OpenAI says ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people each week. According to the Financial Times, OpenAI has separately told investors its annualized revenue run rate is approaching $50 billion. Those figures measure different things, and the run rate is not reported annual revenue.
Here are the key numbers on OpenAI's revenue, funding, users, employees, and products. I explain whether each figure is a reported result, a company statement, an estimate, or a forecast. For more ChatGPT user data, see the separate article on ChatGPT statistics.
- Reported annual revenue was $3.7 billion in 2024 and $13.07 billion in 2025. The figure approaching $50 billion at the end of September 2026 is, according to the Financial Times, an annualized run rate, not full-year revenue.
- OpenAI's latest completed funding round brought $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation. Talks about a new valuation of around $1.4 trillion were still open.
- OpenAI said ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people each week. It also said its product portfolio reaches 2.5 million businesses. These figures have different definitions.
1. What is OpenAI?
OpenAI introduced itself on December 11, 2015, as a nonprofit organization. Its founders included Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and John Schulman. The announcement cited a $1 billion pledge from the founding supporters. That was a funding pledge, not proof that the full amount had already been paid in. OpenAI's founding announcement.
In 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary that remained controlled by the nonprofit parent. On October 28, 2025, OpenAI changed the structure to OpenAI Group PBC. The OpenAI Foundation retained control of the public benefit corporation. OpenAI explains its structure.
When that restructuring closed, the Foundation held 26% of the shares. Microsoft held about 27%, and current and former employees and investors held the remaining 47%. Those figures describe the close of the October 2025 recapitalization. OpenAI's public structure page does not give a post-March 2026 ownership split or an individual stake for Sam Altman.
Legal cases
On May 18, 2026, a federal court dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its leaders. The jury had an advisory role. The judge adopted its finding that the claims were filed too late under the statute of limitations. The court did not decide the underlying merits. The Associated Press reported that day that Musk intended to appeal. AP on the decision and Musk's announcement.
The New York Times' copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft was still ongoing. In September 2026, the parties filed briefs on their motions for summary judgment. The US Department of Justice argued in a separate court filing for OpenAI and Microsoft's fair-use position. That filing was an argument, not a court decision. OpenAI lists filings in the case; AP on the Justice Department filing.
2. Revenue and growth
For OpenAI, reported annual revenue and an annualized run rate are different measures. Reported annual figures are available for 2024 and 2025. The latest 2026 revenue figure is a projection based on the current pace.
Source: Ars Technica on audited financial statements
The audited financial statements reported by Ars Technica in June 2026 show $3.7 billion in revenue for 2024 and $13.07 billion for 2025. OpenAI has not published the full statements itself. Ars Technica reported that independent journalist Ed Zitron obtained the documents and that the Financial Times had reviewed the same records. The Financial Times said monthly revenue had grown to nearly $2 billion by the end of 2025.
In March 2026, OpenAI said retrospectively that it had reached $1 billion in revenue within a year of ChatGPT's launch and was generating about $1 billion per quarter by the end of 2024. Those rounded company figures sit alongside the audited full-year revenue of $3.7 billion for 2024. OpenAI on its revenue trajectory.
Losses also grew. Those statements put the operating loss at $8.78 billion in 2024 and $20.92 billion in 2025. The reported net loss for 2025 was nearly $39 billion. A roughly $30 billion, non-recurring accounting valuation charge made up a large part of it. Operating loss and net loss are different measures.
On March 31, 2026, OpenAI said it was generating $2 billion in revenue per month at that point. Multiplied by 12, that equals $24 billion. This company statement describes the pace then, not audited full-year revenue. OpenAI on monthly revenue.
On August 13, 2026, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate had topped $40 billion. On September 29, Axios reported a run rate nearing $70 billion. The Axios report cited unnamed people familiar with the company's finances. It said the run rate had grown by more than 70% since the start of the third quarter, while business-to-business revenue had grown by more than 100% over the same period. It also reported that OpenAI added more consumer revenue in the third quarter than it had added during all of 2025. Axios could not learn details about OpenAI's expenses. On October 8, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI had told investors a run rate approaching $50 billion at the end of September, about $20 billion below the figure that had circulated. The higher number arose, it said, because investors compared OpenAI with Anthropic. Anthropic counts sales made through cloud partners, OpenAI does not. These are reported run rates and growth figures, not audited annual revenue. Bloomberg in August and Axios in September, and TechCrunch on the Financial Times report.
A company presentation prepared in July 2026 and reported by the Financial Times on September 18 projected $36 billion in revenue for 2026 and $350 billion for 2030. It also forecast cumulative revenue of $840 billion through 2030 and about $856 billion in spending on compute and infrastructure by the end of 2030. The same presentation forecast $278 billion in cumulative negative free cash flow from 2026 through 2030. These are internal projections, not realized results. An annualized run rate approaching $50 billion cannot be directly compared with a $36 billion full-year revenue forecast. Reuters' summary of the Financial Times report.
3. Valuation and funding
The chart shows selected completed funding rounds and their post-money valuations. The amount invested is not the same as the company's valuation.
