OpenAI to Launch Advertising Business in 31 European Countries Including Germany on August 24

en.Wedoany.com Reported - OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT's advertising business to the European market. Ad placements will go live on August 24 across 31 European markets, covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, as well as the Benelux countries and the Nordic nations.

To ensure user trust remains unaffected, OpenAI has made a clear visual distinction between ads and ChatGPT responses. Dave Dugan, Vice President of Advertising, told the German Press Agency (dpa) that ChatGPT responses are clearly separated from ads, with a gray divider line below the response and ads placed beneath that line.

OpenAI has also committed that advertisers cannot access chat history. Dugan stated that the fundamental principle of ad placements is protecting conversational privacy, and the company will not disclose any conversation information to advertisers; this is particularly important because some users share intimate content with ChatGPT.

Users who prefer an ad-free experience can opt for ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Pro subscriptions. Dugan said that users who do not want to see ads can switch to these two plans. ChatGPT Plus costs nearly €23 per month in Europe, while the more feature-rich Pro plan is priced at €229 per month. The entry-level ChatGPT Go costs nearly €7 per month but includes ads.

OpenAI decided to shift to an advertising-funded model in early 2026, a move that co-founder and CEO Sam Altman had previously strongly opposed. In an interview in fall 2025, Altman's stance softened, citing Instagram as an example and noting that ads can be useful if done well. The cost of running massive AI models has prompted OpenAI to explore new revenue streams; according to the latest estimates, ChatGPT has over 1 billion monthly users, more than 80% of whom use the free version. To prevent this group from becoming a pure cost burden, the company is increasingly relying on ad insertion and cheaper entry-level subscriptions.

The European launch comes exactly six months after the first U.S. ad pilot. OpenAI stated that the service has evolved from a pilot project into a global platform, with tens of thousands of advertising clients already using it. For this European entry, the company is initially partnering with major advertising agencies such as Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, MediaPlus, and Havas, with a self-service tool for small businesses and self-employed individuals set to launch soon.