28 August 2026

OpenAI starts showing ads on ChatGPT's free and cheap plans in India

First reported

TechCrunch ran this on 27 August, a day before the next source picked it up.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is displaying advertisements to users on its free tier and 4-dollar-per-month Go plan in India, where it has over 100 million weekly active users.
Ads appear below ChatGPT's responses and are clearly labeled as separate from answers, with OpenAI stating that responses will not be influenced by advertiser interests.
The company is starting with 50 brands and will let advertisers create campaigns directly through a new ad manager launching in September, requiring a minimum daily budget of about 7 dollars.
OpenAI has already shown ads to users in the U.S. since February and Europe since August, and is preparing for a public listing expected this year or next.
Rival Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, has committed to keeping its product ad-free and says answers will not be influenced by sponsored content.