ChatGPT Has Ads Now. Here's What They Can Buy — and the One Thing They Can't.

ChatGPT started showing ads to free-tier users in February, and the rollout has moved fast — international expansion, a self-serve ads manager with no minimum spend, major agencies writing six-figure checks. Here's the full verified timeline, who sees the ads, and the detail that matters most: by OpenAI's own design, the ads sit beside the answer but cannot change it. AI search now has a rent lane and an own lane — and the answer itself is still earned.