In March, OpenAI announced plans to introduce advertising to users of its free and ChatGPT Go subscription tiers. The company began rolling out these ads to users in the United States earlier this month, a move that drew criticism from competitors such as Anthropic, which ran a series of high-profile Super Bowl advertisements.

OpenAI's COO, Brad Lightcap, described the approach as an iterative process, emphasizing the company's commitment to maintaining user privacy and trust. “Well, this is going to be an iterative process for sure. This is something we are committed to getting right. What does that look like? It means obviously maintaining user trust at a very high level. It means getting privacy right,” Lightcap stated.

He further suggested that advertisements could enhance the user experience if implemented thoughtfully. Lightcap asked for patience as the company refines its approach. “It means really creating a delightful product experience. We think ads done right can be additive to a product experience. And so it’ll take iteration, it’ll take time, but we’re just starting out. So maybe give us a few months and see how it goes,” he added. Lightcap did not comment on whether OpenAI intends to expand its advertising program beyond the U.S. market at this time.

The launch followed public remarks from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who responded to Anthropic's Super Bowl campaign with a post on X. Altman characterized the rival company as "dishonest" and accused it of creating an expensive product primarily for "rich people."

“More importantly, we believe everyone deserves to use AI and are committed to free access, because we believe access creates agency. More Texans use ChatGPT for free than the total number of people who use Claude in the US, so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do,” Altman wrote.

Reports indicate that OpenAI is setting a premium price for its ad inventory, with a rate of $60 per 1,000 impressions. Last month, it was noted that the company is requiring a minimum commitment of $200,000 from advertisers.

This week brought news that Shopify will enable its merchants to advertise on ChatGPT through its Shop Campaigns ad network. They join other early testers in the program, including Target, Williams-Sonoma, and Adobe.