Tell HN: OpenAI has started putting ads on paid programs

Post by ElijahLynn » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #43

kylemaxwell wrote: post #16

You were on a plan that explicitly includes ads; if you don't want to see them (I don't either), then you can either upgrade to the no-ad tier or, as you did, cancel. Neither choice is wrong, but OpenAI definitely has been open about that lowest-tier paid plan having ads.

Never pay to avoid ads. Signals you've got money to waste, makes your attention even more valuable. You're paying to self-segment into the upper echelons of the market.

Post by matheusmoreira » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 7:19 PM UTC

mpalmer wrote: post #49

matheusmoreira wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So eventually some shareholder value maximizing CEO will come along and notice all the fat stacks of money he's leaving on the table by not advertising to all of those rich contrarians, which were kind enough to provide you with a database of themselves. A switch will be flipped and suddenly they will all get ads as well. Always block the ads instead. Unconditionally, and without paying even one cent in extortion mon…

How exactly do you suggest blocking ads that appear inline in your LLM chats

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 8:07 PM UTC

zb3 wrote: post #42

paxys wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They people who don’t pay for ChatGPT still spend money on toothpaste and movies and cars and cereal and a million other things. There’s a reason the advertising industry exists.

Are you sure that's because of online ads? (which I don't see due to ad blockers) > There’s a reason the advertising industry exists. I think we'd need to pause online ads to understand their true effect.. I know people buy things, but attributing these choices to the fact that an ad was displayed to the same user some days ago doesn't sound reliable to me.

Post by zb3 » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

jstummbillig wrote: post #46

zb3 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's some interesting economy there.. 850m users are not paying, so we'll fund the product by displaying advertisements to those users that do not pay. The advertisers spend money on those ads, but they know the audience doesn't want to pay.. but fortunately, their products might be free too, because they can also be funded by ads (served to the same audience). This intelligent design provides infinite money and in…

> That's some interesting economy there.. 850m users are not paying, so we'll fund the product by displaying advertisements to those users that do not pay. That is... not interesting. That is how the ad supported web worked for the past 20 years.

Post by qsxfthnkp2322 » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 11:09 PM UTC

Cider9986 wrote: post #35

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you go golden platinum extra special customer - to become even more addless for now. I find it hilarious that they insert the adds that manual though. It would be so easy, to generate subconcious addds with an LLM. Like weave a slogan reminder into the conversation...

There's a black mirror episode like this. Not quite as bad having an AI doing it, though. A woman needs this treatment after a brain injury. Iirc it clones her brain onto their servers. It's super experimental, it's a free surgery with a subscription service where you need to be within the supported area like cell towers. If she stops paying for the service she will die. They promised to expand the support area to mo…