ChatGPT’s explosive growth has made it a household name, and OpenAI is now looking at advertising as a way to monetize this vast user base. In late 2025, evidence began to surface that ChatGPT Ads – a system for serving paid advertisements within the ChatGPT platform – is in the works. This article compiles everything we know so far about the ChatGPT Ads platform, including official statements from OpenAI, leaked information, industry commentary, and what it could mean for businesses and users. We’ll also discuss how companies like LSEO are preparing to help advertisers capitalize on this new channel once it launches.

Why OpenAI Is Considering Ads on ChatGPT

Running advanced AI models like ChatGPT is extremely costly, and OpenAI has been seeking ways to offset these expenses. ChatGPT’s free tier has attracted a massive global audience – roughly 800 million weekly users as of late 2025 – yet only a small percentage (around 5%) pay for a subscription. This means the vast majority of users generate no direct revenue, putting pressure on OpenAI to find new income streams. Indeed, OpenAI’s annual revenue (estimated $3.5–4.5 billion) has been far outstripped by its spending (over $8.5 billion per year), leading to multi-billion-dollar losses. Such economics are unsustainable, especially with OpenAI’s valuation soaring and plans to spend billions more on development. Advertising is seen as a natural solution – much as Google, Facebook, and other tech giants monetized their user base via ads.

OpenAI’s internal discussions have reflected this urgency. The company has even considered an IPO and knows it “does not have a reliable revenue source” at its current burn rate. Ahead of a potential public offering, debate within OpenAI about showing ads in ChatGPT has ramped up. Interestingly, user research found that some people already assume ChatGPT’s answers might be influenced by sponsors, even though that’s not currently the case. According to a report by The Information, focus groups revealed that “some users already assume ChatGPT’s answers are ranked based on sponsorship”, which led certain OpenAI staff to advocate for adding advertising. In other words, the idea of ads in ChatGPT is not entirely out of left field for users – and if done transparently, it could tap into a huge revenue opportunity without shocking the user base.

Official Comments and Plans from OpenAI

Despite the clear monetary incentive, OpenAI’s leadership has publicly been cautious (even ambivalent) about an ad-driven model. CEO Sam Altman has repeatedly stated his unease with the idea of advertising in ChatGPT. In a 2024 Harvard Business School fireside chat, Altman described ads in AI as “uniquely unsettling” and said using ads would be a “last resort… I don’t like them in general”. He emphasized a preference for subscription revenue over ads, noting he “kind of hate[s] ads” and appreciates that paying users can trust ChatGPT’s answers are not influenced by advertisers. However, Altman conceded he’s “not totally against them” and that OpenAI “is open to experimenting with ads” if necessary. In fact, on OpenAI’s own podcast he reiterated that while they haven’t settled on how ads would work, the company isn’t ruling out embedding ads into the platform in the future.

OpenAI’s CFO, Sarah Friar, has also weighed in. She affirmed that the company has “no active plans” to launch ads in ChatGPT immediately, but she acknowledged they might explore it as a revenue stream in the future. Friar stressed a “thoughtful” approach – OpenAI would be very careful about when and where to implement ads so as not to undermine the user experience. This indicates that any rollout of ChatGPT Ads would likely be slow and deliberate, with user trust as a top consideration.

Even as leadership voiced caution publicly, OpenAI has been quietly laying groundwork for an ads platform. In 2024 and 2025, the company hired several high-profile advertising experts from companies like Google, Meta (Facebook), and others. Notably, OpenAI brought on a former Google advertising executive (Shivakumar Venkataraman) to reportedly help with monetization strategy. In September 2025, OpenAI even posted a job opening for a “Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer,” a role focused on building internal tools for ad campaign management and integration. The job listing described projects like developing campaign management software, real-time ad performance attribution, and experimentation frameworks – essentially the MarTech infrastructure needed to run an advertising business at scale. According to one report, OpenAI’s Chief of Applications (Fidji Simo) is actively recruiting a team “tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT”. All of these moves signal that OpenAI is gearing up technically and organizationally for an ad platform, even if the public launch is yet to come.

Early Signs: Code Leaks and Prototype Features

The strongest confirmation that ChatGPT Ads are on the horizon came from leaked code and user observations in late 2025. In November 2025, a developer analyzing an Android beta release of the ChatGPT app (version 1.2025.329) discovered multiple references to advertising features buried in the code. This included terms like “ads feature,” “search ad,” “search ads carousel,” and even something labeled “bazaar content”. The presence of these snippets strongly implies that OpenAI has built (or is building) code to serve ads, likely in a carousel format for search results or similar. OpenAI has not officially announced these features, but the leak suggests internal testing of ad placements is underway. Notably, the code hints that the initial implementation of ads would be limited to ChatGPT’s search experience (when the AI fetches information from the web), rather than injected randomly into every conversation. In other words, early ads might appear akin to search engine sponsored results, displayed alongside or above ChatGPT’s web answers, which is a context users may find more familiar.

Around the same time, users got a preview – albeit an unwelcome one – of how promotional content might look in ChatGPT. In December 2025, some beta users reported that ChatGPT spontaneously suggested third-party apps during conversations. One high-profile example was ChatGPT recommending the Peloton fitness app out of the blue during an unrelated chat, which many saw as a “stealth ad.” The user who shared this (an AI startup founder) was alarmed because he was on the $200/month ChatGPT Pro plan, where one certainly wouldn’t expect to see ads. This sparked a wave of concern and criticism online, with people fearing that OpenAI had begun inserting advertisements without notice.

