- ChatGPT announces that ads are coming to its free tier
- An $8-a-month ChatGPT Go is also coming, but it will still have ads
- Opting out may require you to pay a minimum of $20 per month
ChatGPT will soon have ads, at least on its free tier, and the news comes directly from OpenAI. The ads aren’t in the chatbot yet, but you can expect to see them “in the coming weeks.”
OpenAI finally confirmed the rumor in a detailed blog post on Friday (January 16, 2026), detailing not only its ad plans, but also its principles for how and why it will show them: “Our mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity.”
The AI giant also announced the global availability of ChatGPT Go, a more affordable entry-level tier at $8 per month, which unfortunately won’t be your first option to avoid the ad when it arrives.
Adding advertisements to ChatGPT is a no-brainer for OpenAI. The company has not yet achieved profitability; its operating costs are said to be astronomical and it has significant earning potential with a reported 800 million monthly active users.
Addressing even a fraction of these users can generate billions in revenue. Integrated advertising may also put ChatGPT on a more equal footing with its main competitor, Google Gemini. Gemini AI Overviews are already part of Google’s search results, which are dominated by advertisements.
What will the ads look like?
OpenAI says the ads will appear at the bottom of prompt results, as shown in the example above. So you can at least read your answer before you have to read an advertisement for Squarespace.
The ads will be contextual, meaning they will be linked to the content of your ChatGPT conversation. Ask ChatGPT about the best laptop to buy and you might see a Dell or Lenovo ad at the bottom.
Will these ads be different?
OpenAI plans to let advertisers take advantage of the platform, allowing consumers to ask advertisers about the products or purchase decisions in much the same way they could interact with ChatGPT.
“AI tools are leveling the playing field even more, empowering anyone to create high-quality experiences that help people discover opportunities they might never have found otherwise,” OpenAI writes in the post.
All of these ads and ad experiences will be clearly labeled, according to OpenAI.
Who doesn’t want to see ads?
Anyone known by the system to be under 18, or anyone who tells ChatGPT they are under that age, will not see any advertisements. OpenAI will also keep ads free from chat topics that revolve around health and politics.
Ads will also not influence the information in your quick replies, meaning that a reply that might benefit, highlight or criticize a potential advertiser should not be considered.
Controls and opt-outs
OpenAI promises not to sell customer data to third parties, and it will let you turn off personalization and clear your data, both of which can affect the relevance of ads you see in ChatGPT.
An obvious way to avoid seeing the ads is to join a paid tier, which however does not include the new $8-a-month ChatGPT Go plan. While Go gives you more access to OpenAI’s latest model and improved image generation, you’ll need to be on the $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus plan to avoid ads.
But OpenAI says, “We will always offer a way not to see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that is ad-free,” suggesting there may be other alternatives to turning off ads, though it’s not clear right now what those might be.
Ad testing in the Free and ChatGPT Go tiers will start soon in the US. No word on when they’ll roll out to other users, though we’d guess it will depend on their success in the States.
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