ChatGPT Ads Explained: Who Sees Them, Where, and How to Switch Them Off

Ads in ChatGPT are about to appear somewhere new. On October 5, 2026 OpenAI said it is introducing "a new visual ad format in ChatGPT" and that, initially, "we'll test this new ad format during image generation". Testing "will begin later this month in the US with an initial group of advertisers." Until now every ChatGPT ad sat below the end of a written answer.

None of that changes who sees ads. Ads have been running in ChatGPT since February, now reach more than 60 countries, and still touch only two of OpenAI's plans. If you are on the free one, there is a setting that removes them without you paying anything. The one thing worth knowing about the new format: the ad-free setting is the setting that also takes image generation away.

Key Takeaways

• A second ad format is coming, inside image generation. OpenAI announced a "new visual ad format" on October 5, 2026 and will test it "during image generation", in the US, "later this month" with "an initial group of advertisers". It says the ads will be "clearly labeled, and remain separate from the image being created".
• Ads are live, not planned. OpenAI's changelog dates the US test to February 9, 2026, then Australia, New Zealand and Canada on April 16, then the UK on June 4.
• It is past 60 countries, and still growing. OpenAI's European announcement named 31 countries on August 18; its August 31 update said "over 40"; its September 23 post adds Southeast Asia and Taiwan and says "more than 60 countries."
• Only Free and Go can show ads. OpenAI's ads help article states that Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts will not have ads.
• Under-18 accounts are excluded. OpenAI says it does not show ads to accounts identified as belonging to users under 18, using stated age and its age-prediction model.
• You can go ad-free for free. Settings, then Ads controls, then "Change plan to go ad-free". The price is lower message limits and reduced access to tools like image generation -- which is now also where the new ad format will be tested.
• Your chats do not go to advertisers. OpenAI says advertisers never receive your chats, history, memories, name, email, precise location or IP address, only aggregated views and clicks. The exception is a message you choose to send a business through an ad: that business sees it.
• No ads near health, mental health or politics, and none at all in Temporary Chats.
• Some ads now open a chat with the business. On September 16, 2026 OpenAI began testing Sponsored Agents with select US advertisers: click an ad and you can choose to talk to a labelled, business-sponsored agent inside ChatGPT.

Where ChatGPT Ads Run Today

More than 60 countries, by OpenAI's own count on September 23, 2026. OpenAI names the newest additions only as a region, "Southeast Asia and Taiwan", and its country-by-country list lives in a separate Ads Manager availability table for advertisers. We read that table again on September 26, 2026, and it has not moved. The copy we could reach still lists exactly 56 countries, all marked "Available", with no Southeast Asian market and no Taiwan on it, and the article stamps itself "Updated: 5 days ago" -- so its content predates OpenAI's September 23 announcement. The list below is that copy:

How it got there:

Three things to read carefully. That table is where advertisers can buy; the sentence about where ads are shown is OpenAI's September 23 line that ChatGPT Ads reaches "more than 60 countries". Through August the two lists matched. The nine countries added in mid-September have no announcement on OpenAI's news feed and no entry in its changelog, so for those we can say advertisers can buy there, not that you will see ads there yet.

Second, OpenAI has not published the names of the Southeast Asian markets on any page we can reach. Its own post says "Southeast Asia and Taiwan" and nothing more specific, and the advertiser table that would list them still showed its pre-announcement 56 countries when we re-read it on September 29, 2026 -- the article's own stamp then read "Updated: 5 days ago", which puts its content at about September 18, five days before the Southeast Asia announcement. OpenAI has also, on September 28, 2026, rewritten its general ads FAQ to drop country information altogether: it now carries a single line pointing at that same advertiser table. So there is currently no OpenAI page at all that names where ads are shown. If you are in that region, treat ads as arriving rather than confirmed for your country, and check Settings for an Ads controls entry: OpenAI says that menu only appears "in regions where ads are available or will soon be available", which makes it the fastest test you can run yourself.

Third, "31 European countries" is every EU member state plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, which is why the UK sits outside the 31 in OpenAI's count: it had ads since June.

Which Plans Show Ads

Only Free and Go. Every other consumer and business plan is ad-free, and OpenAI states it twice, once as a summary line and once as its own FAQ answer: "Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts will not have ads."

There is one wrinkle worth knowing if you are weighing the $8 plan. OpenAI's ChatGPT Go help page, last updated in mid-August 2026, still says only that OpenAI "may start testing ads in ChatGPT Go in the future". Its newer ads article already lists Go alongside Free as a plan where ads may appear, and the very first changelog entry from February named the test as "Testing ads in ChatGPT (Free, Go)". Where two OpenAI pages disagree, the ads article is the newer and more specific one. Paying $8 for Go does not buy you out of ads. Plus at $20 does.

