Until now, ChatGPT has been ad-free: no banners, no hidden promotions. Even the paid versions worked without pushy offers. But that could change soon.
As reported by user X (formerly of Twitter) under the pseudonym Tibor , references to a new advertising feature appeared in the beta version of the Android app ChatGPT (1.2025.329) . The code contained phrases such as “advertising feature”, “bazaar content”, as well as ” search ad” and “search ad carousel”.
For now, it looks like ads will only appear in integrated searches, such as when artificial intelligence accesses the internet to answer a query. But over time, the possibilities could expand further.
What’s particularly interesting is that potential advertising in ChatGPT can be highly personalized . The AI knows many details about the user, unless, of course, the relevant settings are disabled.
This means that targeting will be personalized not simply based on general interests, as on social media, but specifically based on a specific person’s behavior and needs.
OpenAI has not yet officially announced the launch of the ad, nor has it specified when or how it might appear.
But the very fact that these elements are already present in the code indicates that the monetization vector is changing. If ChatGPT were to start earning revenue from advertising, it could impact not only the product itself, but also the way we interact with chatbots in the future and how much we can trust them (this remains an open question).
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