ChatGPT to show ads in Germany from next week

OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT users in Germany will be shown in-chat ads starting next week. Only users with more expensive ChatGPT subscription plans will be able to use the LLM ad-free. 

ChatGPT ads expands to 31 European countries

From next week, between August 24 and 30, OpenAI will begin showing advertisements to ChatGPT users in 31 European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Austria, the artificial intelligence company has announced. The exact start date has not been specified.

OpenAI has already been testing ads in the US for six months. Since then, it has gradually expanded to other markets, including the UK, Canada, Australia and Japan. Now comes the “largest expansion to date” with the addition of European markets. 

Ads will be shown to users on ChatGPT's Free and Go plans. The Go plan is the cheapest paid plan, costing 8 euros per month. Anyone who wants to avoid ads will need to upgrade to the 23-euro Plus subscription or the Pro plan, starting from 103 euros per month. 

Personalised ads will be based on ChatGPT history

Due to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation requiring companies to get prior consent from users to show targeted ads online, OpenAI plans to personalise advertisements based on the current ChatGPT conversation, location, device type, time of day, and language, allowing the company to circumvent the need for consent, reports Telecompaper. 

However, an option for targeted ads will be added later, which users can enable or disable as they wish. Despite introducing ads on the platform, OpenAI maintains that this will not influence the answers given in a chat. 

“Guided by OpenAI’s ads principles, we keep conversations private from advertisers and never sell customer data,” wrote OpenAI. “Ads in ChatGPT are always clearly labelled and separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.” 

In an example seen on the OpenAI website, if a user asks “What should I consider when buying a coffee machine?”, an answer would be given, followed by a clearly marked ad box advertising a coffee machine. 

Majority of ChatGPT users use free version

According to Trouw, around 900 million people worldwide use ChatGPT weekly. Only 50 million of these users have paid plans, and 9 million are business customers. This means that most people use the free version of the AI model. With a projected loss of 14 billion euros for 2026, OpenAI is trying to mitigate financial losses by introducing ads.

Another AI company, Anthropic, which operates Claude, is not planning on introducing chat-based ads. The appearance of advertisements in these contexts “would feel incongruous and in many cases, inappropriate,” the company writes on its website.