Ask ChatGPT to recommend a coffee machine and you may see an ad for a related product right below the answer. For people using the free version of ChatGPT in Europe, that is no longer new. So how are these ads chosen, do they affect the answer, and what can you do if you would rather not see them?
Who sees ads?
OpenAI started testing ads in the United States on February 9, 2026. In an announcement on August 18, it expanded them to 31 European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Ads appear only on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts are ad-free. OpenAI says it also does not show ads to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18.
One detail is easy to miss: Go is a paid plan, but it is not ad-free; to remove ads you need Plus or Pro.
How are ads chosen?
According to OpenAI’s help page, the ads system looks first at the context and intent of your current conversation. Basic information such as general location and language is also considered. If personalization is on, past chats, memory and how you interact with ads can be factored in too. Personalized ads are not initially available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, so users there mostly see ads based on the current conversation alone.
Some topics carry no ads at all. OpenAI says it does not place ads near sensitive topics such as personal health, mental health or politics, and that it does not currently allow political advertising.
Do ads affect the answer?
OpenAI’s position is clear: ads run on a system separate from the chat model, they are clearly labeled, and advertisers cannot shape ChatGPT’s answers. Advertisers do not see your chats, memory or name; they only receive aggregated data such as total views and clicks. You can also see why a particular ad was shown from the menu next to it.
As a user you cannot verify this from the outside, but it matters that the principle is written down. For purchase decisions, one good habit still applies: compare the recommendation in the answer with at least one other source.
How can I reduce or remove ads?
In the Ad controls section of Settings you can turn off ad personalization and delete the history of ads you have seen and the data used for ads. Deleted data is no longer used for ads, though it can take up to 30 days to be fully removed from the servers. Temporary Chat shows no ads at all; it is the chat mode that does not create or update memories.
There are two ways to remove ads completely. The first is switching to the ad-free option on the Free plan; your daily message limit drops and some tools, such as image generation or deep research, become unavailable. The second is upgrading to Plus or Pro.
Value lives in the problem solved, so I would choose based on what you do most often. If you use ChatGPT now and then to look things up, the ad-free free option, or asking shopping questions in Temporary Chat, is a sufficient fix. Someone considering Go because ads bother them, however, would pay and still see ads; for that person the numbers only work out with Plus.
