New Delhi: OpenAI has expanded its ChatGPT advertising programme to India, one of the company’s largest markets, bringing sponsored advertisements to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans. The move is part of the company’s broader effort to build additional revenue streams while continuing to offer free and lower-cost access to ChatGPT.
Under the advertising model, sponsored products and services will appear below ChatGPT’s responses and will be clearly labelled and visually separated from the AI-generated answers. OpenAI says advertisements will operate independently of the system that generates ChatGPT responses.
The Go plan in India is priced at Rs 399 per month. Users subscribed to Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans will continue to receive an ad-free ChatGPT experience.
Ads to appear below ChatGPT responses
The new advertising format is designed to keep sponsored content separate from the answers users receive.
OpenAI’s current policy states that ads may appear below the end of a ChatGPT response and will be identified as sponsored content. Advertisers cannot influence, rank or alter the answers generated by ChatGPT.
This distinction is intended to ensure that users can differentiate between an AI-generated response and paid promotional material.
The company has positioned advertising as a way to support broader access to ChatGPT, particularly on the Free and Go tiers, while continuing to invest in infrastructure and product development.
OpenAI first began testing advertisements in ChatGPT in the United States in February 2026. The pilot was initially restricted to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans. The company has since been gradually expanding the programme into additional international markets.
User conversations remain private
Privacy has been a key part of OpenAI’s advertising policy.
The company says advertisers do not have access to users’ chats, chat history, memories or personal details. OpenAI also says it does not sell ChatGPT user data to advertisers.
Instead, advertisers receive aggregated, non-identifying information about campaign performance, such as the number of views or clicks generated by an advertisement.
OpenAI has also stated that advertisements do not influence ChatGPT’s answers. The advertising system and the system generating ChatGPT responses operate separately.
Users can also manage aspects of their advertising experience through the available ad controls. Depending on their region and eligibility, users can turn off ad personalisation, dismiss advertisements, provide feedback and clear data used for advertising.
Under-18 users will not see ads
OpenAI has said advertisements will not be shown to accounts identified as belonging to users under 18.
The company uses account-level age information and age prediction where available to determine eligibility. Ads are also excluded from certain sensitive or regulated topics, according to OpenAI’s advertising policies.
The safeguards are intended to limit the use of advertising in contexts where promotional content could be inappropriate or particularly sensitive.
OpenAI has also emphasised that seeing an advertisement does not mean the company endorses or recommends the advertiser or its products.
India becomes an important advertising market
The expansion into India is significant because the country has emerged as one of ChatGPT’s largest markets.
The move gives businesses operating in India access to a new advertising channel within an AI platform that is increasingly being used for product research, comparisons, recommendations and decision-making.
OpenAI’s advertising platform allows businesses to create campaigns, set objectives and budgets, and monitor campaign performance. The company currently supports CPM, CPC and conversion-optimised CPC objectives in its advertising platform.
For India, the current minimum daily campaign spend listed by OpenAI is Rs 725.
Businesses can use the company’s official advertising platform to create campaigns and manage their advertisements.
Advertising programme expands globally
OpenAI began testing advertisements in the US on February 9, 2026. At the time, the company said the programme was intended to help support broader access to more powerful ChatGPT features while maintaining user trust and privacy.
The advertising pilot was subsequently expanded to additional markets, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, followed by the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.
OpenAI said in its August 11 update that it was continuing to expand ChatGPT Ads into more markets during 2026.
The India expansion represents another major step in that international rollout.
Paid plans remain ad-free
For users who do not want advertisements, OpenAI continues to offer ad-free paid plans.
Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users will not see ads under the current advertising model. Free users in eligible markets may also have the option of switching to an ads-free Free experience in exchange for lower usage limits and reduced feature access.
OpenAI says its advertising strategy is based on three key principles: keeping answers independent, protecting conversation privacy and giving users meaningful control over their advertising experience.
With India now joining the expanding advertising programme, ChatGPT is moving into a new phase in which sponsored content will become part of the experience for eligible Free and Go users, while the company seeks to balance monetisation with the privacy and independence expected from its AI assistant.