OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Ads in India, expanding its advertising business to one of the platform’s largest user markets as the company looks to diversify revenue and monetise its growing base of free users.
The advertising offering will be available to logged-in adult users on ChatGPT’s Free and Go plans. In India, the Go subscription is priced at Rs 399 per month. Users on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans will continue to use ChatGPT without advertisements.
Ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT responses and will be visually separated and clearly labelled as sponsored content. OpenAI said advertisements will not appear for users under 18 or alongside sensitive topics, including politics, physical health and mental health.
According to OpenAI, advertising will remain separate from the model’s responses and will not influence the answers generated by ChatGPT. Advertisers will not have access to users’ conversations, memories or personal identification information, while user data will not be sold. Instead, advertisers will receive anonymised, aggregated performance metrics, including impressions and clicks.
Businesses in India will be able to create campaigns through the self-serve ChatGPT Ads Manager from September 4, with campaigns starting at a daily spend threshold of Rs 725. OpenAI has also partnered with agency groups WPP and Omnicom for the initial rollout, with more than 50 brands expected to launch campaigns in the Indian market.
India is currently ChatGPT’s second-largest market, with more than 100 million weekly active users as of February, according to OpenAI. Globally, the platform has crossed 1 billion weekly users. Dave Dugan, VP and head of Global Ads Solutions at OpenAI, said weekly usage in India has doubled year-on-year, with users increasingly turning to ChatGPT for more complex decision-making.
OpenAI began testing advertisements in the US in February before expanding the programme across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The company said the US advertising business crossed $100 million in annualised revenue within six weeks of launch.
The expansion comes as OpenAI continues to explore new revenue streams ahead of a potential public listing. The company reportedly made a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June, with a stock market debut potentially taking place later this year or early next year.
According to reports citing The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI generated $6.7 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, compared with $5.7 billion in the first quarter. However, the company’s quarterly operating loss reportedly stood at $12.3 billion.
