OpenAI is preparing a more visible advertising format inside ChatGPT. The company will begin testing visual ads in the US later this month, and the first placement will appear when people generate images with ChatGPT.
What OpenAI Is Testing
The new format will show images of sponsored products and services on screen. OpenAI says these visual ads will “initially” appear during image generation, which makes the image workflow the first place users may notice the change.
The company has already used ads in ChatGPT before. It first brought ads to ChatGPT in February, but that earlier version was more limited. Until now, the ad placement showed a company’s name, logo, and a link to its product in a “sponsored” section beneath the chat.
The visual ad format expands that idea. Instead of only showing a name, logo, and link, the placement can include product or service imagery. That makes the ad more prominent, even though OpenAI says it will remain separate from the image a user generates.
Where The Ads Will Appear
The first test is tied to image generation in ChatGPT. When a user asks ChatGPT to create an image, OpenAI may display a sponsored visual ad nearby.
The distinction matters because OpenAI says the sponsored material will not become part of the generated image. The company also says the ad format will “not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.”
In practical terms, the ad is presented as a separate sponsored placement rather than as an ingredient in the response. The generated image remains its own output, while the advertisement appears elsewhere on the screen.
Who Will Not See Them
OpenAI says ads will not appear for people who subscribe to ChatGPT’s Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans. That keeps the new visual ad test away from those paid subscription tiers.
The source does not state every detail about how broadly the test will roll out. It does say OpenAI will begin testing the format in the US later this month and that the company is working with an “initial group of advertisers.”
Those details point to a controlled launch rather than a universal change for every ChatGPT user at once. OpenAI is testing the format, watching how it works, and leaving room for additional advertising formats later.
OpenAI’s Guardrails
OpenAI says it has guardrails for deciding when a conversation is “appropriate” for ads. The stated goal is to keep advertising out of “emotionally vulnerable, sensitive, or otherwise unsuitable contexts.”
That is an important part of the company’s positioning. ChatGPT conversations can cover many kinds of requests, and OpenAI is saying that ad placement should depend on the context of the conversation.
The company has not described every rule behind those guardrails in the source article. What it has said is that the system is meant to avoid contexts where showing a sponsored placement would be inappropriate.
Why This Matters
The move shows that OpenAI is continuing to experiment with advertising inside ChatGPT. The earlier version was text-adjacent: a company name, a logo, and a link in a sponsored section. The new version adds sponsored product and service images, which changes how noticeable the placement can be.
For users, the key facts are straightforward:
- OpenAI will test visual ads in the US later this month.
- The ads will “initially” appear when users generate images with ChatGPT.
- The sponsored images will remain separate from the generated image.
- OpenAI says the ads will “not influence the answers ChatGPT provides.”
- Ads will not appear for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Enterprise subscribers.
- OpenAI says it will use guardrails to decide when a conversation is “appropriate” for ads.
The company also says it plans to try new formats in the future. That means this image-generation test may be only one stage in a broader advertising strategy for ChatGPT.
For now, the most immediate change is visual. Sponsored products and services are moving from a simple section beneath the chat into an image-based format that appears on screen during one of ChatGPT’s most visual workflows.