OpenAI ads pilot tops $100 million in ARR in under 2 months

OpenAI’s nascent advertising business surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue less than two months after launching its pilot in the U.S., according to a spokesperson.

The AI ​​startup said in January that it planned to test the ads with its free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the US, potentially opening up a lucrative new revenue stream. The move was ridiculed by rival Anthropic, which led to OpenAI’s ad being the focus of its first Super Bowl campaign.

OpenAI works with more than 600 advertisers and has not seen any impact on privacy-related trust metrics, the spokesperson said. The company is also beginning to explore additional testing in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

According to the January release, ads within ChatGPT will appear below the chatbot’s responses, will not influence its responses, and will be clearly labeled. OpenAI said users under the age of 18 will not see ads, and ads will not appear near certain topics such as politics, health and mental health.

About 85 percent of OpenAI free and Go users in the U.S. are eligible to see ads, but less than 20 percent of them are shown daily, the spokesperson said Thursday. The Information was the first to report the revenue figure.

Despite the early success of the pilot, some advertisers were disappointed by the slow and conservative rollout, CNBC reported earlier this month. OpenAI said the gradual pace of its advertising program was intentional.

“We are in the early testing phase of ads on ChatGPT, and our current goal is to learn and improve consumers’ experience before rolling out the experience more broadly,” the company said. he said. “We are encouraged by early signals from users and participating brands, and we continue to see strong interest from advertisers.”

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