OpenAI is considering ways to generate additional revenue, and placing ads in ChatGPT is one of the options being considered. In an interview with Decoder, ChatGPT head Nick Turley said he was “humble enough not to rule it out categorically,” but cautioned that OpenAI would need to be “very careful and sophisticated” in integrating advertising into ChatGPT.
“We will create other products, and these other products may be of different sizes, and perhaps ChatGPT is simply not an advertising product because it is very much focused on your goals. But that doesn’t mean we won’t create other things in the future,” said Turley. “I think it’s good to keep the option open, but I also want to emphasize how incredible the subscription model is, how quickly it’s growing, and how many opportunities remain untapped.”
In March, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI expects to generate $12.7 billion in subscription revenue this year, more than triple the $3.7 billion in annual revenue the company reportedly generated in 2024. However, the company is still spending more money than it is earning and does not expect positive cash flow until 2029. Turley says ChatGPT has just surpassed 700 million users. According to the latest data published in April, the service has 20 million paid subscribers.
“I don’t really see the fact that the vast majority of our users are free as necessarily a disadvantage,” said Terley. “I really believe that this is the foundation on which we can build differentiated offerings for people who are willing to pay.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed mixed feelings about placing ads in the company’s flagship chatbot. During a fireside chat at Harvard Business School last year, Altman said that combining advertising with artificial intelligence “somehow particularly disturbs me” and would be considered a “last resort” for ChatGPT. However, in the first episode of the OpenAI podcast in June, Altman said he was “not completely opposed to it.” These considerations come at a time when rival xAI, owned by Elon Musk, has more concrete plans to include advertising in Grok’s responses in the future.
Another way OpenAI is seeking to increase revenue is by taking a cut of sales from products recommended by ChatGPT. Terly says this is “something we are actively exploring with some retailers we are in talks with,” and that the project is called “Commerce in ChatGPT.” According to Turley, OpenAI is taking special care to ensure that revenue from affiliate programs does not influence ChatGPT’s product recommendations.
“All the demo versions we have in this space clearly demonstrate this,” said Terly. “I think the magic of ChatGPT is that it independently selects your products without any intervention, and it’s important to preserve that.”
