OpenAI Launches Beta of Self-Serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT

OpenAI officially launched the beta of Ads Manager, a self-serve ad management tool for ChatGPT, opening registration for advertisers. This marks a stark reversal for CEO Sam Altman, who in 2024 said he 'hates ads' and called 'ads + AI deeply uneasy.' Internal forecasts project ad revenue reaching $2.4 billion in 2026, $11 billion in 2027, and over $100 billion by 2030—potentially becoming OpenAI's largest revenue source. ChatGPT now offers five subscription tiers (free to $200/month Pro) with 900 million weekly active users, though only 5.5% pay. Enterprise ARR has surged from $2B in 2023 to $20B, yet compute costs have risen in parallel—Altman notes ChatGPT's per-word query cost is a few cents versus Google's 0.2 cents.

On the same day, ByteDance's Doubao updated its App Store listing with a three-tier paid subscription: Standard (68 yuan/month), Enhanced (200 yuan), and Professional (500 yuan, ~$73.50). The basic free service remains. Doubao has 345 million monthly active users and consumes over 120 trillion tokens daily, driving massive compute costs. ByteDance spent approximately 90 billion yuan ($13.2B) on AI computing in 2025. The monetization push comes as AI companies globally face soaring capital expenditures: OpenAI's 2026 capex is projected at $50 billion, Meta raised its own to $145 billion. Anthropic, while mocking OpenAI's ad pivot, is reportedly seeking $50B in funding. History echoes—Google's AdWords launched during the dot-com bubble. Whether AI users tolerate ads and subscriptions remains the open question.