A screenshot shared by a user shows an ad at the bottom of the screen on ChatGPT's website.
It is speculated that ChatGPT Plus and Pro tiers could be exempted from seeing ads
Photo Credit: Reuters
OpenAI's ChatGPT might soon show users ads as they message the company's popular chatbot. Multiple reports indicate that the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) giant has started testing ads on its chatbot platform. At least one user has spotted ads on ChatGPT, highlighting the company might be nearing wider integration. As per older reports, the company has been considering embedding ads on the platform as a separate revenue channel since August, ever since Fidji Simo joined OpenAI as the CEO of Applications. Simo, the former Head of Facebook app at Meta, is said to be a big believer in ad-led revenue growth.
Tibor Blaho, the Lead Engineer at AIPRM, posted (first spotted by Android Authority) a screenshot of the ChatGPT app on X (formerly known as Twitter), to reveal newly added references to ads. The code snippets were spotted in the ChatGPT's Android app beta version 1.2025.329, and there are multiple strings of “ads.feature” that hint at the company's plans.
Some of the notable mentions in the strings include “ad target,” “bazaar content,” “search ad,” and “search ads carousel.” While just this information is not enough to draw any conclusions, it hints that the company could be planning to show targeted ads, search-based ads, and a display carousel for the same. Notably, since the information is just visible in the code snippet, there is no confirmation if this is how OpenAI will set up the ads the same way.
Another X user, Yuchen Jin, shared a screenshot where an ad is visible. The ad appeared as a bottom banner on the screen, and said “Find a fitness class, Connect Peloton.” The user clarified that the shown ad was unrelated to the topic of the conversation, highlighting OpenAI is not testing targeted ads just yet. Notably, if the company did show targeted ads, that would raise several privacy concerns.
While nothing else is known about how the company is planning to implement ads, it is likely that the paid subscription tiers (Plus and Pro) will be exempted from it. The free tier will see the most number of ads, and they could even be shown to the ChatGPT Go users, given that it is a cheaper plan that sits between the free tier and Plus.
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