OpenAI Hits ‘Code Red’ as ChatGPT Upgrades Take Priority Over Ads
OpenAI weighs new revenue streams while prioritising ChatGPT’s performance.
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OpenAI is reevaluating its short-term plans as it seeks to enhance ChatGPT in a competitive AI market. According to The Information, CEO Sam Altman told employees he was declaring a “code red” to expedite upgrades to the chatbot. This urgent push means that some other projects, including early work on advertising, will be put on hold for now.
OpenAI has never publicly said it is building ads into ChatGPT. However, behind the scenes, the company has reportedly been testing various types of ads, including online shopping promotions. These experiments show that OpenAI has been seriously considering ads as a new stream of income. So far, the company’s revenue comes mainly from ChatGPT Plus subscriptions and enterprise deals with businesses. Ads would be its first major attempt to monetise free users.
The first visible clues appeared when engineer Tibor Blaho discovered code within the ChatGPT Android app that referenced “search ads,” a “search ad carousel,” and an ad API. These features are not yet active, but their presence strongly suggests that OpenAI has been developing an advertising system that could later be integrated into ChatGPT on iOS, Mac, and the web.
The repeated use of the word “search” in the code hints at how ads might work. OpenAI may show ads only when users ask ChatGPT to look something up online or compare products—similar to what Google Search or Amazon already does. This approach would limit ads to moments when users are already in a shopping or research mindset, reducing the risk of disrupting normal conversations with the chatbot.
The timing is essential. For months, there have been rumours that OpenAI could change the pricing of ChatGPT plans. Introducing an ad-supported tier would give the company more flexibility to manage rising computing costs while maintaining a free option. Within the company, thinking about ads has also undergone a shift.
Altman once described advertising as a “last resort,” but he has recently said that well-targeted ads can actually be useful. Internal financial documents leaked earlier this year predicted that up to $1 billion in revenue could be generated from free users by 2026.
OpenAI’s moves come as rivals like Google rapidly build ads into their own AI assistants. As chatbots become new gateways for search and online shopping, advertising is becoming an essential part of the business model.
