ChatGPT ads to launch in India for Free and Go users

OpenAI is expanding advertising on ChatGPT to India, allowing brands to display sponsored content to adult users on the platform’s Free and Go tiers.

The Go subscription costs Rs 399 a month in India. Advertisements for sponsored products and services will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses and will be clearly labelled and visually separated from the chatbot’s answers, the company said.

Users subscribed to the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans will continue to access ChatGPT without advertisements.

OpenAI said advertisers would not be able to access users’ conversations, chat histories, memories or personal information. The company also maintained that it would not sell user data to advertisers.

Brands will instead receive aggregated information about the performance of their campaigns, including the number of times an advertisement is displayed and the clicks it receives.

Advertisements will not be shown to accounts belonging to people who have declared that they are under 18 or whom OpenAI determines to be minors. They will also be excluded from conversations involving sensitive or regulated subjects, including health, mental health and politics.

More than 50 brands are expected to begin advertising on ChatGPT in India this week. OpenAI also plans to introduce self-service access to its ChatGPT Ads Manager in the country from 4 September, allowing businesses to launch campaigns with daily budgets starting at Rs 725.

The expansion comes as OpenAI looks to diversify its revenue sources and further monetise ChatGPT ahead of a planned initial public offering.

ChatGPT crossed one billion weekly users worldwide earlier this month. India was its second-largest market as of February 2026, with more than 100 million weekly users across groups including students, developers, educators and businesses.

OpenAI first revealed plans to test advertisements within ChatGPT in January 2026. The pilot began in the United States the following month and crossed $100 million in annualised revenue within six weeks, according to the company.

The advertising programme was subsequently extended to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. OpenAI also introduced ChatGPT ads in 31 European countries last week, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

With IANS inputs