How to Turn Ads Off Without Paying

OpenAI publishes an exact route, and it costs nothing. On the Free plan you can swap ads for tighter limits:

1. Open Settings in ChatGPT.
2. Select Ads controls.
3. Tap Change plan to go ad-free.
4. Choose Reduce message limits.
5. Confirm.

OpenAI says you will see a prompt explaining the trade: ads allow for more access, while going ad-free on Free lowers your message limits. Afterwards you should expect no ads, lower usage limits, and reduced feature access, with OpenAI naming image generation and deep research as examples of tools that may become unavailable.

You can undo it. If you hit a limit, ChatGPT may show a banner with a Show ads option that puts you back on the ad-supported free experience, and the same switch lives in Settings under Ads controls.

One thing this menu does not do is remove ads by turning off personalization. OpenAI is blunt about it: turning personalization off "can make ads less tailored, but it doesn't remove ads". If you want no ads at all, it is the plan switch above, or Plus or Pro.

What OpenAI Shares With Advertisers

Nothing you write in your own chats. OpenAI says advertisers have no access to your chats, chat history, memories or personal details, that it never sells user data, and that advertisers receive only aggregated, non-identifying information such as total views or clicks. It lists what is specifically never passed on: your chats, chat history, memories, name, email, precise location, IP address, and sensitive information such as health, mental health and political topics. If you choose to message a business through an ad, such as a Sponsored Agent (below), OpenAI now says that business sees only what you send it directly.

What OpenAI itself uses to pick an ad stays inside ChatGPT. It says that depends on your settings and can include what you are discussing in the current chat thread and basic context such as general location or language. With Personalized Ads enabled it can also use your current thread including personalized responses, how you interact with ads, and past chats and memory.

Two details in the small print matter for European readers in particular:

• Personalized ads are not initially available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, per OpenAI's ads article. So the first European ads should be based on your current conversation rather than your history.
• Ad controls only appear for Free and Go users in regions where ads are available or about to be. If you cannot find the menu, that is the likely reason, along with an out-of-date mobile app.

If you delete your ads data, OpenAI says it is no longer used to show you ads and is retained for up to 30 days before being removed from its servers.

Where Ads Appear, and Where They Do Not

Ads sit below the end of a response, labelled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. OpenAI says they do not influence what ChatGPT tells you, because ads run on separate systems from the chat model and advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter responses. It also says seeing an ad does not mean OpenAI endorses the advertiser.

From later in October 2026 there will be a second place. OpenAI's October 5, 2026 post announces "a new visual ad format" built around images rather than text, and says that "initially, we'll test this new ad format during image generation in ChatGPT." Its description of the format is that it shows "product inspiration, product usage, or the experiences they make possible". Two promises come with it, in OpenAI's words: "Ads will be clearly labeled, and remain separate from the image being created", and "as with our other ad formats, advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides."

Two things this post does not settle, so do not read them into it. It names no plan. Every plan statement on this page still comes from OpenAI's ads help article, which says ads reach Free and Go and that Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu "will not have ads"; the October 5 post neither repeats nor contradicts that, so treat Free and Go as the plan answer until OpenAI says otherwise. And it does not say the new format inherits the sensitive-topic and Temporary Chat exclusions below. What it does say about placement is broader and vaguer: OpenAI's "placement guardrails assess whether a conversation is appropriate for advertising, helping keep ads out of emotionally vulnerable, sensitive, or otherwise unsuitable contexts."

There is one wrinkle in this for free users, and it comes from putting two OpenAI statements side by side. Going ad-free on the Free plan costs you feature access, and image generation is the example OpenAI itself names as a tool that may become unavailable. Image generation is also the surface the new ad format is being tested in. So on the free plan the choice is not "ads in image generation or no ads in image generation" -- it is closer to "image generation with ads, or no image generation". OpenAI has not described it that way, and this is our reading of its two pages rather than a statement it has made.

There are places ads are not allowed:

• Sensitive and regulated topics. OpenAI says ads are not eligible to appear near personal health, mental health or politics, and that it currently allows no political advertising in ChatGPT at all.
• Temporary Chats. These never show ads.
• Under-18 accounts. Excluded by stated age and by OpenAI's age-prediction model, which weighs signals including how long an account has existed, typical times of use and usage patterns.

