OpenAI is expanding the advertising business inside ChatGPT from a testing ground into a genuine revenue pillar. The company announced that it will launch ChatGPT ads in 26 additional countries, bringing the total number of countries covered by its ads to 89. For an advertising business that is still in its early stages yet steadily growing, this is a clear doubling down.
The playbook for this new front is already fairly clear. OpenAI is cultivating its ad product, launched only 8 months ago, as a new business pillar, placing it alongside its existing enterprise contracts, individual subscription services, and usage-based API revenue as several sources of cash. In the newly added countries, free users and Go subscribers will see ads, but they are designed to stand apart from ChatGPT's replies—without interfering with the model's answers and with clear labeling. According to OpenAI, these ads are meant to be useful to users while delivering desired results for advertisers.
The growth is indeed impressive. OpenAI disclosed that its advertising business had already reached an annualized revenue of 1 billion USD in the 8th month (August), nearly a tenfold increase from the 100 million USD in the 3rd month (March); the platform now has more than 100,000 advertisers. Looking back at the timeline, the company first launched advertising tests in its home market of the United States in the 2nd month (February) of this year, which drew mockery from competitor Anthropic — the latter explicitly promised that its chatbot Claude would remain permanently ad-free.
Turning to the capital markets, both leading AI companies are widely expected to pursue large-scale IPOs, though neither has put a listing timetable on the table. OpenAI is targeting a 2027 debut, while Anthropic's management has recently been actively courting potential investors. At this fork in the road between "with ads" and "permanently ad-free," the business logic behind the two choices is being examined under a magnifying glass by the market.
OpenAI clearly does not intend to stop here. It plans to roll out more ChatGPT ad formats, performance measurement tools, and delivery methods, exploring new paths for native interaction between brands and users—following the journey in which users use ChatGPT to uncover needs, compare options, and make decisions, helping companies deliver their products and services to exactly the people who need them. When the chat box itself becomes a media slot, what this company aims to earn is no longer just the subscription money.