As ChatGPT’s growth slows, ads look like the next risky move
By Krystal Scanlon • January 27, 2026 •
Ivy Liu
Ads in ChatGPT might be good for OpenAI’s business, but it’s not necessarily a good move for their users.
What makes a tool like this feel almost futuristic is the sense that the answer arrives clean — unsponsored, unbothered and untouched by the internet’s usual commercial fingerprints. The second some users start wondering whether a response is genuinely helpful or just politely funneling them toward whoever paid for a placement, the spell breaks. And once that doubt creeps in, it’s difficult to get the shine back, especially for a product no longer riding that early, breathless wave of hyper growth.
SimilarWeb’s data shows downloads clustered in the same range for months, roughly 573.5 million in September 2025, slipping to about 571.9 million October, rising to around 571 million in November, before then nudging back to roughly 573.4 million in December.
When a platform is in that kind of holding pattern, even small shifts to the core experience can carry outsized risk. Introducing something as visibly commercial as ads could turn a period of consolidation into a moment of erosion.
“OpenAI already has questionable data privacy practices,” said Mark Xu, a member of the online community, The Alliance. “Our survey showed that a large fraction of ChatGPT users were opted into sharing their conversations for model training, even though they did not want their data used for this purpose.”
The survey referenced, asked 157 respondents for ChatGPT user data privacy expectations. Of the 117 who use ChatGPT, 71% were unhappy with their data being used to train the model, of which 40% of those immediately switched off the setting.
Of course, it could also go the other way. OpenAI has been vocal about protecting user trust and integrity of the experience, even outlining those commitments publicly in a blog post. That caution matters. Still, good intentions don’t always survive contact with revenue pressure and users tend to notice the difference before companies do. The conversations already unfolding in online forums make clear that, for some, that unease has begun.
The conversations already unfolding in online forums like Reddit make clear that, for some, that unease has begun.
“Ya’ll have fun with that. Switched to Gemini recently,” posted Redditor LSU_Tiger on Jan. 10. “I know no one cares, but there’s no way I’m supporting ads in chat.”
“First ad I see I make the switch. Probably to Claude or Gemini maybe,” added Redditor Cold-Appointment-853, also on Jan. 10. “I’ve been supporting ChatGPT cause of laziness (of comparing other options) for too long.”
These aren’t new concerns. Redditors have been expressing their dislike over potential ads in ChatGPT even six months ago.
“I’ve been using ChatGPT for a while, and honestly, if they ever add ads — even “contextual” ones based on your prompts, I’m probably done with it,” Redditor chennai94 also posted six months ago. “I don’t want an AI that tries to sell me something when I’m asking personal or sensitive questions. It totally kills the sense of privacy and neutrality. And even if they promise ads are labeled or based only on the current chat, that’s still creepy as hell. I get that they need to make money, but pushing ads into conversations crosses a line. If they go that route, I’ll switch to something open-source or local instead.”
That reaction is common for platforms that reached scale without ads and later reconsidered, particularly for those that once positioned themselves as different from the rest of the ad-saturated web. The harder challenge isn’t just weathering the initial backlash, it’s managing the slower change in perception if people begin to feel the space is moving from a neutral to commercial channel. Once that feeling sets in, it tends to stick.
The dynamic may be even sharper in a competitive landscape that includes Google’s Gemini rival to ChatGPT. People already associate Google’s products with advertising so commercial messages there feel almost built into the premise. ChatGPT, by contrast, built its identity on being something else. Changing that expectation is a heavier lift than it looks, especially against Gemini’s growth in recent months.
Sensor Tower estimates showed that through 2025, ChatGPT saw global monthly active users rise by 280% year-over-year, while Gemini’s MAUs increased by 360% year-on-year. Which means, Gemini is currently growing faster than ChatGPT, even if from a smaller base.
“The challenge they [OpenAI] have isn’t just that people don’t like ads, and that their growth is already slowing — it’s that the vast majority of people in the U.S. still either use AI very casually or don’t use it at all,” said Nate Elliott, principal analyst, AI in advertising and commerce at eMarketer. “For those people, the switching cost is very low; they could just start using Gemini or Claude tomorrow and not miss a beat.”
If even a portion of users drift toward Gemini in response to ads in ChatGPT, they’re not necessarily escaping advertising so much as delaying it. Google has stressed a cautious rollout of monetization formats. For people looking for a permanently ad-free refuge, the real reality may be timing not outcome.
“Ads are only as effective as they are relevant,” said Nikhil Lai, principal analyst at Forrester. “OpenAI does not have the decades of Google- and Amazon-grade machine learning required to infer intent and serve highly relevant ads. Without being powered by best of breed machine learning, ads in ChatGPT will have low engagement rates and impair users’ experience. Consumers are already unhappy with audience targeting’s status quo, evidenced by the rise of ad blockers. Irrelevant ads in ChatGPT will strengthen that trend.”
