So…what you’re saying is there’s a chance for ads in ChatGPT?
That’s the takeaway from a new Stratechery interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In the interview, Altman says the following:
“I believe there probably is some cool ad product we can do that is a net win to the user and a sort of positive to our relationship with the user. I don’t know what it is yet; I’m not like, ‘Here is our ad model’ already.”
Hey — that’s progress! Keep in mind, back in March, in another Stratechery interview, Altman seemed pained to discuss ads. Here’s what he said then:
“Currently, I am more excited to figure out how we can charge people a lot of money for a really great automated software engineer or other kind of agent than I am making some number of dimes with an advertising-based model.”
So, it does feel like the goalposts have shifted, at least slightly. That’s not to say we’re all the way there. In the same new interview, Altman also said he has viewed “ads on the Internet as sort of like a tax,” though he went on to praise Instagram’s ad experience:
“First of all, on the Instagram ads point, that was actually the thing that made me think, okay, maybe ads don’t always suck. I love Instagram ads — they’ve added value to me, I found stuff I never would’ve found, I bought a bunch of stuff. I actively like Instagram ads.”
Why This Matters:
Back in March, Altman described ads as something he wasn’t particularly excited about. Now, he’s carving out a narrow, specific exception: highly relevant, discovery-driven ads (his Instagram example) that genuinely add value for users. For the ad industry, that expands the Overton window of what OpenAI might consider in the future.
At the same time, Altman remains far more bullish on commerce than advertising. Between Dev Day’s launch of Apps in ChatGPT and Instant Checkout (“buy it in ChatGPT”), OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as a kind of shopping concierge—helping people articulate what they want, connect them to the right merchant, and—when the same product appears across multiple retailers—potentially earn an affiliate cut. That’s a different kind of economic engine for OpenAI and the one they seem more excited about right now.
Experts React:
Analyst and investor Eric Seufert has always been pretty confident that ads will eventually become part of the ChatGPT experience. See this from earlier this year.
Reacting to Altman’s new interview, Seufert noted that “Altman’s public position on ads has clearly softened.” He added that “the company hasn’t currently defined an ads model for itself, but I maintain that ads in ChatGPT are inevitable.”
Our Take:
Altman’s comments about “some cool ad product” and his “I love Instagram ads” bit point to a narrow, utility-first vision for advertising at OpenAI. Instagram’s success, in his view, comes from usefulness—surfacing products people genuinely want. If OpenAI ever embraces ads, they’ll likely be high-intent and context-rich, tied to a user’s explicit task in ChatGPT rather than generic display inventory.
Altman also underscores trust as OpenAI’s defining moat. The company won’t compromise that by biasing results for monetization or creating any perception of ranking distortion. Any future ad experience will need to feel assistive, not extractive. And that’s a good thing, we think.
