Well folks, the moment Sam Altman once called "uniquely unsettling" has officially arrived. Ads are now live in ChatGPT.
OpenAI officially began testing ads yesterday, February 9, for U.S. users on the Free and Go ($8/month) tiers. But here is the kicker: it is a very limited test. Multiple people have been trying to "summon" an ad like some digital ghost, but nobody has quite caught one in the wild yet. Meaning, it’s a slow rollout, so do not expect a pop-up every time you ask for a coding fix just yet.
Oh, and get this: OpenAI is trying something pretty unique here. Instead of just forcing commercials down our throats, they are giving free users a choice:
The Ad-Supported Experience: You keep the "good stuff" like image generation and deep research, but you have to look at some sponsored links.
The "Ads-Free" Toggle: You can switch ads off in your settings entirely, but your usage limits drop and the fancy features get locked away.
Basically, you can pay with your eyeballs or pay with your patience. If you are a Plus, Pro, or Enterprise user? You can breathe easy. Your $20 (or $200) a month still keeps your chat window a pristine, ad-free sanctuary.
The opt-out options right inside ChatGPT’s user settings.
How it looks (and the guardrails)
When ads do show up, they will appear at the bottom of a response, clearly labeled as "sponsored," and separated from the actual answer. OpenAI promises that ads will not influence what the AI tells you, and conversations stay private from advertisers.
They have also put up some serious guardrails. There will be no ads for users under 18, and nothing will appear near sensitive topics like health, mental health, or politics. Ads will also stay away from:
Temporary Chats
Logged-out sessions
After generating images
And the ChatGPT Atlas browser
Also: You can dismiss individual ads, give feedback, delete your ad history and the data used for the ads, and toggle off personalization if you don't want ads based on your chat history.
You can even ask ChatGPT questions about an ad, which is probably one of the coolest thing about all this.
And yes, the logic is pretty simple: running world-class AI is expensive. OpenAI has committed to $1.4 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next eight years, and right now, they are burning through cash. With 800 million+ weekly users and only 5% of them paying, the subscription model alone is not going to cut it.
So Will The Ads Do It?
Well, internal documents show OpenAI is eyeing a $25 billion ad revenue goal by 2030. And guess what? Advertisers are already jumping in, even with a $200k minimum buy-in and rates significantly higher than what you would pay on Meta. But then, when you have high-intent users asking specific questions, that ad space is digital gold.
The Bottom Line:
We are all watching to see if this feels "uniquely unsettling" or just a minor annoyance. If the experience gets too invasive, expect a mass exodus to Claude or Gemini. But for now, OpenAI is betting that we will trade a little screen real estate for world-class intelligence.
Wanna know more about how to control those ads? You can find out more here.
