OpenAI Adds Marketing Cookies as Default for Free ChatGPT Users

OpenAI is now enabling marketing cookies by default for free-tier ChatGPT users, a move that signals a broader push to monetize its user base through targeted advertising. In an email sent to users on April 30, the company outlined significant changes to its US privacy policy, stating: “We’ll now use cookies to promote OpenAI products and services on other websites.” The email assured users that their actual conversations with ChatGPT remain private: “Your conversations with ChatGPT are private and are not shared with marketing partners.” Cookies, which store browsing data, will be used to serve ads for OpenAI products across the web.

While OpenAI insists that chat content is never shared with third parties, the company will now leverage data collected during user interactions to market its own services, such as ChatGPT, on external platforms. This strategy appears focused on converting free users into paying customers and measuring ad effectiveness. WIRED confirmed that marketing settings are enabled by default for free accounts, while paying subscribers on Plus and Enterprise plans were not automatically opted in.

This development aligns with OpenAI’s broader expansion into advertising. In February, the company began placing ads at the bottom of ChatGPT outputs for US users. Competitors like Google are similarly exploring how to integrate ads into generative AI experiences.

“Nothing about our policy of not sharing people’s conversations or other private user content with advertisers has changed,” said OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson. “Like many companies, OpenAI works with select marketing partners to help people learn about our products on third-party websites and apps, and we updated our privacy policy to clarify how this works. We do not share your conversations with these marketing partners. To make OpenAI marketing efforts more relevant and measure their effectiveness, we may share limited identifiers, such as cookie IDs or device IDs, and users can opt out at any time in settings.”

A comparison of the old and new privacy policies reveals the key shift. In the Disclosure of Personal Data section, OpenAI now explicitly includes “Marketing Partners” alongside vendors and service providers. The updated language states that the company may share “limited information” with partners to promote services like ChatGPT and Codex off its platforms. A new help page clarifies that OpenAI might send identifiers such as email addresses or cookie IDs to advertising platforms, enabling it to track whether users take specific actions, like signing up for Codex after seeing an ad on Instagram.

Users can opt out by navigating to Settings > Data Controls > Marketing Privacy in the ChatGPT app. However, for free users, this setting is on by default, a detail that has raised privacy concerns.

Interestingly, a sentence regarding “sensitive Personal Data” was briefly removed from the privacy policy on Friday. When WIRED flagged the omission, OpenAI attributed it to an error and restored a similar clause in a different section. The company categorizes various data types as “Personal Data,” including birth dates, payment information, and user prompts, but does not specify which are considered “sensitive.” It maintains that it does not use this information to infer characteristics about consumers.

As OpenAI expands its advertising footprint, users should be aware that their browsing habits may now influence which ads they see for the company’s products. The default opt-in for free accounts underscores the importance of checking privacy settings, especially for those who value control over their data.