ChatGPT Ads Expand to 40 Countries Globally; Taiwan May Not Escape

OpenAI is rapidly accelerating its global advertising strategy for ChatGPT, announcing the addition of 31 new markets, predominantly in Europe. This expansion brings the total number of countries where ChatGPT displays advertisements to 40.

The company began testing ads in the U.S. in February and has since rolled them out to nine countries, including the UK, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. The latest announcement includes major European nations like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

While Taiwan is not currently on the list of newly added markets, its inclusion is considered likely as the advertising initiative continues its global expansion, especially given that Japan and South Korea are already live. Taiwanese users may need to prepare for potential ad exposure.

Advertisements will primarily be visible to users of the Free version and the Go plan. Higher-tier subscriptions such as Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu will remain ad-free. OpenAI also stated that users under 18 will not see ads.

OpenAI offers "Ads controls" allowing users to manage personalized advertising and decide whether their chat history and memory can be used for ad matching. Users can also view and delete ad-related data. The company assures that user data will not be sold to advertisers. For those who wish to avoid ads entirely, OpenAI provides options that may involve trade-offs, such as a reduced daily message limit for free users.

Ads are designed to be clearly separated from ChatGPT's AI-generated responses, appearing with a "Sponsored" label after an answer. The type of ad shown may be related to the user's current conversation, such as a food delivery service ad if researching dinner recipes.

“

Free users will have to accept a reduction in the number of messages they can use per day.