ChatGPT's advertising offerings are expanding. OpenAI is now introducing visual display ads into its advertising lineup, meaning advertisements will show up alongside the images users request ChatGPT to create. Beyond that, the company is broadening its ad measurement capabilities and partnerships while also working on fresh approaches to assessing brand suitability.

These new ads are set to debut later this month, initially only within the United States, and will showcase products and services from a preliminary test group of advertisers. According to the company, the ads will be distinctly labeled and will not affect the responses ChatGPT delivers.

This development comes on the heels of Meta's launch of Muse, an agentic AI application that's free for all users and an increasingly significant rival to top AI chatbots such as ChatGPT.

OpenAI rolled out ads earlier this year to help fund its free and low-cost subscription options, then brought them to India in August. Now, the goal is to attract online advertisers eager to connect with potential customers through richer visual storytelling. Down the line, once these ads become available worldwide, advertisers will be able to target ChatGPT's 1.2 billion weekly users.

Still, weaving these ads in could end up disrupting the user experience. Then again, that might be intentional — the ads could nudge more casual users toward paying for a subscription just to escape them.

In addition to the display ads, OpenAI announced it is growing its measurement tools and partner network. That network now features click attribution solutions from AppsFlyer, Triple Whale, Adjust, DV Rockerbox, Northbeam, Branch, Singular, Kochava, Airbridge, and Tenjin, along with full-funnel, advanced measurement partners Fospha, Measured, and INCRMNTAL. OpenAI has also teamed up with Haus, Measured, and WorkMagic to assist advertisers in exploring "geo-based" ad experiments.

The company further stated it is developing brand suitability evaluation pilots with support from DoubleVerify (DV) and Integral Ad Science (IAS), which will give advertisers a clearer picture of the ChatGPT advertising environment.

Taken together, these efforts show OpenAI striving to turn ChatGPT into a workable ad-supported business for users on free and low-cost plans.