Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT
TL;DR
OpenAI is expanding access to ChatGPT Go in the U.S. and testing ads in free and Go tiers to make AI more accessible. Ads will be clearly labeled, separate from answers, and respect user privacy and control, with principles ensuring they don't influence responses or compromise trust.
Key Takeaways
- •ChatGPT Go is launching in the U.S. and globally, offering expanded features for $8/month to increase AI accessibility.
- •Ads will be tested in free and Go tiers in the U.S., with clear labeling and separation from organic answers, while Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers remain ad-free.
- •Key advertising principles include answer independence (ads don't influence responses), conversation privacy (data not sold to advertisers), and user choice (control over personalization and ad data).
- •Ads will initially appear at the bottom of answers based on conversation relevance, with exclusions for minors and sensitive topics like health or politics.
- •The goal is to use ads to support broad AI access while maintaining user trust, with a focus on useful, high-quality ad experiences and a diverse revenue model.
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AI is reaching a point where everyone can have a personal super-assistant that helps them learn and do almost anything. Who gets access to that level of intelligence will shape whether AI expands opportunity or reinforces the same divides.
We’ve been working to make powerful AI accessible to everyone through our free product and low-cost subscription tier, ChatGPT Go, which has launched in 171 countries since August. Today we’re bringing Go to the U.S. and everywhere ChatGPT is available, giving people expanded access to messaging, image creation, file uploads and memory for $8 USD/month. In the coming weeks, we’re also planning to start testing ads in the U.S. for the free and Go tiers, so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay. Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscriptions will not include ads.
People trust ChatGPT for many important and personal tasks, so as we introduce ads, it’s crucial we preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable in the first place. That means you need to trust that ChatGPT’s responses are driven by what’s objectively useful, never by advertising. You need to know that your data and conversations are protected and never sold to advertisers. And we need to keep a high bar and give you control over your experience so you see truly relevant, high-quality ads—and can turn off personalization if you want.
Given that, we want to be clear about the principles that guide our approach to advertising:
Our ads principles
- Mission alignment: Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of advertising is always in support of that mission and making AI more accessible.
- Answer independence: Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you. Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you. Ads are always separate and clearly labeled.
- Conversation privacy: We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers.
- Choice and control: You control how your data is used. You can turn off personalization, and you can clear the data used for ads at any time. We’ll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free.
- Long-term value: We do not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT. We prioritize user trust and user experience over revenue.
We’re not launching ads yet, but we do plan to start testing in the coming weeks for logged in adults in the U.S. on the free and Go tiers. To start, we plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation. Ads will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer. You’ll be able to learn more about why you’re seeing that ad, or dismiss any ad and tell us why. During our test, we will not show ads in accounts where the user tells us or we predict that they are under 18, and ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics.
Here’s an example of what the first ad formats we plan to test could look like:
The best ads are useful, entertaining, and help people discover new products and services. 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. Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links. For example, soon you might see an ad and be able to directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision.
Ads also can be transformative for small businesses and emerging brands trying to compete. AI tools level the playing field even further, allowing anyone to create high-quality experiences that help people discover options they might never have found otherwise.
We’ll learn from feedback and refine how ads show up over time, but our commitment to putting users first and maintaining trust won’t change. By starting our ad platform from the ground up with these principles in place, we can align our incentives with what people want from ChatGPT. Our long-term focus remains on building products that millions of people and businesses find valuable enough to pay for. Our enterprise and subscription businesses are already strong, and we believe in having a diverse revenue model where ads can play a part in making intelligence more accessible to everyone.
Once we begin testing our first ad formats in the coming weeks and months, we look forward to getting people's feedback and ensuring that ads can support broad access to AI and keep the trust that makes ChatGPT valuable.