ChatGPT starts showing ads on free accounts and the Go plan: how the ads work and what changes for users

OpenAI has begun a trial in the United States with ads integrated into the chat for users of its Free and Go plans. The company assures that the advertising will not affect the model’s responses, amid pressure to generate new revenue to sustain the high cost of artificial intelligence.

OpenAI has taken a key step in its monetization strategy: starting this week, it began testing advertising within ChatGPT in the United States. For now, the initiative only affects users of the Free plan and the Go plan, the cheapest subscription available on the platform.

The company confirmed the news through an official blog post, explaining that it is a test phase with contextual ads integrated directly into the chat. The goal is clear: to open a new revenue stream in a sector that demands multimillion-dollar investments and rising operating costs.

How advertising will work on ChatGPT

According to OpenAI, the ads will appear within the conversation, integrated into the chat flow. The test is aimed at adult users who use the Free version or the Go plan in the United States.

The company also reported that users who do not want to see ads can disable them. However, this option will limit usage: those who choose not to receive ads will have access to a reduced number of free messages per day.

OpenAI emphasized that the ads “do not influence the responses provided by ChatGPT,” in an attempt to dispel doubts about potential commercial interference in the operation of the artificial intelligence model.

The decision was not surprising. In mid-January, the company had already announced that it was working on incorporating advertising for US users. Now, that announcement is beginning to materialize into a concrete test.

A Model Under Financial Pressure

The incorporation of advertising reflects a structural reality of the generative artificial intelligence business. While OpenAI has experienced explosive growth since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, it also faces extremely high operating costs.

Training and running large-scale language models requires enormous computing power, specialized data centers, and a technological infrastructure that consumes resources at high speed. Maintaining and scaling these systems involves constant investments in hardware, energy, and specialized talent.

Although the company reached an estimated valuation of up to $500 billion in private funding rounds—and there has even been speculation about a potential IPO that could take it to $1 trillion—the pressure to generate sustainable revenue is ever-increasing.

With billions of users worldwide, only a fraction pay for the most advanced premium plans. Most users utilize free or low-cost versions, making advertising a logical alternative for monetizing the massive user base without further increasing subscription fees.

The competition didn’t miss the opportunity.

OpenAI’s decision didn’t go unnoticed in the industry. During the last Super Bowl, its competitor Anthropic—creator of the conversational assistant Claude—released an ad with a direct nod to this move.

In the commercial, a man consults a conversational tool and receives serious and helpful answers, until these are interrupted by an advertisement for a fictional dating site. The implicit message was clear: question the integration of ads into AI-based experiences.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, called the spot «funny» but «clearly dishonest.» The company defended its model, assuring that advertising will not affect the quality or neutrality of the responses generated by ChatGPT.

The issue raises a broader debate within the technology ecosystem: can artificial intelligence maintain its credibility and objectivity when it incorporates advertising? For OpenAI, the answer is yes, provided there is a clear separation between the response generation system and the advertising spaces.

A Paradigm Shift in User Experience

The arrival of ads on ChatGPT marks a turning point in the evolution of conversational assistants. Until now, much of the appeal of these tools lay in their clean, uninterrupted experience, free from traditional banners.

However, the business model of many digital platforms demonstrates that advertising can be integrated in a contextual, personalized, and less intrusive way. The key will be how OpenAI implements these ads and how users perceive them.

If the trial in the United States is successful, it’s possible that advertising will expand to other markets in the coming months. It will also be relevant to see if competitors like Anthropic, Google, or Meta adopt similar strategies to fund their own artificial intelligence developments.

In a scenario where generative AI is redefining how people search for information, work, and create content, monetization becomes a central challenge. OpenAI is now betting on combining subscriptions and advertising as part of a hybrid model that will allow it to sustain the growth and infrastructure necessary to continue leading the market.

Source: www.itsitio.com