ChatGPT Now Tracks Free Users for Ads by Default as OpenAI Monetizes

OpenAI has turned on marketing cookies by default for all free ChatGPT users, marking its most aggressive move yet into advertising‑driven revenue. In an April 30 email reviewed by The Decoder, the company confirmed it now shares limited data — including cookie IDs and email addresses — with advertising partners to promote its own products on third‑party platforms such as Instagram.

Chat content itself is not being shared, according to OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson, who told The Decoder that the data sharing is limited to marketing purposes only. But the distinction matters less than the precedent: OpenAI is now in the ad business, and free users are the product.

WIRED verified that the marketing privacy setting was automatically switched on for two free ChatGPT accounts, but crucially not for paying subscribers. The split is telling — if you pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, your data stays private. If you don't, you're opted in by default.

To disable tracking, free users need to navigate to Settings > Data Controls > Marketing Privacy in the ChatGPT app and toggle the option off. A Your Privacy Choices link is also available on the ChatGPT website, and users can manage cookies through their browser settings. But default opt‑in means most users will never touch these controls.

More than 90 percent of ChatGPT users stick with the free tier, according to The Decoder. That is a staggering number of users generating substantial inference costs with zero direct revenue. OpenAI has been running ads inside ChatGPT in select countries since February, but this tracking expansion represents a deeper integration with the advertising ecosystem.

The financial pressure on OpenAI is well documented. If 90% of users never pay, the unit economics demand monetization somewhere else — and that somewhere is advertising data.

OpenAI is not alone in testing AI advertising. Google has also begun testing ads in its AI tools, though for now the experiments are limited to its AI‑powered search integration. The difference: Google has decades of advertising infrastructure and relationships. OpenAI is building its ad business from scratch — and it's starting with data collection.

For builders integrating ChatGPT into their own products via the API, the message is clear. The free consumer product is becoming an ad‑supported platform, and the line between API customers and ad‑targeted users is getting sharper by the month.

The shift from subscription‑only to ad‑supported consumer AI has real implications for anyone building on or around OpenAI's ecosystem. First, it signals that OpenAI's API pricing may stay high — the consumer side needs to be monetized because API margins alone aren't covering costs. Second, it changes the trust dynamic. Developers who recommend the free version of ChatGPT to their users are now recommending an ad‑tracked product.

Third, it opens a competitive lane. AI tools that promise no tracking and no ads — like certain open‑source alternatives or privacy‑focused chatbots — now have a clearer differentiator. As The Decoder notes, Google's parallel ad testing suggests this is an industry‑wide shift, not just an OpenAI play. Builders should watch for similar moves from Anthropic, Google, and Meta.

OpenAI is racing toward an IPO — potentially in 2027 — and needs to show a path to profitability that doesn't rely entirely on subscriptions and enterprise contracts. Advertising is the obvious answer. But default opt‑in tracking is a choice that invites regulatory scrutiny, particularly in Europe where GDPR requires explicit consent for marketing cookies.

The pattern is familiar: a free product grows to hundreds of millions of users, the company needs revenue, and advertising becomes the default business model. What is different this time is that the product is an AI assistant — something users have intimate, sometimes deeply personal conversations with. Even if chat content is not shared today, the advertising infrastructure is now in place. The question is not whether AI ads will expand, but how far.