OpenAI is reportedly getting ready to show ads inside the ChatGPT app, and some users say they are already seeing them. On social media platform X, several people are posting screenshots claiming that ads are appearing in their ChatGPT experience. This comes after developer Tibor Blaho found code related to ads. The beta version, labelled 1.2025.329, is not available to the public yet, but inside it the developer found terms like “ads feature”, “search ad”, “search ads carousel” and “bazaar content”
The idea of advertising in ChatGPT is not completely new. Recently, it was reported that OpenAI is exploring the idea of placing advertisements inside ChatGPT. Also, during a talk at Harvard Business School, Sam Altman called the mix of ads and AI “uniquely unsettling” and said the company would treat ads as a “last resort business model.” However, he also made it clear that he is not completely against the idea if it becomes necessary.
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Altman again spoke about this on the OpenAI podcast, saying the company is open to experimenting with ads. The new code in the Android beta does not give clear details, but it suggests that ads could be aimed mainly at users of the free version of ChatGPT.
The free tier already has limits on how much people can use it. Adding ads could be one way for OpenAI to cover the high costs of running large AI models while keeping a free option available.
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If OpenAI goes ahead with this plan, ChatGPT could start showing ads during searches or inside chat responses. For now, ad features seem to be in testing, but the code and user reports show that OpenAI is actively moving toward an ad-supported future.
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