ChatGPT Now Sneakily Upselling You While Pretending To Be Your Friend
Photo by Liam Nguyen on Unsplash
KEY POINTS
- •OpenAI announced on a Friday that ads will soon appear on ChatGPT for logged-in free and Go subscription users in the US.
- •These sponsored products or services will appear clearly labeled at the bottom of chat windows separately from user conversations.
- •OpenAI guarantees it will keep user conversations private and will never sell data to advertisers, asserting no influence on chatbot answers.
In an impressively subtle move announced on a Friday (because Fridays scream transparency), OpenAI will start testing ads on ChatGPT for logged-in US users on free and ChatGPT Go subscriptions. Rest assured, these 'clearly labeled' ads will be politely parked at the bottom of your chat window—out of sight, but not out of your digital life. OpenAI promises your deepest, darkest convos remain strictly private from advertisers—as if AI-fed marketers ever needed your secrets anyway—and vows it will 'never sell your data.' Also, the ads will never bias your answers. Because corporations love straight talk, right?
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(1 of 3)Source: Theverge | Published: 1/16/2026 | Author: Emma Roth
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