OpenAI announced Friday it will begin testing advertisements in ChatGPT within the coming weeks, marking a fundamental shift in strategy for the company as it confronts massive infrastructure costs and an urgent need to accelerate the path to profitability.
The ads will appear for users on the free tier and the new $8-per-month "Go" plan in the United States, while Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions will remain ad-free. Advertisements will be displayed at the bottom of ChatGPT's responses when there's a relevant sponsored product or service based on the current conversation, clearly labeled and separated from the AI's answers.
The move comes as OpenAI faces staggering financial pressures. The company lost more than $11.5 billion in the third quarter of 2025 alone, according to disclosures from Microsoft, a major OpenAI investor. OpenAI has committed over $1.4 trillion to infrastructure deals with cloud computing providers and chipmakers required to power its AI systems.
CEO Sam Altman said in November that OpenAI was on track to generate $20 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2025. Internal documents indicate the company is targeting $30 billion in revenue for 2026—slightly more than double the 2025 figure. However, OpenAI projects it won't reach profitability until 2030 despite this aggressive revenue growth.
Internal financial projections show "free user monetization" will generate approximately $1 billion in 2026, scaling dramatically to nearly $25 billion by 2029. These figures assume OpenAI successfully converts approximately 8.5% of its user base to paid subscriptions by 2030 while monetizing the remaining 90%-plus through advertising and affiliate revenue.
The advertising strategy represents a reversal for Altman, who has publicly expressed reservations about introducing ads to ChatGPT. In a 2024 interview, he said he "hates" ads and called the idea of combining them with AI "uniquely unsettling." Last year he said he wasn't "totally against" adding ads but that it would "take a lot of care to get right."
OpenAI emphasized that ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses and that the company never sells user data or conversations to advertisers. Users can turn off ad personalization based on their chats. The company will not serve ads to users under 18 or in conversations about regulated topics including health, mental health, or politics.
"We'll learn from feedback and refine how ads show up over time, but our commitment to putting users first and maintaining trust won't change," OpenAI stated.
The decision to embrace advertising reflects broader challenges facing the AI industry. With only about 5% of ChatGPT's 800 million weekly users paying for subscriptions as of July 2025, advertising offers a scalable revenue path that could subsidize free access while helping balance long-term infrastructure costs.
Digital advertising has proven highly lucrative for other tech giants. Google generated over $74 billion from ads in Q3 2025, while Meta brought in more than $50 billion from advertising during the same period.
OpenAI's advertising push also supports preparations for a highly anticipated initial public offering. Reuters has reported the company is laying groundwork for an IPO that could value it at $1 trillion, with a potential filing in the second half of 2026.
