JAKARTA - OpenAI is preparing to open a new chapter in the artificial intelligence business. The company that developed ChatGPT announced that it will start testing ad display in the next few weeks, a move that opens up new revenue sources outside of the paid subscription model.
In its official announcement, OpenAI said that ads would appear at the bottom of the ChatGPT conversation window, specifically "when there is a sponsored product or service that is relevant to the user's conversation." This means that ads will not appear randomly, but will be directly linked to the context of the chat.
For example, OpenAI outlined a scenario when a user asked for a recommendation for Mexican food. After ChatGPT gave suggestions such as carne asada or pollo al carbón, the chatbot then displayed a link to a food brand that was advertising a spicy sauce.
However, not all users will see ads. OpenAI confirmed that only adult users using the free version of ChatGPT or ChatGPT Go - the latest cheap subscription package - will receive ads. Meanwhile, users of high-level paid packages such as Pro, which is now priced at 200 US dollars (Rp3.6 million) per month, are guaranteed to be ad-free.
"We will look at early feedback from users and quality signals to determine whether this trial meets our standards before expanding," an OpenAI spokesperson said, quoted by VOI from CBS News when asked about the duration of the trial period and plans to expand advertising.
OpenAI is also working to mitigate concerns about the independence of answers and user privacy. The company insists that ads will not affect ChatGPT's responses and will not share user conversations or data with advertisers.
"Advertisements do not influence ChatGPT's answers, and we do not share user conversations or their data with advertisers," OpenAI said in a statement.
Even so, OpenAI has not revealed which companies will be the initial advertisers in ChatGPT. The company's spokesperson only said that it "will share more information about our initial partners soon."
OpenAI frames this ad presence as a strategy to maintain the accessibility of free and low-cost services. "Our enterprise and subscription business is strong, and we believe in a diversified revenue model, where advertising can play a role in making intelligence more accessible to everyone," OpenAI wrote in its official blog.
This move also makes sense from a financial perspective. Although ChatGPT was launched in 2022 and OpenAI now has a valuation of around 500 billion US dollars, the company has not recorded any profits. CNBC previously reported that OpenAI was still losing money until November 2025.
According to Melissa Otto, Head of Research at S&P Global Visible Alpha, additional cash flow from advertising could be an important fuel for OpenAI's growth. "Advertising revenue has the potential to help ChatGPT fund expansion and cover its increasing operating costs," he said, quoted by VOI from CBS News.
Even so, the role of advertising in OpenAI's grand strategy is still a question mark. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously seemed to underestimate the contribution of advertising to the company's revenue. In a podcast interview last year, Altman said, "I guess this is something we'll try sometime. But I don't see it as our biggest revenue opportunity."
With this trial, OpenAI seems to be walking a fine line between monetization and maintaining user trust. Whether ads will be accepted as a reasonable compromise for free access, or will actually disrupt the experience of chatting with AI, the answer will begin to be seen in the next few weeks.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
