OpenAI dropped two surprise announcements today (Jan. 16) that will mostly burgeon the AI company's bottom line. Coming soon, the company will begin testing ads in ChatGPT, specifically in the free tier and the new ChatGPT Go subscription level.
In its announcement on X, OpenAI said that the Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscriptions will not get ads. The company claims that ChatGPT responses "will not be influenced by ads" and that subscribers' conversations will remain private and won’t be used to target advertising.
The commercials are supposed to be separate and clearly labeled. In an example that OpenAI described as one of the formats it plans to test, the advertisement shows up at the bottom of your chat with a linkout.
OpenAI asserts that chats which cover sensitive topics like health, mental health or politics will not receive ads. The company said in a blog post that it will seek feedback to ensure ads "support broad access to AI."
Additionally, the testing will only go out to adult users. Under 18 users will not see ads.
"People trust ChatGPT for many important and personal tasks, so as we introduce ads, it’s crucial we preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable in the first place," OpenAI's post stated.
What is ChatGPT Go?
ChatGPT Go is a low-cost subscription tier that was introduced in India in August 2025, and now it is going global including launching in the U.S.. OpenAI says the Go tier offers 10x more messages, file uploads and image creation compared to the free tier.
It also features unlimited use of GPT 5.2 instant. It will also have a longer memory and context window than the free version.
Compared to the Plus and Pro tiers, Go is significantly cheaper at $8 a month. Plus will set you back $20 per month while the Pro tier costs $200 a month.
OpenAI didn't provide specific details on how Go compares to the Plus tier. But each pricing tier maps to a different model level, which can be broken down like this:
- The free tier uses GPT-5.2 mini.
- ChatGPT Go upgrades you to GPT-5.2 (faster responses).
- ChatGPT Plus adds GPT-5.2 with “thinking” mode.
- ChatGPT Pro gives you access to GPT-5.2 Pro.
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