OpenAI closed its latest round on March 31, 2026, with $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation. “Committed” describes the capital pledged to the round. It does not establish that the full amount had already been paid out on that date. OpenAI said more than $3 billion came from individual investors. OpenAI's funding announcement.
Selected funding and share transactions
This table separates company funding from share sales by existing owners.
The founding announcement, Microsoft's 2019 investment, and the later funding rounds are the sources for this selection. Microsoft described its expanded 2023 partnership as a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment without disclosing the amount. The October 2025 share sale was a secondary transaction. OpenAI's founding pledge, Microsoft in 2019, Microsoft in 2023, OpenAI in 2024, OpenAI in 2025, AP on the secondary sale, and OpenAI in 2026.
Disclosed commitments in the March 2026 round
Bloomberg reported dollar amounts for three commitments in the round. They are individual investor commitments, not the full funding total.
The three disclosed commitments add up to $110 billion. The remaining $12 billion of the round cannot be assigned to individual investors from these figures. Under the published terms, Amazon's $50 billion commitment included $15 billion initially, with another $35 billion conditional on certain events. Separately agreed AWS spending is not an investment in OpenAI. OpenAI on Amazon's terms.
On September 29, 2026, Bloomberg reported talks about raising at least $30 billion in new capital at a valuation of around $1.4 trillion. That would be a proposed funding round, not a completed one. The latest completed round remains the March 2026 round. Read the Bloomberg report.
4. Users and business customers
OpenAI publishes several reach figures. They count different things: people reached each week, businesses reached, paying business organizations, and individual work seats.
The latest weekly reach figure comes from OpenAI's October 5, 2026 announcement, which says ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week. The announcement does not describe an independent measurement or a deduplication method. On September 8, OpenAI had reported more than 1 billion weekly active users across its products and 2.5 million businesses reached. OpenAI on ChatGPT's reach and OpenAI on businesses and weekly active users.
The earlier figure of more than 1 million business customers specifically counted organizations paying OpenAI directly for business use. The 7 million Work seats counted workspaces, not organizations. In March 2026, OpenAI also said its API processed more than 15 billion tokens per minute. OpenAI's definition of paying business customers; the API figure is in OpenAI's March funding announcement.
For monthly active ChatGPT users, earlier growth figures, or user numbers by country, see the article on ChatGPT statistics.
5. Employees and compensation
OpenAI has not published a current employee count. In March 2026, The Information reported that the company planned to grow from roughly 4,500 employees at the time to around 8,000 by year-end. That was a forecast, not a confirmed October headcount. Read The Information's report.
Fortune, citing the Wall Street Journal, reported average stock-based compensation of $1.5 million per employee in 2025, across a workforce of about 4,000. That is an equity compensation figure, not average salary, and it describes 2025 rather than the current workforce. Fortune's summary of the Wall Street Journal report.
6. Products and model status
OpenAI operates ChatGPT, its developer API, and Codex. This selection covers current products and recent changes. An API shutdown does not by itself establish that a separate ChatGPT product has ended.
OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29, 2026. It is available through the API and to eligible plans in ChatGPT Work and Codex, but not in regular ChatGPT. OpenAI on availability and use cases.
OpenAI discontinued the Sora app on April 26, 2026. The Videos API and Sora 2 models followed on September 24. The DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 API endpoints were shut down on May 12. OpenAI on the Sora app and OpenAI's API deprecations.
7. Compute and infrastructure
OpenAI announced Stargate in January 2025 as a new company that would invest $500 billion in US AI infrastructure over four years, with $100 billion to be deployed initially. The named equity funders were SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia were technology partners, not named equity funders. OpenAI's Stargate announcement.
In April 2026, OpenAI said Stargate had already surpassed its original goal of securing 10 gigawatts of US infrastructure by 2029. It said more than 3 gigawatts had been added in the preceding 90 days. This is OpenAI's statement about secured infrastructure, not independent evidence that all of the capacity was already operational. OpenAI on its infrastructure buildout.
8. Business model and ChatGPT prices
OpenAI lists consumer subscriptions, business products, usage-based API sales, and advertising among its revenue streams. In March 2026, OpenAI said enterprise generated more than 40% of revenue. It expected consumer revenue to reach parity by the end of 2026. That was a forecast.
On August 31, 2026, OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads had reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days. That is a run rate, not cumulative ad revenue earned during those first 200 days. OpenAI on its revenue mix and OpenAI on the advertising run rate.
The official ChatGPT prices below are in US dollars. The $8 Go price is for the United States. Prices and currencies can differ by country.
Prices come from OpenAI's pricing page, Pro tiers, and Business pricing. Business prices are per user, listed in USD, and may vary by country and currency. A Business workspace requires at least two paid seats.
9. Milestones
The dates and funding figures come from OpenAI's founding announcement, its company history, the ChatGPT announcement, and the funding announcements linked above.
When you compare OpenAI figures, check the measure first. Annual revenue, an annualized run rate, committed capital, and company valuation answer four different questions.
