, Funny)
by gtall ( 79522 ) on Monday February 09, 2026 @04:37PM (#65978620)
What happens if it hallucinates ads that are not there?
Only a matter of time until Ads influence results (Score: 5, Insightful)
by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Monday February 09, 2026 @05:12PM (#65978688)
We have seen this play out time and again: First there are just "random" Ads shown in some corner, then the Ads become annoying and distracting, then the Ads become "targeted" based on the conversation topics (and thus data leaked to the advertisers), then the advertisers demand "not being displayed around this or that topic - so the service obeys and censors "ad-unfriendly" topics in conversations, next Advertisers pay a premium for the content to present them as something positive, then they demand the content specifically advertises them, and finally the Website becomes "not profitable enough" anymore and is sold off, along with all the personal data and stored conversations, to the highest bidder, who then sells N copies of the personal data to every data broker while turning the service into a complete shit show with outrageous pricing.
And Anthropic may say "we'll never do that!" today, but they are only one CEO change and one investor call away from doing it, nevertheless.