ChatGPT Ads Are Here: OpenAI's Criteo Partnership Signals the End of Free AI Discovery
OpenAI confirmed on March 21, 2026 that it will begin showing advertisements to all users of the free and Go versions of ChatGPT in the United States within the coming weeks. Criteo, the $1.8 billion commerce media company, is the first ad-tech partner integrated into the rollout. The ads will appear inside the ChatGPT interface next to text responses, not embedded within the AI-generated answers themselves. This isn’t a test anymore. This is the commercialization of the most disruptive information interface since Google Search. ...