OpenAI’s flagship chatbot has so far been one of the few blockbuster consumer apps that does not shove marketing into every spare pixel, but that era looks increasingly fragile. Code fragments, leaked builds and even job listings now point to a deliberate push to turn ChatGPT into an ad-supported platform, starting with the free tier and radiating out into the broader product. What began as a clean, subscription-backed tool is quietly evolving into something closer to a search engine, complete with sponsored results and the business incentives that come with them.
The emerging picture is not just about a few banners tucked into a sidebar. Internal references to “search ad” units, “search ads carousel” formats and in-app placements suggest OpenAI is experimenting with a full advertising stack that could reshape how people discover products, services and even information inside ChatGPT. As the company chases sustainable revenue and investors push for growth, the choices it makes now about ads, targeting and disclosure will define how much users trust the system in the years ahead.
Beta code points to ads baked directly into ChatGPT
The clearest signal that OpenAI is moving from theory to implementation comes from the software itself. References in a beta build of the ChatGPT app describe ad-related components that look less like experiments in a lab and more like the scaffolding of a production system. Internal strings and UI hooks indicate that OpenAI is Preparing to Stuff Ads Into the chatbot, with labels that explicitly tie these elements to a Beta Code App build. The language is not coy: it anticipates ad units that can be slotted into responses, suggesting a future where sponsored content is interleaved with generated text.
From a product perspective, wiring ads into the core interface is a much bigger step than, say, adding a static banner to a settings page. It implies that OpenAI is designing ChatGPT’s conversation flow to accommodate promotional messages, potentially triggered by certain types of queries or user behavior. The fact that this work is surfacing in a Nov development snapshot, referenced in the code as Nov, suggests the company is not just exploring a concept but actively preparing the infrastructure it will need to run and manage campaigns at scale.
Internal tests hint at a full ad product for free users
Behind the scenes, OpenAI appears to be running structured experiments that go beyond a few hard-coded test messages. Reporting on internal builds indicates that the company is already trialing ad formats inside ChatGPT, with language that describes a broader monetisation strategy rather than a one-off test. One leak describes how OpenAI is now internally testing ads in the chatbot, framed as a step toward a public rollout that could reach the service’s large base of weekly users. That same reporting ties the experiments back to weekly users in late 2024, underscoring the scale of the audience OpenAI is weighing as it designs this system.
The focus of these tests appears to be the free tier, which has always been the most obvious candidate for ad support. By inserting sponsored content into non-paying sessions, OpenAI can preserve a cleaner experience for subscribers while still extracting value from the millions of people who use the service without paying. The leaked language around a public roll out suggests that what is happening in internal builds is meant to harden the product for a much wider deployment, not just a limited beta for power users or developers.
Android app clues: “Conversations” and “New Chat” with ads
Mobile users are likely to be among the first to see how this strategy plays out. Code analysis of the ChatGPT Android client shows that OpenAI is wiring ad logic directly into the app’s core navigation, including the main Conversations view and the New Chat flow. One user has already reported seeing what appears to be the first live ChatGPT ad in the Android app, a sign that OpenAI is not limiting its experiments to desktop or web. The presence of ad-related identifiers in the Android package, explicitly tied to Android, points to a coordinated rollout across platforms rather than a single-channel test.
Designing ads for a conversational interface on a phone is a delicate task. The same screen that shows a user’s prompt and the model’s answer will now need to accommodate sponsored content without derailing the interaction. By embedding ad hooks into the “Conversations” list and the “New Chat” entry point, OpenAI is effectively reserving space in the most trafficked parts of the app. That choice hints at formats such as sponsored conversation starters, promoted templates or inline cards that appear between messages, all of which would be more visible than a traditional banner tucked away at the bottom of the screen.
Search-style ad units and the end of a “truly free ride”
On the web, the emerging ad model looks even more like a search engine. Code strings and interface references describe units labeled “search ad” and “search ads carousel,” language that evokes the sponsored links users see at the top of Google or Bing results. One analysis notes that the truly free ride for ChatGPT may be coming to an end as OpenAI edges closer to introducing these formats, even if the company has not yet figured out the exact method for presenting them. The terminology suggests that when users ask for product recommendations, travel ideas or service providers, they could soon see sponsored options blended into the ranked list of suggestions.
For the free version of ChatGPT, this shift would be profound. Reporting on internal tests explains that the chatbot’s no-cost tier may soon start showing ads, with explicit references to a free version that is “as it is right now” potentially coming to an end. The same reporting highlights the presence of a “search ad” unit and a “search ads carousel,” which together suggest a system where multiple advertisers can compete for visibility in a scrollable strip of sponsored results. That is a far cry from the ad-free, purely generative experience early adopters have grown used to.
Sam Altman’s monetisation push and user trust warnings
OpenAI’s leadership has been telegraphing this shift for some time, even as it tries to reassure users about how ads will work. In one account of internal discussions, chief executive Sam Altman is described as stressing the importance of maintaining user trust as the company explores in-app advertising. He has reportedly warned about the dangers of biased promotion, using the example of a system that might suggest a lesser hotel simply because it pays more, and has raised concerns about how personalised histories could influence ad targeting. Those comments underline the tension between maximising ad revenue and preserving the integrity of the assistant’s recommendations.
At the same time, Altman has signaled that he is not ideologically opposed to advertising as a business model. In a conversation on his company’s podcast, he is quoted as saying “I’m not totally against it,” adding that he can point to areas where he actually likes ads and thinks they can be useful. That stance is framed against the backdrop of the enormous cost of running large models, including the need to train an host its AI on rented cloud infrastructure, and the pressure to find sustainable revenue beyond subscriptions. Deals to rent cloud compute and the lack of detailed public information about OpenAI’s advertising plans, both highlighted in the same reporting, help explain why the company is now willing to test a model that could eventually resemble a search ad marketplace.