You can also act on an individual ad. Tapping the three-dot menu gives you Hide ad, Report ad, and Ask ChatGPT, which shares that specific ad with the chat so you can ask about it. By default ChatGPT cannot see the ads you are shown.

Sponsored Agents: Ads You Can Talk To

On September 16, 2026 OpenAI started testing a new kind of ad. OpenAI says Sponsored Agents "let people start a conversation with a business-sponsored agent after clicking an ad in ChatGPT." Its example is a dining table: instead of just clicking through to a shop, you ask the seller's agent whether it fits your space or how to look after the finish, then "follow a link to the business's website" when you are ready.

What OpenAI has said about it, in its own words:

The business sees what you type to it, and only that. OpenAI's ads help article, updated on September 19, 2026, now says: "If you choose to message an advertiser through an ad (for example, to ask questions while making a purchase decision), the advertiser will only see the messages you send them directly." It does not use the name Sponsored Agents, but messaging a business from an ad is what one is. So your own conversation stays with ChatGPT, and everything you type into the business's agent goes to the business.

The wording of an ad may now be written for your conversation. In the same announcement OpenAI says advertisers can opt into "AI-powered text customization," which "adapts an advertiser's existing headlines and descriptions to better fit the context of a conversation and automatically translates ad copy to a user's preferred language." So the ad under an answer may read as if it was written for your question, because in part it was.

Should You Do Anything?

If you are on Free in Europe and ads bother you, use the ad-free switch. It is genuinely free, it is two taps deep in Settings, and it is reversible from a banner the moment the tighter limits get annoying. That is a better first move than paying, because you find out how much the limits actually cost you before you spend anything.

If you are on Go, this is a reason to re-think the $8. Go is on the ad list, so its pitch is now extended image generation, uploads and data analysis rather than an ads-free experience. We weigh that in is ChatGPT Plus worth it in 2026.

If a Sponsored Agent opens, treat it like a salesperson. It is the business talking, not ChatGPT, and OpenAI says the business sees every message you send it there.

If you are already on Plus or Pro, do nothing. You are ad-free and OpenAI has committed in writing to keeping an ad-free paid tier as one of its advertising principles.

If you use free ChatGPT for health questions, the ban on ads near personal health, mental health and politics is the line to watch. It is OpenAI's own rule rather than a law, so it is worth re-reading if the product changes. For how the health feature itself handles your data, see ChatGPT Health, explained.

For where this leaves the free plans across brands, see the best free AI chatbot in 2026, and for the paid decision, which AI chatbot should you pay for.

Sources

• OpenAI, ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe, August 18, 2026, with an in-place update dated August 31, 2026
• OpenAI, A milestone in expanding access to AI, August 31, 2026
• OpenAI, Reimagining advertising with AI, September 16, 2026
• OpenAI, Building advertising for the way people use AI, October 5, 2026
• OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT
• OpenAI Help Center, Ads Manager Availability
• OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT Release Notes, entries dated February 9, April 16 and June 4, 2026
• OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT Free Tier FAQ and What is ChatGPT Go

Corrections and Updates

October 5, 2026: this page said ads "sit below the end of a response", which was OpenAI's only format. OpenAI announced a second one the same day: a visual ad format it will test "during image generation in ChatGPT", in the US, "later this month". The summary, lede, Key Takeaways, FAQ and the placement section now carry it. The post names no plan, so the Free-and-Go rule on this page still rests on OpenAI's ads help article and is marked as doing so.

September 25, 2026: this page said ChatGPT Ads run in "over 40 countries", OpenAI's August 31 figure. OpenAI announced on September 23, 2026 that ChatGPT Ads is "expanding to Southeast Asia and Taiwan, giving eligible businesses new ways to reach people across more than 60 countries." The summary, FAQ, Key Takeaways, country section and rollout table now say more than 60. OpenAI names no individual Southeast Asian country, and its advertiser availability table was unreadable on the day, so the country list on this page remains the September 17 copy.

September 19, 2026: this page said OpenAI's advertiser table listed 47 countries; the copy dated September 17 lists 56, adding Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

September 19, 2026: this page said OpenAI had not said what a business sees when you message it through an ad; its ads help article, updated that day, now says the business sees "only" the messages you send it directly.

September 13, 2026: this page said ads ran in nine countries with Europe "next", and that was 13 days out of date. On August 31, 2026 OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads are "now available in over 40 countries" and opened self-service buying across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; its availability table, updated September 1, lists 47. OpenAI also added an August 31 note to its European announcement without changing the post's date, which is why the change was missed. The summary, FAQ, Key Takeaways and country tables now say 47.