OpenAI to Test ChatGPT Ads on Free and Go Tiers

OpenAI has unveiled its strategy to incorporate advertisements within ChatGPT.

The company will initiate the display of promotional offers to adult users with free accounts in the United States over the coming weeks. These advertisements will also be presented to ChatGPT Go subscribers. Launched today in the U.S., this plan costs less than half of OpenAI's previous entry-level product tier.

In today's announcement regarding its advertising service, OpenAI previewed a specific ad format. It presents products relevant to user prompts in a carousel layout. For instance, if a consumer asks for recipe suggestions, the carousel might showcase items from grocery delivery providers.

OpenAI's announcement indicates that more advertising formats will be introduced in the future. The company plans to eventually allow consumers to ask questions about promoted products. Users will have the option to close ads that are irrelevant to their query and provide feedback to OpenAI.

The company has committed to not sharing ChatGPT conversations with advertisers. For added security, control options will be provided, enabling users to disable ad personalization and clear their chat history.

The ad-supported ChatGPT Go plan launched today in the U.S. is priced at $8 per month, which is $12 cheaper than OpenAI's entry-level Plus tier. The new subscription offers a message limit ten times greater than that of free accounts. Additionally, users can upload larger files and generate more images.

ChatGPT Go is powered by GPT-5.2 Instant, a lightweight algorithm from OpenAI's flagship GPT-5.2 series of large language models. Other paid tiers of the chatbot utilize more advanced models from this series. Go also lacks certain other features, most notably OpenAI's Sora video generator and Codex programming agent.

Entering the lucrative advertising market could make it easier for OpenAI to sustain its rapid sales growth. In November of last year, CEO Sam Altman stated that the company expects its annualized recurring revenue to surpass $20 billion by the end of this year. This figure is nearly four times that of 2024.

OpenAI is making significant investments to maintain its sales momentum. In September, The Information reported that the company anticipated ending 2025 with an $8 billion loss. It is reportedly expected that this number will double this year and climb further in 2027. If the company's advertising business takes off, it could shorten its path to profitability.

In the nearer term, OpenAI's advertising push may help increase investor interest in its initial public offering. The company is expected to go public in the second half of 2026 or early 2027. OpenAI is reportedly seeking to sell at least $60 billion worth of stock at a valuation of $1 trillion.