Pricing tiers, “The Plus” and who actually sees the ads
One of the most sensitive questions for users is who will be exposed to ads and who will be able to avoid them. Reporting on OpenAI’s broader product overhaul indicates that the company is preparing to bring ads to ChatGPT for free users while preserving a cleaner experience for paying customers. The same coverage notes that The Plus plan starts at 20 dollars per month and the Pro plan goes up to 200 dollars per month, with There also being business-focused offerings layered on top. That pricing structure creates a natural dividing line: ads as the default for free users, ad-free or ad-light experiences as a perk for those who pay.
From a monetisation standpoint, this is a familiar pattern borrowed from streaming services and mobile games, where free tiers are subsidised by advertising and premium tiers promise fewer interruptions. The twist with ChatGPT is that the ads are not just visual clutter but could influence the substance of the assistant’s answers. That is why Altman’s warnings about biased promotion matter so much in this context, and why the company’s pledge to make ads “helpful instead of annoying,” echoed in the same reporting, will be tested in practice. If sponsored suggestions feel like they are warping the model’s judgment, even high-paying Pro subscribers may start to question whether they are getting the neutral advice they thought they were buying.
Job listings reveal an in-house ad tech buildout
OpenAI is not simply bolting on a third-party ad network. A recent job listing shows the company is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to develop internal tools that look very much like the backbone of a proprietary ad platform. The role is described as building systems for platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution, all of which are core functions in modern digital advertising. That kind of investment suggests OpenAI wants tight control over how ads are targeted, delivered and measured, rather than outsourcing those decisions to an external vendor.
Another listing, highlighted in separate reporting, reinforces that impression by describing a team tasked with building APIs, data pipelines and experimentation frameworks to optimise ad spend. The language around building APIs and experimentation frameworks to optimise ad spend reads like a blueprint for a full-stack ad business, not a side project. For advertisers, that could eventually mean self-serve tools to create campaigns that target specific types of ChatGPT queries, with real-time feedback on performance. For users, it raises fresh questions about how their prompts and interaction histories might be used to segment audiences and tune the relevance of sponsored content.
From leaks to “Listen to This Article”: how the story surfaced
The public first caught wind of these plans through a series of leaks and code dives that gradually filled in the picture. One report on a beta build framed the discovery as a sign that OpenAI was testing a new monetisation model for its flagship chatbot, with a prominent Listen to This Article audio feature underscoring how mainstream the story had become. That same coverage noted that users who “Don” not want to miss the best from Don’t want to miss the best from Business Standard were being told that Soon ChatGPT users would be getting sponsored content as part of a broader plan to monetise its flagship product. The tone of that reporting captured both the inevitability of ads and the unease among users who had grown accustomed to an uncluttered interface.
Other leaks focused more narrowly on the technical details, such as the specific labels used in the code and the way ad units were being slotted into the UI. Together, they painted a picture of a company that had already made the strategic decision to pursue advertising and was now working through the implementation details. For those who follow the industry closely, the combination of code references, internal tests and executive comments left little doubt that ads were coming, even before any official announcement.
“Code red” and the pause that complicates the rollout
Just as the ad story was gathering momentum, OpenAI appears to have hit the brakes, at least temporarily. Reporting on internal deliberations describes how the company has paused its rollout of ChatGPT ads while chief executive Sam Altman declared a “code red” to focus on product quality. The same account frames the decision under the heading Why this matters, explaining that advertisers who were hoping to tap into a chatbot-powered version of search may now have to wait longer. The pause suggests that OpenAI is acutely aware of the risks of moving too fast, especially when the integrity of its answers is on the line.
From my perspective, this kind of stop-start pattern is typical of companies that are trying to balance aggressive growth targets with reputational risk. On one hand, the economic logic of ads inside ChatGPT is straightforward, especially given the cost of running large models and the limits of subscription revenue. On the other, a poorly executed rollout that confuses users or blurs the line between organic and sponsored responses could do lasting damage to the brand. By calling a “code red” and pausing the deployment, OpenAI is signaling that it would rather delay revenue than ship an ad experience that undermines trust, at least for now.
What an ad-powered ChatGPT means for the wider web
If OpenAI follows through on these plans, the impact will extend far beyond a few sponsored links in a chatbot. For publishers and e-commerce brands, ChatGPT could become a new kind of discovery surface, one where being featured in a sponsored answer might matter as much as ranking on the first page of Google. The internal references to a “search ads carousel” and the hiring of engineers to build real-time attribution systems hint at a future where marketers bid for visibility on specific types of conversational queries, from “best 2025 hybrid SUV” to “hotel near Shibuya Station with late checkout.” In that world, the line between search engine marketing and conversational AI advertising would blur, forcing brands to rethink how they allocate budgets.
For users, the stakes are more personal. A chatbot that once felt like a neutral assistant could start to resemble a curated storefront, with recommendations shaped not only by relevance but also by who is paying to be there. Altman’s own warnings about biased promotion and the influence of personalised histories on targeting show that OpenAI is at least thinking about these risks, but thinking is not the same as solving. As the company moves from internal testing to public deployment, the real test will be whether users feel that the ads they see are clearly labeled, genuinely useful and, above all, do not compromise the integrity of the answers they came for in the first place.
More from MorningOverview