MediaNama’s Take
When OpenAI announced that it would begin testing ads inside ChatGPT, it marked a clear shift from the anti-ads position the company had previously stood by.
In 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman repeatedly described advertising as the “last resort”. That stance is now under pressure. As conversational AI starts to replace search as the primary way users express intent, the economic model that funds the free internet must shift as well. Google has already responded by embedding ads directly into AI-generated search summaries through AI Overviews. And OpenAI’s move signals that it has reached a similar conclusion, even if it is moving more cautiously.
Nikhil Pahwa, Founder and Editor of MediaNama, described the shift as inevitable. “ChatGPT and other AI systems are effectively replacing search. If optimisation is moving from SEO to AI invocation, monetisation has to follow. Historically, search monetisation has meant advertising,” he said.
For regulators, publishers, and users, the question is no longer whether AI will carry ads. It is whether conversational AI interfaces can realistically replace search without inheriting the same advertising pressures, power dynamics, and distortions that shaped the web in the first place.
What’s the News
OpenAI has confirmed that it will begin testing ads inside ChatGPT for users on its Free and the low-cost Go tiers in the United States. The company will show ads only to logged-in adult users, meanwhile the rest of the Paid tiers – including Pro, Business, and Enterprise – will remain ad-free.
OpenAI says it will clearly label ads, visually separate them from ChatGPT’s responses, and prevent them from influencing how the system answers questions. Notably, users will be able to turn off ad personalisation and dismiss ads.
In a post on X, Altman said OpenAI would not “accept money to influence the answer ChatGPT gives you”, and emphasised that advertisers would not gain access to user conversations. He framed advertising as a response to demand, writing that “a lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don’t want to pay”, and said the company believed the advertising model could work.
In this context, Pahwa drew a parallel with earlier platform promises. “Like WhatsApp once said it would never have advertising, Sam Altman also said OpenAI would never have ads. With startups, ‘never’ usually means not right now,” he said.
And even though the ad rollout currently applies only to the United States, the move has implications for other markets. In India, ChatGPT Go has been offered free for…
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