OpenAI has switched on marketing cookies by default for free ChatGPT users, a quiet privacy shift that begins sharing identifiers with advertising partners unless users dig into the settings menu to opt out. The change was disclosed in an email to users dated April 30 and reported this week by WIRED, with The Decoder and other outlets confirming the rollout.
It is the most aggressive monetization step OpenAI has taken since it began running ads inside ChatGPT earlier in 2026, and it lands at a moment when the company is under pressure to find sustainable revenue from a user base that is overwhelmingly on the free tier.
What Changed
In the email, OpenAI told users that it will "now use cookies to promote OpenAI products and services on other websites." The company said it may share limited identifiers — such as cookie IDs, device IDs, and email addresses — with advertising partners to make its marketing more relevant and to measure effectiveness on platforms like Instagram.
WIRED tested multiple accounts and found the marketing privacy setting was on by default for two free accounts but off by default for a Plus account and an Enterprise account. Users in ad-supported regions are most directly affected.
OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson stressed that "chat content isn't being shared," pointing users to a control inside the app at Settings > Data Controls > Marketing Privacy where the toggle can be disabled. The company also offers a "Your Privacy Choices" link on its website and says browser-level cookie controls remain available.
Why OpenAI Is Reaching For Ad Tooling
More than 90 percent of ChatGPT's reported user base sits on the free tier, and the cost of serving those conversations is one of the largest line items in OpenAI's operating budget. The company has been edging toward an advertising business model for months: in-product ads launched in February, and the new cookie defaults plug ChatGPT users into the standard cross-site retargeting pipeline that web publishers and apps already rely on.
Google has been testing ads inside its AI products on a similar trajectory, suggesting the free-tier-plus-ads model is becoming the default economic engine for consumer AI assistants rather than a fallback.
The Privacy Trade-Off
The distinction OpenAI is drawing — chats stay private, but the fact that you use ChatGPT can follow you around the web — is technically narrow but practically meaningful. Default-on tracking quietly converts a population that signed up for a chatbot into a marketable audience, and it does so without requiring an affirmative click from the user.
For regulators in jurisdictions with strict consent rules, default-on marketing cookies are likely to draw scrutiny. For users who want the change reversed, the fix is a single toggle — but only for those who know to look for it.
