ChatGPT may show ads to non-paying users in the future

19 hours ago 5

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular chatbot, is free to use despite having a paid version with more features. Currently, even the free version is ad-free, but this may change in the future as the company behind the platform aims to increase its profits.

OpenAI considers putting ads on ChatGPT

In an interview with the Financial Times, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar didn’t rule out the possibility of showing ads to non-paying ChatGPT users in the future, although the company has many concerns about doing so. The executive sees ads as a way to increase profits, as the cost of keeping AI servers running is high.

Although OpenAI is currently valued at more than $150 billion, the company is said to have burned $5 billion this year on AI training.

Selling ad slots on ChatGPT would be a way to monetize the platform and keep it available to free users. Earlier this year, OpenAI hired multiple advertising talents from Meta and Google, corroborating the company’s plans. However, Friar says that OpenAI needs to be “thoughtful about when and where” ads will be implemented. She also suggested that this won’t happen in the near future.

While the report says that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is “warming up to the idea,” Altman has said in the past that he “doesn’t like them [ads] in general” and that he sees ads as a “last resort.”

OpenAI currently charges $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus, a more advanced version of the chatbot that provides access to the latest language models, a higher message limit, and image generation. The company also has special subscription plans for teams and businesses.

Earlier this year, Apple partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri (a feature coming soon with iOS 18.2). Although sources say Apple didn’t pay for the deal, the company will promote the ChatGPT Plus subscription right from the iOS Settings app, which should boost subscriptions once the update is available to iPhone and iPad users.