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OpenAI Emailed European Users on Saturday That Ads Land on Free and Go Tiers 'Later This Month' — Opt-In, Not Legitimate Interest
OpenAI sent European ChatGPT users an email on 2026-08-15 announcing that advertising arrives on the Free and Go plans later this month, alongside a preview of the updated EU privacy policy describing how ads are selected, measured, and controlled. The legally significant detail is that OpenAI is using explicit consent as its GDPR basis for personalized ads rather than legitimate interest — a stricter posture than most ad platforms take, and one that caps how much of the EEA base can actually be targeted. The UK went live 2026-06-06 and had been the only active European ad market until now; France, Germany, and Ireland were announced 2026-07-09 without hard dates. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu remain ad-free.
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