JAN 17 – Adverts will soon appear at the top of the AI tool ChatGPT for some users, the company OpenAI has announced.
The trial will initially take place in the US, and will affect some ChatGPT users on the free service and a new subscription tier, called ChatGPT Go.
This cheaper option will be available for all users worldwide, and will cost $8 a month, or the equivalent pricing in other currencies.
OpenAI says during the trial, relevant ads will appear after a prompt – for example, asking ChatGPT for places to visit in Mexico could result in holiday ads appearing.
In example screenshots shared by the firm, the ads look like banners.
OpenAI says they will not influence ChatGPT’s responses and the firm will not share data about conversations with advertisers.
It said it had decided to explore ads “so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits”.
However there is also growing speculation that the AI sector has been over-valued by keen investors and hype, and has yet to actually demonstrate much in the way of profit.
Some analysts predict this “bubble” is unsustainable and could soon burst.
Henry Ajder, an expert in AI, Deepfakes and synthetic media, said OpenAI’s decision to explore ad revenue was not a surprise.
“OpenAI is a company that’s seen a huge amount of growth in terms of users in the last few years but it continues to burn investor money – it is not a profit making entity,” he said.
“And so, for this company to start actually turning a profit, it has to find more revenue sources from somewhere other than just standard paying subscribers. And for many software businesses, advertising is a revenue source which is reliable.”
OpenAIThe Financial Times reported that in 2025 OpenAI operated at a loss of around $8bn (£5.98bn) in the first six months of the year, and that only 5% of ChatGPT’s 800 million users are paid subscribers.
In addition to the new Go subscription tier, it already has Plus and Pro tiers, which cost $20 and $200 respectively per month in the US.
ChatGPT Go was first introduced in India in 2025 before being expanded out to other countries.
OpenAI was originally set up as a non-profit organisation but has increasingly turned towards a more commercial operation.
The internet economy has been largely funded by advertising for more than two decades.
OpenAI isn’t the only AI firm considering this business model, despite boss Sam Altman once saying he hated ads and describing them as “a last resort”.
In 2025, AI firm Perplexity appointed Taz Patel in the role of “head of advertising and shopping”, but he left the company nine months later.
Google denies reports that it had approached advertisers about bringing ads to its Gemini AI tool in 2026.
By BBC
