28 August 2026
OpenAI starts showing ads on ChatGPT's free and budget plans in India
First reported
TechCrunch ran this on , a day before the next source picked it up.
- OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is displaying advertisements to users on its free tier and 399-rupee-per-month Go plan in India, one of its largest markets with over 100 million weekly active users.
- Ads appear below ChatGPT's responses, are clearly labeled and separate, and OpenAI says answers will not be influenced by advertisers. The company does not show ads to users under 18.
- The feature launched with 50 brand partners through agencies WPP and Omnicom. On September 4, OpenAI will let any advertiser with a daily budget of at least 725 rupees create campaigns directly.
- OpenAI has already shown ads to U.S. users since February and expanded to Europe this month. Revenue hit 6.7 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2026, up from 5.7 billion the previous quarter.
- Anthropic, OpenAI's competitor, has publicly committed to keeping its Claude chatbot ad-free, saying it will not place sponsored content or let advertisers influence responses.
Reported by CNBC, TechCrunch