Perplexity Abnandons Ads. What That Means for AI Visibility and GEO.
Perplexity killed ads to protect user trust. ChatGPT launched them the same week. AI search is splitting into two camps, and your GEO strategy needs to account for both.
On February 18, Perplexity confirmed it has abandoned advertising. The company tested sponsored placements starting in 2024, placing ads beneath chatbot responses. Those experiments were phased out by late 2025. Executives say they have no plans to bring them back.
Six days earlier, OpenAI started showing ads inside ChatGPT for Free and Go tier users in the U.S.
Two of the biggest AI search platforms made opposite decisions in the same week. That split has real consequences for how brands get discovered.
Why Perplexity Walked Away
The reasoning was simple. A Perplexity executive told the Financial Times that users need to believe they are getting the best possible answer. Once ads appear, people start doubting everything.
Their head of advertising, Taz Patel, has left the company. This wasn't a pause. It was a strategic exit.
Perplexity is betting on subscriptions and enterprise sales instead. The company reports $200 million in annualized revenue and over 100 million users. That revenue comes from paid plans ranging from $20 to $200 per month, not from advertisers.
Why ChatGPT Went the Other Direction
OpenAI launched ads on February 9. Sponsored placements now appear below ChatGPT responses for users on Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise subscribers do not see ads.
OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers. They run on separate systems. Advertisers cannot shape or alter responses.
The financial pressure is clear. OpenAI has over $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments. Subscriptions alone are not covering the cost of running models at this scale. Ads help keep the free tier viable.
The Two Camps Forming in AI Search
The AI search industry is splitting on monetization. Here is where each platform stands today:
Ad-free: Perplexity, Claude (Anthropic ran Super Bowl ads criticizing ads in AI chatbots), and Google Gemini (for now).
Ad-supported: ChatGPT (Free and Go tiers), Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
Grok and DeepSeek have not announced advertising plans.
What This Means for Brand Visibility
This is the part that matters for marketers.
On ad-supported platforms like ChatGPT, brands will soon compete for visibility on two fronts: organic citations and paid placements. If you are not showing up organically, a competitor can pay to appear instead.
On ad-free platforms like Perplexity and Claude, there is no paid shortcut. The only way to appear in responses is through organic citations. Your content needs to be structured, authoritative, and relevant enough for the AI to reference it.
That makes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) non-optional on at least two of the six major AI platforms. You cannot buy your way in. You earn it.
What Brands Should Do Now
Track visibility across both camps. Your brand's presence on ChatGPT and Perplexity are two different problems with two different strategies. A single approach does not cover both.
Invest in GEO before it gets crowded. Most brands are not optimizing for AI search yet. The ones that start now will have an advantage as these platforms grow. We wrote a detailed guide on how to get recommended by Perplexity and another on improving ChatGPT visibility.
Monitor what AI says about you daily. AI responses change. What ChatGPT says about your brand this week is not what it said last week. Without daily tracking, you are flying blind.
The Bottom Line
Perplexity and ChatGPT are going in opposite directions. For brands, this means organic AI visibility is no longer a nice-to-have on any platform. On some, it is the only option.
The question is whether you know where your brand stands today.
