Uh, oh! ChatGPT is getting ads, OpenAI to start testing soon

Key Highlights:

• OpenAI announces to begin testing ads on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers for U.S. users in the coming weeks.
• Ads will appear separately from responses and will not influence ChatGPT’s answers or use conversation data.
• Paid plans, including Pro, Business, and Enterprise, will remain completely ad-free.

If you were hoping not to see ads inside ChatGPT in 2026, there is some bad news for you. Last year, some reports hinted that OpenAI was planning to show ads in ChatGPT. At the time, the company dropped the plan to inject ads due to the competition it was facing from Google’s Gemini 3. In fact, CEO Sam Altman issued a code-red call, which eventually fast-tracked the GPT-5.2 model.

OpenAI will start testing ads in ChatGPT in the coming weeks

Well, ads are coming in ChatGPT, and it’s coming fast. OpenAI, in today’s announcement, has clearly mentioned that it will be testing ads in the US for both free and ChatGPT Go tier plans. Yes, the company has also announced the expanded availability of ChatGPT Go in the US and all other regions where ChatGPT is currently available.

As far as ads are concerned, business and enterprise subscriptions will remain ad-free as part of the initial testing. OpenAI maintains that ads will never influence AI responses during the testing period, and conversations will remain private, with user data never sold to advertisers. We will see if the company sticks with its promises. But the important thing to note is that users can always turn off ad personalization or clear ad data at any time. As mentioned earlier, paid tier plans will remain completely ad-free as part of the initial push.

Now, you might ask, where will the ads appear, right? OpenAI says that in the initial testing phase, ads will appear below responses, clearly labeled and separated from the AI assistant’s reply. OpenAI is already dealing with multiple lawsuits involving ChatGPT, which is why it is not taking any chances showing ads to kids. In the announcement, OpenAI explicitly mentioned that ads will not appear for users under 18 or near sensitive topics like health, politics, or mental health.

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Ads can be handy for brand discovery and help small businesses, says the company

That being said, OpenAI envisions interactive ads where users can ask questions directly to make purchase decisions. In an example given by OpenAI, this may include sponsored product recommendations for recipes, travel, or other services. OpenAI further says that ads may help small businesses and emerging brands reach users in a high-quality and discoverable way. Only time will tell whether that will happen or not.

But the gist of everything mentioned above is that ads are coming inside ChatGPT. OpenAI further notes that it’ll begin testing first ad formats in the coming weeks and month. Sadly, there’s no clear timeline of the rollout. Last but not least, OpenAI is looking for user feedback during the ad testing phase.