If you use the free version of ChatGPT and live in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, or South Korea, you may have started seeing something new in your answers: a small, clearly labeled ad. OpenAI confirmed on August 11, 2026 that its ad test — which began in the US on February 9, 2026 — has now expanded to these five countries.
Who actually sees ads. Only logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. If you pay for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu, you won't see ads at all — that's one of the things your subscription covers. Ads also never appear in temporary (incognito-style) chats, regardless of your plan.
What the ads look like. OpenAI says ads are visually separated from ChatGPT's actual answer and clearly marked as sponsored, and that they don't influence what the AI tells you — the answer itself is generated the same way either way. You can tap an ad to see why it was shown to you, dismiss it, leave feedback, or delete your ad data with one tap.
"I turned off personalization — why am I still seeing ads?" Turning off ad personalization in your settings doesn't remove ads, it only changes which ones you're shown. If you want no ads at all, personalization isn't the setting you're looking for.
How to actually turn ads off. On the Free plan, go to Settings → Ads controls → change plan, and you can switch to an ad-free option. The catch: your daily free message limit drops, and you lose access to certain tools — OpenAI specifically calls out image generation and deep research. The more straightforward route, if it's within budget, is upgrading to Plus, which removes ads entirely along with raising your limits.
If you're outside these countries. Ads were already running in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US before this expansion — the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea are the countries newly added on August 11. Germany and the rest of the EU are not yet part of the test, so if you're a free ChatGPT user there, nothing changes for you today — though OpenAI has said it plans to keep expanding through the year, so it's worth expecting this eventually rather than assuming it won't happen.
None of this means your ChatGPT account has been compromised or that something is wrong — it's a deliberate, disclosed test of a business model change, the same way free email and free social apps have long used ads to stay free. If an "ad" ever shows up that isn't labeled as one, or pushes you toward something that feels off (a link to enter payment details, a too-good-to-be-true offer), treat it with the same caution you'd use for any ad online, and don't confuse it with ChatGPT's own advice.
If you're weighing whether a paid plan is worth it for you, our guide to is ChatGPT Plus worth it breaks down what you get for the price, including the ad-free experience.
Sources
- Testing ads in ChatGPT — OpenAI
- OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Ads Test to UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea — gHacks Tech News
- ChatGPT ads: where they run now and how to switch them off — Notebookcheck