ChatGPT introduces the first advertisements for free users

The move comes in a climate of growing competitive tension, marked by the recent long-distance clash with Anthropic. The latter in fact used the Super Bowl showcase to openly criticize OpenAI’s choice with an ad promoting its Claude platform as an environment free of commercial interruptions. OpenAI responded by guaranteeing that advertisers will have no influence on the responses generated by the chatbot, although the system will optimize the relevance of advertisements based on the type of user interaction without sharing sensitive chat data with third parties.

In addition to monetization, the company is preparing for an upcoming technology update with the release of a new chat model expected later this week, just days after the debut of an advanced version of the Codex coding agent. According to an internal memo, the platform’s growth has once again exceeded the 10% monthly threshold, consolidating a user base that had already reached 800 million weekly visitors last October. This operational dynamism confirms OpenAI’s desire to balance infrastructure expansion with a more diversified and sustainable financial strategy.