OpenAI Begins Testing Advertisements in ChatGPT: A New Era for AI Monetization

The Introduction of Sponsored Content

OpenAI has officially entered the digital advertising arena, launching its first live tests of sponsored content within ChatGPT in early February 2026. The initial rollout is limited to logged-in adult users in the United States who are currently on the Free tier or the recently introduced mid-tier subscription, ChatGPT Go. This move represents a fundamental pivot for a company that once framed advertising as a 'last resort' and a potential threat to the integrity of AI-generated answers.

Under the new system, advertisements do not appear within the main body of the AI's response. Instead, they are positioned in a clearly labeled 'Sponsored' section at the bottom of the chat interface. These ads are designed to be contextually relevant to the current conversation; for instance, a user researching travel itineraries for Japan might see a sponsored link for a flight booking service or a boutique hotel. Early reports suggest that OpenAI is seeking significant commitments from brand partners, with minimum spends starting at $200,000 and cost-per-thousand (CPM) rates quoted as high as $60.

Strategic Shift and Financial Pressures

The decision to embrace advertising is largely seen as a necessity driven by the astronomical costs of maintaining and scaling large language models. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, who formerly held executive roles at Meta and Instacart, has been a central figure in this transition. Friar has argued that a sustainable business model is essential to fund the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and to ensure that powerful AI tools remain accessible to those who cannot afford high-priced subscriptions.

The company’s financial projections highlight the urgency of this new revenue stream. While OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate is expected to surpass $20 billion by the end of 2025, the costs of talent, compute infrastructure, and energy remain equally massive. Internal documents suggest the firm aims to generate at least $1 billion from free-user monetization by late 2026, eventually scaling to nearly $25 billion from ads by 2029. By diversifying its income beyond its $20-per-month Plus tier, OpenAI is positioning itself to compete more directly with Google and Meta in the digital attention economy.

Privacy and User Control Mechanisms

OpenAI has emphasized that it is taking a 'thoughtful' approach to ad placement to avoid degrading the user experience. To maintain user trust, the company has implemented several privacy safeguards and controls:

• Privacy Separation: OpenAI claims that individual conversation transcripts, personal names, and email addresses are not shared with advertisers. Advertisers only receive aggregated performance metrics like total clicks and impressions.
• Topic Restrictions: Ads are strictly prohibited in conversations involving sensitive or regulated topics, such as mental health, reproductive health, and politics.
• Personalization Controls: While personalization is enabled by default—using past chat history to inform ad relevance—users can toggle this feature off in their settings.
• The Opt-Out Tradeoff: Free tier users are reportedly given a choice: they can opt out of ads entirely in exchange for fewer daily messages or upgrade to a paid, ad-free tier like ChatGPT Plus.

The Competitive AI Landscape

The timing of the test is notable, occurring just after rival Anthropic released a high-profile Super Bowl advertisement for its Claude chatbot. The Anthropic commercial explicitly mocked the idea of AI-driven sales pitches, using the tagline, 'Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the jab by framing Anthropic’s stance as elitist, suggesting that advertising is the most viable way to bring advanced technology to billions of people globally.

OpenAI is not alone in this pursuit. Search-centric AI startup Perplexity has been experimenting with sponsored follow-up questions, and Google is increasingly integrating AI Overviews into its existing ad ecosystem. As the boundaries between search engines and conversational assistants continue to blur, the success of OpenAI’s ad test will likely determine whether the future of generative AI remains premium and private or evolves into the ad-supported utility model that defined the previous generation of the internet.