New Delhi — OpenAI is expanding advertising within ChatGPT to India, bringing sponsored content to users on the Free and Go tiers as the artificial intelligence company looks to broaden its revenue sources.
Ads will be shown to logged-in adult users on the Free tier and the Go subscription plan, which costs Rs 399 per month in India. Sponsored products and services will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses and will be clearly labeled and visually separated from the chatbot’s answers, according to the company.
Users subscribed to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans will continue to use ChatGPT without ads.
OpenAI said advertisers will not have access to users’ conversations, chat history, memories or personal information. The company also said it does not sell user data to advertisers.
Advertisers will instead receive aggregated campaign-performance information, including metrics such as impressions and clicks.
OpenAI said ads will not be displayed to accounts belonging to users who identify themselves as under 18 or whom the company determines are minors. Advertising will also be excluded from conversations involving sensitive or regulated topics, including health, mental health and politics.
More than 50 brands are expected to begin advertising on ChatGPT in India this week, according to the company.
OpenAI also plans to introduce self-service access to its ChatGPT Ads Manager in India beginning Sept. 4. Businesses will be able to launch advertising campaigns with daily budgets starting at Rs 725.
The expansion comes as ChatGPT continues to grow rapidly worldwide. The service surpassed 1 billion weekly users globally earlier this month, while India has emerged as its second-largest market, with more than 100 million weekly users across students, developers, educators and businesses as of February 2026.
OpenAI first announced plans to test advertising within ChatGPT in January as part of an effort to diversify revenue and support continued expansion.
The company began its advertising pilot in the United States in February. According to OpenAI, the business surpassed $100 million in annualized revenue within six weeks before expanding to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.
ChatGPT Ads were also introduced across 31 European countries last week, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy. (Source: IANS)
