Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is pictured on Sept. 25, 2025, in Berlin.
Florian Gaertner | Photothek | Getty Images
OpenAI’s nascent ads business has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue less than two months after launching its pilot in the U.S., according to a spokesperson.
The artificial intelligence startup said in January that it planned to test ads with its free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the U.S., potentially opening up a lucrative new revenue stream. The move was ridiculed by rival Anthropic, which made OpenAI’s ad push the focus of its first Super Bowl campaign.
OpenAI is working with more than 600 advertisers and has seen no impact on privacy-related trust metrics, the spokesperson said. The company is also beginning to explore additional testing in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Ads within ChatGPT will appear at the bottom of the chatbot’s answers, will not influence its responses and will be clearly labeled, according to the January release. Users under the age of 18 will not see ads, and they will not appear near certain topics, including politics, health and mental health, OpenAI said.
Roughly 85% of OpenAI’s free and Go users in the U.S. are eligible to see ads, but less than 20% are shown them on a daily basis, the spokesperson said Thursday. The Information was first to report on the revenue figure.
Despite the early success of the pilot, some advertisers have been frustrated by its slow and conservative rollout, CNBC reported earlier this month. OpenAI said that the gradual pace of the ads program was intentional.
“We’re in the early testing phase of ads in ChatGPT, and the goal right now is to learn and refine the experience for consumers before expanding it more broadly,” the company said. “We’re encouraged by early signals from users and participating brands, and continue to see strong interest from advertisers.”
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