OpenAI to add ads in ChatGPT for free users and $8 Go tier

Pcgamer reports OpenAI will place ads in ChatGPT for free users and subscribers to its lowest paid tier, ChatGPT Go ($8 a month), with a trial in the US "in the coming weeks" before a global rollout.

OpenAI says ChatGPT's responses will remain "driven by what’s objectively useful, never by advertising" and that user conversations and data will be "protected and never sold to advertisers," though the article points to a banner ad for hot sauce as an early example. It also notes a May 2024 remark from CEO Sam Altman that "Ads plus AI is sort of uniquely unsettling to me. I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model," and a later post on X saying "It is clear to us that a lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don't want to pay," so OpenAI hopes "a business model like this can work."

The piece says OpenAI's finances are opaque, and that the Financial Times last year called it an "era-defining money furnace" that lost just under $8 billion in 2025. It adds ChatGPT is estimated to have 800 million users with roughly 5% paying, and that ads will apply only to free and Go tiers while Plus ($20/month), Pro ($200/month), Business and Enterprise subscriptions will not include ads.

Key Topics

Tech, Openai, Chatgpt, Chatgpt Go, Sam Altman, Advertising