OpenAI says it is expanding advertisements to ChatGPT users in Nigeria, and 25 other countries, expanding a major shift in the business model of the artificial intelligence chatbot as the company seeks to generate more revenue from its growing user base.
In a statement on Wednesday as well as email to users, the company said advertisements may begin appearing on its Free and Go plans later this month. Its more expensive Plus and Pro subscriptions, as well as Business, Enterprise and Education plans, will remain ad-free.
The announcement comes as OpenAI expands its advertising business into more markets, including Nigeria, South Africa and other countries across Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The expansion would take ChatGPT advertising to 89 countries, up from the markets where it had previously been available. The company began testing ads in the United States in February.
OpenAI said the ads would initially be selected according to the subject of a user’s current conversation and limited contextual information, such as their general location and device type. It said it would not use users’ past conversations or saved memories to select advertisements during this initial phase.
The company also said it was updating its privacy policy to explain how advertising would work and how users could control their experience.
Ads and user privacy
OpenAI said advertisements would be clearly labelled and visually separated from the chatbot’s responses. It also maintained that advertising would not influence the answers ChatGPT generates.
The company said advertisers would not have access to users’ conversations, chat histories, memories or personal details. Instead, they would receive aggregated performance information, such as the total number of times an advertisement was viewed or clicked.
However, OpenAI’s broader advertising guidance says that when personalised advertising is enabled, selected signals from a user’s wider ChatGPT experience, including past conversations and memories, may be used to determine which advertisements to show. Users can manage ad personalisation through the platform’s controls.
The distinction matters because advertisements in a conversational AI service operate in a different context from those on conventional websites. Users often disclose personal circumstances, ask for advice or discuss decisions they are considering, making the boundaries between conversational data and advertising particularly important.
OpenAI says its advertising systems operate separately from the systems that generate ChatGPT’s answers, and advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter those responses.
The company also says advertisements will not appear alongside sensitive conversations, including those involving personal health, mental health or politics. Accounts identified as belonging to users under 18 will not be shown ads.
A new revenue stream for OpenAI
The expansion represents a further step away from OpenAI’s earlier reliance on subscriptions and other commercial arrangements to support the development of its AI systems.
Reuters reported that OpenAI’s advertising business reached an annualised revenue run rate of $1 billion in August. The company said more than 100,000 advertisers had run campaigns on its platform since testing began.
OpenAI has presented advertising as a way to help fund continued access to its free and lower-cost services while supporting investment in its technology. The move also gives businesses another channel to reach consumers as they research products, compare alternatives and make purchasing decisions.
For users who do not want advertisements, OpenAI says they can subscribe to an ad-free plan. It also offers a free, ad-free option with additional usage limits, although availability may vary by region.
The rollout places Nigeria among the markets where OpenAI is seeking to build its advertising business, bringing commercial messages into a service that many users rely on for information, research, learning and everyday decisions.
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