- By Prateek Levi
- Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:29 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
ChatGPT Advertising Feature Update: ChatGPT might soon start showing you ads based on what it thinks you like. OpenAI had announced this on Friday, stating that it will be testing this feature for users who are logged in, and specifically for adult users in the US. The tech giant will also be rolling out a new "Go" subscription for customers that is priced at $8 per month, and this package will come with longer memory and higher bandwidth for image creation at a price lower than Plus and Pro, which are priced at $20 and $200 per month, respectively.
Although the catch here is that "Go" subscribers will get ads, while the Pro, Plus and OpenAI business customers will not get ads.
This announcement comes after the fact that OpenAI is currently in dire need of funds to push its focus towards growth of AI infrastructure, for which the firm has committed $1.4 trillion. Despite reservations about introducing ads to the chatbot, OpenAI Chief Sam Altman has opted to go the other way. The company is currently figuring out how to extract more revenue from its 800 million monthly users.
A feature that is currently live in the US called the "Instant Checkout" was launched by OpenAI last year. The tool lets users buy products directly from retailers like Etsy and Walmart through the chatbot itself. Apart from that, it has also introduced various learning and health apps, basically trying to make ChatGPT an essential part of a person's daily life and eventually turning those users into potential buyers of a paid subscription.
Therefore, the company is looking at advertising as a lucrative venture, where people's conversations can be used for information to throw highly targeted ads. But what does it say about privacy?
The ads for now, as a part of the test, will show up at the bottom, where the answers to the user's query are, and ads will carry a label that says "sponsored". OpenAI has said that ads will have no impact on answers ChatGPT provides and has added that users “need to trust that ChatGPT’s responses are driven by what’s objectively useful.” The company has also affirmed that it will not be selling the users' data or conversations to advertisers that will be on the platform, and ad personalisation can be turned off. When it comes to topics like health, mental health or politics, basically things under the "regulated topics" category will not have any advertisements.
In a blog post previously OpenAI had said, “Given what AI can do, we’re excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads,” It added further, “Soon you might see an ad and be able to directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision.”
What About Privacy And Security?
AI vigilance over your conversations could be a controversial issue; with X (Twitter) generating a hardcore buzz after its explicit images controversy broke out, this gives us all the more reason to tread carefully. This will also put pressure on OpenAI to make sure the chatbot does not recommend harmful products, especially after lawsuits that OpenAI has already seen, alleging users' suicides.
No Ads For Children
The firm has made sure that there will be no ads served to users under 18 years old, or whoever the system believes is under age, as the company uses AI to estimate a user's age based on conversations and habits. This also means OpenAI is already listening.
Ads will slowly take over the general user experience across its platforms. In December Meta had started doing something similar, using users' information to show targeted ads.