This has led OpenAI to begin testing advertisements to select ChatGPT users in the United States. This project is a welcome expansion of their ongoing efforts to raise new revenue. This new initiative will prominently feature ads at the top of the ChatGPT interface. The change will impact users of the free service and of ChatGPT Go, the new premium subscription ChatGPT Go.
If approved, the trial would cover a substantial portion of ChatGPT’s nearly 800 million max users. However, paid subscribers only account for 5% of these users. The bulk of them are on the Plus and Pro tiers, which go for $20 and $200 a month, respectively. ChatGPT Go will be available at an extremely affordable price point of only $8 per month. With this step, it looks like they hope to reach a broader audience around the world.
ChatGPT Go debuted in India first in 2025 and has slowly rolled out to other countries. OpenAI has released this new, lower-cost subscription tier to provide a more cost-effective alternative. This action addresses its fiscal woes. Just last week the company announced an operating loss of about $8 billion (£5.98 billion) just in the first half of 2025 alone.
OpenAI’s foray into advertising is not out of the blue, experts on artificial intelligence tell Vox. Henry Ajder, an AI specialist, commented on the company’s need for alternative revenue streams beyond standard subscriptions, stating:
“And so, for this company to start actually turning a profit, it has to find more revenue sources from somewhere other than just standard paying subscribers. And for many software businesses, advertising is a revenue source which is reliable.”
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has spoken against ads on multiple occasions, going so far as to say he truly hates them. Additionally, throughout the trial, users saw ads inserted after their prompts. He called them “a last resort,” emphasizing the deep internal conflict inside the company over this sudden change of course.
Even with the tremendous increase in its active users, OpenAI is on shaky financial ground. Ajder observed that:
“OpenAI is a company that’s seen a huge amount of growth in terms of users in the last few years but it continues to burn investor money – it is not a profit-making entity.”
The internet economy has historically been propped up by advertising dollars, and OpenAi’s recent announcement is a continuation of this. Their advertising trial is a step towards getting even more users using their tools with less usage caps.