ChatGPT ads launched in South Africa
OpenAI is expanding ads on ChatGPT's free plan and its cheapest paid plan to 26 more countries, including South Africa.
Earlier this week, the company began telling users in South Africa that they might start seeing ads on the ChatGPT Free and Go plans.
The company sent an email explaining changes to its Privacy Policy. The email included details about how ads work on ChatGPT and how users can control which ads they see.
ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Business and Education will continue to have no ads. OpenAI said ads on the Free and Go plans would not affect the answers ChatGPT gives users.
“When you see an ad, it is always clearly labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the organic answer,” the company said.
“You’ll get relevant and personalised ads using information that stays only on ChatGPT, such as ads you’ve interacted with, or context from your chats.”
ChatGPT users can control ad personalisation on their settings page. OpenAI said it would keep users' personal information and conversations private and would not share them with advertisers.
“Advertisers do not have access to your chats, chat history, memories, or personal details. Advertisers only receive overall information about how their ads perform, such as total views or clicks,” OpenAI said.
Users can visit OpenAI's website to learn more about ads on ChatGPT, privacy settings and how the company protects their data.
OpenAI began testing ads on ChatGPT in the US in February 2026 as a new way to earn money. In April, it launched its Ads Manager platform, which lets customers create and manage ads themselves without having to spend a minimum amount.
At the time this article was published, South African businesses could not yet use this platform. This means people in South Africa might already see ads, but those ads would not come from local companies.
On 31 August, ChatGPT announced that ads were expanding to India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. By then, ChatGPT Ads had reached an annualised revenue run rate of $1 billion. This means its yearly revenue was running at a rate of $1 billion based on the figures at that time.
This milestone came less than 200 days after ads first began testing. “The platform is now used by tens of thousands of advertisers and continues to expand globally,” OpenAI said.
“Advertising is one pillar of OpenAI’s diversified business model, alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise offerings, and usage-based APIs.”
Special treatment for certain accounts
OpenAI said its advertising options gave people, developers and businesses a choice in how they used its products.
The company said that showing ads on its free plan helped it keep ChatGPT available to more than one billion active users each week.
The company also said ads could help marketers share useful information that matches what people are interested in while using ChatGPT.
“People come to ChatGPT with clear goals. They might be choosing software for their business, learning a new language, planning a renovation, looking for a job, or exploring a new hobby,” OpenAI said.
“ChatGPT can help them frame the decision, establish criteria, understand alternatives, and move closer to taking action. Discovery, consideration, and decision-making come together in a single experience.”
OpenAI's ad system uses the topic of the current conversation to show ads that relate to what a person is exploring.
“Depending on the country and a user’s settings, the ads system may also use context from the user’s broader ChatGPT experience,” OpenAI said.
“This allows ads to reflect both what someone is asking about in the moment and, where enabled, their broader interests and preferences.”
OpenAI does not show ads on accounts it identifies as belonging to people under 18. It uses age information from accounts and, where available, age predictions to help identify these users.
Ads shown to people using ChatGPT without signing in are suitable for all audiences. Ads containing mature content are shown only to eligible users who are signed in.