Tell HN: OpenAI has started putting ads on paid programs
A user on Hacker News reports that OpenAI has started showing ads (for Financial Times, SHEIN, and Amazon Prime Day) within their paid £6.99/month ChatGPT plan, prompting them to cancel their subscription.
Background
- **OpenAI** is the company behind ChatGPT, the most popular AI chatbot. They offer a free tier and several paid subscription plans (e.g., ChatGPT Plus at $20/month, and a cheaper "ChatGPT" plan at ~$7/month as mentioned here).
- **This is a user complaint** on Hacker News (a tech-focused discussion forum) about ads appearing inside ChatGPT for paying subscribers on the cheap £6.99/month plan. The ads were for the Financial Times, Shein (a fast-fashion retailer), and Amazon Prime Day.
- **Why it matters**: OpenAI has long claimed its paid tiers are ad-free. Introducing ads into a paid product is controversial — users feel they are paying for a service that is now also monetizing their attention. This mirrors a broader tension in tech where subscription services (e.g., Prime Video, Netflix) have started adding ads to previously ad-free tiers.
- The user also points out the ads seemed contextually targeted (mobile game tips → saw game-adjacent ads like Amazon Prime Day), raising privacy concerns about chat content being used for ad targeting.