You Can Opt Out of Ads on ChatGPT, but It Might Not Be Worth It
It finally happened. After months of speculation, ChatGPT is officially offering ads. OpenAI revealed the news on Monday, announcing that ads would be deployed during testing for logged-in adult users on Free and Go subscriptions. If you or your organization pays for ChatGPT, such as with a Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education account, you won’t see ads with the bot.
OpenAI says that ads do not impact responses generated by ChatGPT and that these posts are always clearly separated from actual ChatGPT responses. Additionally, the ads are labeled as “Sponsored.” That being said, this is not exactly a church-state situation. OpenAI says it decides which ads to show you based on your current and past chats, as well as your past interactions with ChatGPT ads. If you ask for help with a dinner recipe, you might receive an ad for a meal kit or grocery service.
The company says it keeps your chats away from advertisers. The idea, according to the company, is strictly based on funding so that OpenAI can expand access to ChatGPT to more users. This is apparently why the ads are starting as a test, not a hard-coded feature: OpenAI says it wants to “learn, listen and make sure” [it gets] the right experience.” As such, advertisers do not have access to chats, chat histories, memories, or your personal information. They do have access to aggregate information about ad performance, including views and click statistics.
OpenAI will only serve ads to adults. If the service detects that you are under 18, it will prevent ads from appearing in your chats. Ads will also not appear if you talk to ChatGPT about anything related to health, medicine, or politics. You can offer OpenAI feedback on ads you see, which should inform the ads you receive in the future. You can also delete your ad data and manage ad personalization, if you want to reset the information OpenAI uses to send you ads.
Credit: OpenAI
How to opt out of ChatGPT ads
The thing is, you don’t actually have to deal with ads, even if you use ChatGPT for free. It’s not just a matter of upgrading to a paid ChatGPT plan, although OpenAI suggests that option in its announcement. Additionally, OpenAI offers Free and Go users a dedicated choice to opt out of ads here. There is of course a big problem: you have to accept fewer daily free messages with ChatGPT. OpenAI isn’t offering details here, so it’s unclear how limited the ad-free experience will be. But if you hate ads, or just don’t want to see an ad for something unrelated to your ChatGPT conversation, this is an option.
What do you think of it so far?
If you like this compromise, here’s how to turn off ads. Open ChatGPT, then navigate to your profile, which opens your Profile Settings page. Here, scroll down to “Ad Controls” and then choose “Change plan to no longer show ads.” Select “Reduce message limits” and ChatGPT will confirm that ads are disabled for your account. You can return to this page at any time to turn ads back on and restore your message limits.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of Mashable, filed a lawsuit in April 2025 against OpenAI, alleging that it had violated Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.
