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ChatGPT’s ad pivot marks a turning point for OpenAI
OpenAI is preparing a significant change to how its most popular product makes money. The shift follows years of resistance and comes as the cost of building advanced AI systems accelerates.
What was once framed as an unlikely option is now moving into testing, with implications for users, advertisers, and rivals alike.
A reluctant embrace
OpenAI confirmed it will begin testing advertisements in ChatGPT for free and Go users in the coming weeks, according to reporting by Business Insider. The move comes less than two years after CEO Sam Altman publicly described advertising as undesirable for the company.
“Ads plus AI is sort of uniquely unsettling to me,” Altman said at a Harvard University event in May 2024. “I kind of think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model.”
Since then, Altman has softened his position. In June, he said on OpenAI’s podcast that he was “not totally against” advertising, while stressing the difficulty of implementing it carefully. By October, he acknowledged concerns around ads when discussing the addictive nature of some tech products, saying, “We’re definitely worried about this.”
Costs drive change
The reversal reflects OpenAI’s rapidly expanding financial needs. The company now has about $1.4 trillion in spending commitments tied to data centers and related infrastructure, Business Insider reported.
Executives, including Altman and Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, have repeatedly highlighted an intense demand for more computing power. OpenAI has also restructured into a more conventional for-profit entity, a step Altman said would help attract future investment.
Unlike rivals such as Google and Meta, OpenAI has so far lacked a large-scale advertising engine to offset those costs.
How ads appear
OpenAI said ads will be clearly labeled, will not influence ChatGPT’s answers, and will not involve sharing user conversations with advertisers. Paid subscribers on Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will not see ads.
Simo wrote on X that “ads will not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you.” She previously told Wired that any ad system would need to be “extremely respectful” of user data, adding, “If we ever were to do anything, it would have to be a very different model than what has been done before.”
A bigger threat
The ad rollout could become highly lucrative. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney estimated that OpenAI could generate more than $25 billion in annual ad revenue by 2030, according to Business Insider.
“A path to generating several billion dollars in ad revenue in 2026, going to $25B+ by 2030, seems reasonable,” Mahaney wrote. He said ChatGPT’s scale and high-intent user interactions could eventually challenge Google’s search advertising dominance, though not overnight.
Sources: Business Insider, Wired
