ChatGPT Paid Ads Beta
ChatGPT quietly introducing ads is a big CX/ marketing development for 2026.
As of 16th January, OpenAI confirmed ad testing inside ChatGPT for logged-in USA users on the Free tier + the new $8/£8 “Go” plan. The majority of Paid tiers (Plus, Pro, Team & Enterprise) remain ad free. Clearly they will look to roll out globally thereafter.
Interestingly Ads sit below responses (in some ways a surprise Vs being embedded inside answers and/or above the fold) and (broadly) follow current PPC modus operandi (e.g Ads don’t influence the answer, no Ads around sensitive > to under-18’s and no planned selling of conversation data). Also interestingly = the charging model (CPM > CPC > something else) is TBC (still in early beta roll out testing & gathering data before detailing £$Charging methodology).
This development could be particularly interesting to certain sectors/ products e.g complex & considered B2B purchases though for the short term ChatGPT will still struggle with scale (from various studies I have read; many websites are still ~1% click share for LLMs for example).
ChatGPT Ads are definitely not a replacement to PPC or Paid Social though LLMs will become a higher value channel over time for many in their marketing mix. One to watch over the coming months for sure (both from a roll out + costing perspective for ChatGPT and then if other LLMs follow a similar methodology).