OpenAI to roll out ads in free ChatGPT versions in India

The company announced Thursday it will begin inserting advertisements into the user interface of the Free and Go plans across the Indian subcontinent, weeks after it updated its terms of service to permit ads during conversations with the assistant. The step extends the geographic reach of the new revenue model after a pilot launched in the United States in February and expanded to Europe earlier this month.

According to data OpenAI released in February, more than a hundred million weekly active users are registered in India, the majority on free or discounted tiers. OpenAI has invested heavily in the market: in August 2025 it launched the Go plan at less than five dollars per month, ran a promotion that made it free for a full year, and advertised during major cricket tournaments such as the IPL and WPL. It recently hired the head of Uber in India to lead local expansion.

In the first phase ads from fifty brands will appear, and OpenAI has partnered with the two largest advertising agencies, WPP and Omnicom, to manage the inventory. Next month an ads manager is slated to go live, allowing advertisers to build campaigns themselves, provided the daily minimum budget is 725 rupees (about 7.60 dollars, about 28 shekels). Dave Dugan, head of global advertising solutions at the company, said the tool will let businesses of any size reach users “in context-rich moments when decisions start to take shape.”

The move comes as OpenAI seeks to diversify and grow revenue ahead of a possible IPO expected this year or next. The Wall Street Journal reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of 6.7 billion dollars, up from 5.7 billion dollars in the prior quarter. In November, the company said it aims to reach 220 million paying subscribers by 2030, while currently counting 35 million on Plus and Pro plans.

The hybrid model of mixing ads on low-cost tiers with higher-priced subscriptions mirrors approaches used by older content and social-media platforms. The open question is how much users on free plans will tolerate ads appearing mid-conversation and whether per-user revenue will justify the risk of eroding trust and usage.