Last month, OpenAI revealed its plans to introduce ads in ChatGPT for Free and Go plan users. OpenAI claimed that it will not sell users" data to advertisers, and ChatGPT’s responses will remain independent of the ads shown.
Recently, Anthropic, OpenAI"s main rival, ran Super Bowl ads to criticize ads coming to AI conversations, squarely targeting OpenAI"s plans. Anthropic even went on to claim that it will not serve advertisements in Claude and instead will focus on developing smaller models and may introduce lower-cost subscription tiers if there is demand from users.
Despite all the criticism around ads, today, OpenAI has started testing ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. for logged-in adult users who are using Free and Go plans. All other ChatGPT paid plans including Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education tiers will not have ads.
OpenAI has around 800 million weekly active users on ChatGPT. More than 90% of them are on Free and Go tiers, which require significant infrastructure and ongoing investment. OpenAI believes that serving ads will help them offset those investments. Here"s what the OpenAI team wrote today on the blog post regarding the launch of ads:
Ads help fund that work, supporting broader access to AI through higher quality free and low-cost options, and enabling us to keep improving the intelligence and capabilities we offer over time. If you prefer not to see ads, you can upgrade to our Plus or Pro plans, or opt out of ads in the Free tier in exchange for fewer daily free messages.
The OpenAI team also reconfirmed that ads will be clearly labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the organic answer. When you ask a question to ChatGPT, OpenAI will try to match the ads submitted by advertisers with the topic of your question, your past chats, and past interactions with ads. For example, if you are interacting with ChatGPT on a food recipe, you might see ads from grocery shops or food delivery services.
ChatGPT"s advertisers will be able to access aggregate information about how their ads perform, such as the number of views or clicks. However, they will not have any type of access to users" chats, chat history, memories, or personal details.