OpenAI started testing advertisements in ChatGPT on Monday, just hours after rival Anthropic ran Super Bowl commercials mocking the very idea of ads in AI assistants.
“We’re starting to roll out a test for ads in ChatGPT today to a subset of free and Go users in the U.S,” OpenAI said in an official announcement. “Ads are labeled as sponsored and visually separate from the response.”
We’re starting to roll out a test for ads in ChatGPT today to a subset of free and Go users in the U.S.
Ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers. Ads are labeled as sponsored and visually separate from the response.
Free users and subscribers to the $8-per-month ChatGPT Go tier started seeing sponsored content at the bottom of responses.
Before this, ChatGPT didn't show ads, per se. Instead it showed direct links to specific products based on what the user was looking for. Once a person clicked on any of these products, the links presented their own tracker, letting servers know this is a direct referral from ChatGPT.
Why ads make senseThe launch represents an abrupt shift for CEO Sam Altman, who called ads in AI "uniquely unsettling" in a 2024 interview and described advertising as a "last resort" business model for ChatGPT. But the company burned through $8 billion in 2025, according to internal documents reviewed by Fortune, with projected losses reaching $74 billion by 2028.
Altman fired back on X, calling the ads "funny" but "clearly dishonest." He argued that OpenAI "would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them" and accused Anthropic of wanting to "control what people do with AI" while serving "an expensive product to rich people."
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
Of course, the response generated huge backlash, with users mocking Altman for replying to a comic ad with a statement using corporate language.
OpenAI framed the rollout as a "test" rather than an official launch, suggesting implementation details may still change. The company promises ads won't influence ChatGPT's answers and won't appear for users under 18 or near sensitive topics like health, mental health, or politics. And Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions remain ad-free.
