OpenAI starts serving ads to ChatGPT free and Go users in India

OpenAI has begun showing advertisements inside ChatGPT for users in India on the free and lower-priced Go subscription tiers, according to TechCrunch. The move formalises a shift the company signalled earlier this month, when it updated its terms of service to state that users would see ads while using the assistant.

What is launching

According to TechCrunch, the initial rollout in India includes campaigns from 50 brands, with OpenAI partnering with the advertising agencies WPP and Omnicom to fill the inventory. A self-serve ad manager is scheduled to arrive next month, letting marketers build their own campaigns provided they commit to a daily minimum spend of ₹725, roughly $7.60.

"With ChatGPT Ads, businesses of every size can introduce themselves at relevant, high-context moments when decisions are beginning to take shape," Dave Dugan, head of global ads solutions at OpenAI, said in a statement quoted by TechCrunch.

Why India matters to OpenAI

India is one of ChatGPT's largest markets. TechCrunch notes that OpenAI said in February that it had more than 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users in India, and that a large share of them sit on the free tier or the cheaper Go plan.

That user base did not appear by accident. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Go, a subscription priced under $5, in August 2025 and ran a limited promotion that made the tier free for a full year, TechCrunch reports. The company also advertised heavily during major cricket tournaments including the Women's Premier League and the Indian Premier League, and more recently hired Uber's India head to lead its expansion in the country.

Serving ads against that audience turns the free and low-cost tiers from a pure acquisition cost into revenue-generating inventory.

An expanding ads business

India is the latest step in a programme that has been running for several months. According to TechCrunch, OpenAI began showing ads to U.S. users in February and extended the programme to Europe earlier this month. The terms-of-service change that preceded the Indian rollout suggests the company intends advertising to be a permanent feature of the free experience rather than a short experiment.

The revenue backdrop

The timing fits a broader push to diversify and lock in OpenAI's income ahead of a potential initial public offering that TechCrunch says could arrive this year or next. Citing The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch reports that OpenAI recorded revenue of $6.7 billion in the quarter ended June 2026, up from $5.7 billion the previous quarter.

Subscriptions remain the other pillar of the business. The Information reported last November that OpenAI was targeting 220 million paying subscribers by 2030, from 35 million paying users on its Plus and Pro plans at the time, according to TechCrunch.

Why it matters

Advertising inside ChatGPT changes what the product is. For most of its existence, ChatGPT's implicit pitch was an ad-free assistant; free users are now part of the ad inventory across three major markets, and paying Go subscribers in India are seeing ads too, a signal that cheaper paid tiers may not exempt users from advertising.

For OpenAI, the move addresses a structural tension: most of its users, particularly in high-growth markets like India, are on free or low-cost plans, while the company carries enormous compute costs and faces investor expectations tied to a possible IPO. Ads monetise exactly that audience. For advertisers, placement inside a conversational assistant offers intent-rich context that search-era ad products could only approximate, and for rivals like Google, which already pairs a mature ads business with AI products, OpenAI is now competing more directly on their home ground.