Nearly 75% of OpenAI's Revenue Comes from Paying Customers

At the Money20/20 conference held in Las Vegas on Monday, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar stated that about 75% of OpenAI's revenue comes from subscriptions of personal customers. The subscription plan for the company's ChatGPT chatbot currently starts at $20 per month.

According to Ms. Friar, OpenAI has recorded incredible growth rates from the personal customer segment. “Even our enterprise business segments, though newly developed, have achieved very significant annual revenue. The potential here is truly immense,” she shared.

Like other AI companies, OpenAI has sought to increase revenue by attracting business users. OpenAI reported in September that it had reached 1 million paying users for the enterprise versions of ChatGPT. This number includes subscribers using ChatGPT Team and Enterprise for companies, as well as those at universities using the ChatGPT Edu product.

However, Ms. Friar emphasized that OpenAI's greatest success currently lies in the personal consumer segment. ChatGPT now has 250 million active users weekly, with a conversion rate from free users to paid plans ranging from 5% to 6%.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar shared her views with Bloomberg. Source: Bloomberg

Although the company's revenue is growing rapidly, OpenAI also faces significant costs from developing and operating increasingly advanced AI systems. Earlier this month, OpenAI completed a fundraising round of $6.6 billion and secured a $4 billion revolving credit line from global banks.

Ms. Friar stated that OpenAI's goal is to develop advanced AI models, aiming for artificial general intelligence (AGI) – a type of AI capable of performing intellectual tasks at a level equal to or exceeding that of humans. “The most important thing for us is to continue to lead and ensure that AGI will benefit humanity,” she emphasized.

As part of that effort, OpenAI has been working to establish a global alliance to support investment in the physical infrastructure needed to power AI. This includes lobbying for the construction of unprecedented data centers in the U.S., with facilities that could generate capacity of up to 5 gigawatts.

“This is a new and challenging area,” Friar added. “We are all learning, and one thing is clear: infrastructure will determine the future.”