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It seems there is no escaping the ad industry.
OpenAI said on Thursday that it will start showing ads on its ChatGPT Free and Go subscription tiers in India. The move comes after the company changed its terms of service earlier this month to indicate that it will show ads to users while they use the AI assistant.
OpenAI said in February that it has more than 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users in India, a huge chunk of whom are on the free or the lower-priced Go tiers.
The company said on Wednesday it will start by showing ads for 50 brands and that it has partnered with agencies WPP and Omnicom for this. OpenAI will also launch an ad manager next month that will let marketers create campaigns for their companies, provided their campaigns have a daily minimum budget of ₹725 ($7.60).
“With ChatGPT Ads, businesses of every size can introduce themselves at relevant, high-context moments when decisions are beginning to take shape,” Dave Dugan, head of global ads solutions at OpenAI, said in a statement.
OpenAI has worked hard to cultivate its user base in India, launching a sub-$5 plan for ChatGPT Go in August 2025 and even running a limited promo that made that tier free for a full year. It also heavily advertised its products during sports tournaments, like the Women’s Premier League (WPL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket leagues. More recently, it hired Uber’s India head to lead its expansion efforts in the country.
The AI lab started showing ads to U.S. users in February and expanded the program to serve ads in Europe earlier this month.
Ahead of a potential IPO, expected this year or next, OpenAI has been trying to ramp up and cement its revenue sources. According to The Wall Street Journal, the AI lab recorded revenue of $6.7 billion in the second quarter ended June 2026, up from $5.7 billion the previous quarter.
Last November, The Information reported that OpenAI was aiming to reach 220 million paying subscribers by 2030. The report said that at that time, 35 million users paid for its Plus and Pro plans.
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Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.
You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.
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