OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that the company is facing losses by offering ChatGPT Pro at $200 per month. The company did not anticipate that the subscription would become so popular among users. According to TechCrunch, the high demand for the service has led to increased computational costs, and the revenue from subscriptions is not enough to cover these expenses.
The ChatGPT Pro subscription provides access to an enhanced version of the AI model and offers unlimited speed for other tools from the company, such as the Sora video generator. However, the surge in demand has resulted in higher operating costs, which the subscription revenue alone does not cover.
insane thing: we are currently losing money on openai pro subscriptions!
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 6, 2025
people use it much more than we expected.
"I personally chose the price," writes Sam Altman on X, "and thought we would make a little money."
Despite having raised approximately $20 billion since its inception, OpenAI remains unprofitable. According to reports, the company anticipated losses of about $5 billion with a revenue of $3.7 billion last year.
This financial strain is largely attributed to expenses such as staff salaries, office rentals, and infrastructure costs for training AI models. For instance, at one point, running ChatGPT cost OpenAI approximately $700,000 per day.
Recently, OpenAI acknowledged that it requires "more capital than anticipated" as it prepares for restructuring and seeks to attract new investments. Additionally, the company is considering raising prices for various subscription tiers.
OpenAI forecasts that its revenue will reach $100 billion by 2029.