ChatGPT will soon start showing you sponsored products or services if they’re related to your conversation. In an announcement on Friday, OpenAI says it will start testing ads in the coming weeks for logged-in users in the US who use the app for free or have a ChatGPT Go subscription.
The “clearly labeled” ads will surface in a separate area at the bottom of your chat. OpenAI says it will “keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers,” adding that it will “never sell your data” to them. Advertisers also won’t influence the answers you see, which will remain “optimized based on what’s most helpful to you,” according to OpenAI.
You won’t see ads if you’re signed up to the ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans. The less expensive $8 /month ChatGPT Go plan is expanding to the US today, but it will also contain ads. OpenAI says you can turn off personalization, clear the data it uses for ads, dismiss ads, and provide feedback on them. Users under 18 (or users OpenAI predicts are under 18) won’t see ads, and they won’t appear near “sensitive or regulated topics” related to health, mental health, or politics.
OpenAI has been hinting at ads for a while now, with ChatGPT head Nick Turley saying that an integration would “be very thoughtful and tasteful” during an interview with Decoder in August. The company later experimented with app promotions in December, but rolled back the change after some users expressed frustration with the update. OpenAI says it’s launching ads now “so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits.”