OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Berlin on September 25, 2025.
Florian Gärtner | Phototech | Getty Images
OpenAI’s nascent advertising business generated more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue less than two months after launching a pilot in the U.S., a spokesperson said.
In January, the artificial intelligence startup announced plans to test ads with free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the United States, potentially creating a new revenue stream. The move was ridiculed by rival Anthropic, prompting OpenAI’s ads to become the focus of its first Super Bowl campaign.
OpenAI works with more than 600 advertisers and has seen no impact on privacy-related trust metrics, a spokesperson said. The company is also beginning to consider additional testing in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
According to a January release, ads within ChatGPT will appear at the bottom of a chatbot’s answers, will not affect those answers, and will be clearly labeled. OpenAI says users under 18 won’t see ads, and ads won’t show near certain topics like politics, health, or mental health.
About 85% of OpenAI’s free and Go users in the U.S. are eligible to see ads, but fewer than 20% see ads each day, a spokesperson said Thursday. Information was the first to report the revenue figures.
Despite the initial success of the pilot, some advertisers have complained that the rollout has been slow and conservative, CNBC reported earlier this month. OpenAI said the slow pace of the advertising program was intentional.
“We are in the early testing stages of advertising on ChatGPT, and our goal at this time is to learn and refine the consumer-facing experience before expanding more broadly,” the company said. “We are encouraged by early signals from users and participating brands and continue to see strong interest from advertisers.”
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