OpenAI quickly responded to clarify the situation. Daniel McAuley, ChatGPT’s data lead, explained that the Peloton suggestion was “not an ad (there’s no financial component)” but rather a poorly executed attempt at an app discovery feature. Essentially, ChatGPT has a new plugin/app platform (launched in October 2025) allowing external apps to integrate, and the system was experimenting with suggesting relevant apps to users. OpenAI admitted that in this case the suggestion was irrelevant to the conversation, making it confusing and “a bad… experience”. They assured users they were iterating to improve the relevance of such suggestions. A spokesperson confirmed that this was part of “testing surfacing apps in ChatGPT conversations” tied to the new app ecosystem, not a paid advertisement program.

This incident, while not an actual ad, is revealing. It shows that OpenAI is exploring ways to integrate third-party content into ChatGPT’s interface, and it underlines how sensitive users are to anything resembling an ad. Even a hint of promotional content in a paid plan caused backlash. The takeaway for OpenAI is clear: if and when ChatGPT Ads roll out, they’ll need to be highly relevant, clearly disclosed, and carefully implemented to avoid alienating users. The Peloton case was a valuable lesson in what not to do – essentially foreshadowing how important user trust will be in the success of ChatGPT’s advertising features.

How Ads Might Appear in ChatGPT (Potential Formats)

While we don’t know exactly how OpenAI will present ads in ChatGPT, industry observers and leaked info give us some clues. The format of ChatGPT Ads could differ from traditional web ads, given the conversational UI. Here are several potential ad formats and features that have been speculated based on what we know:

• Sponsored Answers (Contextual Ads): ChatGPT could weave ads directly into its responses in a natural language format. For example, if a user asks about vacation ideas, ChatGPT might include a line like “Sponsored: Since you mentioned beach destinations, check out TravelCo’s Maldives package for a great deal.” These would be contextually relevant recommendations labeled as sponsored content. This format leverages ChatGPT’s understanding of the conversation to present an ad that feels like tailored advice (but clearly marked as an ad).

• Embedded Links or Search Ads: Similar to search engine ads, ChatGPT might display sponsored links or rich snippets above or alongside its answer when answering informational queries. For instance, a query about “best running shoes” might trigger a couple of promoted product listings or links before the AI-generated answer, much like Google’s search ads. The leaked “search ads carousel” code suggests a scrollable set of sponsored results could appear when ChatGPT is in web-browsing mode. Microsoft’s Bing Chat already does something akin to this – it sometimes shows ads or shopping links in a separate section when you ask product-related questions.

• Carousel Ads for Shopping or Local Queries: For certain query types (like shopping, local services, travel, etc.), ChatGPT could present a carousel of ads – visually rich cards that you can swipe through. Imagine asking ChatGPT, “I need a new smartphone,” and getting a horizontal slider of sponsored smartphone deals or retailers, in addition to ChatGPT’s advice. The term “bazaar content” found in the app code hints at some kind of marketplace-style listing, which could align with a carousel of product ads.

• Sponsored “App” Suggestions: Building on OpenAI’s app/plugin platform, some ads might effectively be promoted app integrations. If a user’s query could be better answered by a specialized plugin (for example, a travel booking app), ChatGPT might suggest using that plugin – potentially as a paid placement. These would function like promoted app recommendations, ideally only shown when relevant to the user’s request (to avoid another Peloton-style mishap).

• Opt-in Ads for Perks (Sponsored Sessions): Another possible format is offering users optional ads in exchange for benefits. For example, free-tier users might watch a short video ad or interact with a sponsor to get additional GPT-4 usage, extra prompts, or access to a normally paid feature. This concept is akin to how Spotify’s free tier works (watch an ad for 30 minutes of ad-free music). ChatGPT could have “sponsored sessions” where a user agrees to an ad in order to unlock some premium feature or more time with the AI. This would make ads voluntary and transactional, rather than forced into the conversation stream.

• Premium Plans Remain Ad-Free: It’s widely expected that paid ChatGPT subscriptions (Plus, Pro, Enterprise) will remain ad-free, with ads targeting only free users. OpenAI would likely follow the standard model where paying customers are not shown ads, preserving the value of the subscription. This wasn’t explicitly confirmed yet, but given the backlash at even seeing an app suggestion on the Pro plan, we can assume Plus/Pro users won’t have ads inserted.

References

• Mayank Parmar, BleepingComputer – “Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out” (Nov 29, 2025)

• Mayank Parmar, BleepingComputer – “OpenAI is going Meta route, as it considers memory-based ads on ChatGPT” (Nov 1, 2025)

• Jackson Chen, Engadget – “Code suggests that OpenAI may be close to introducing ads for ChatGPT” (Nov 30, 2025)

• Alex Carter, daily.dev (Business) – “OpenAI announces plans to introduce ads for free ChatGPT users” (Dec 1, 2025)

• Aminu Abdullahi, eWeek – “OpenAI’s CFO Discusses Potential ChatGPT Ads While CEO Calls It ‘Last Resort’” (Dec 18, 2024)

• Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Land – “OpenAI is staffing up to turn ChatGPT into an ad platform” (Sep 25, 2025)

• Sarah Perez, TechCrunch – “OpenAI slammed for app suggestions that looked like ads” (Dec 2, 2025)

• Danny Goodwin, Search Engine Land – “OpenAI hits pause on ChatGPT ads as CEO declares a ‘code red’” (Dec 2, 2025)

• Sarah Berry, SEO.com – “ChatGPT Advertising: Inside Your (And OpenAI’s) Next Revenue Channel” (Dec 1, 2025)