According to a report from The New York Times, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT plans to gradually increase the price of the ChatGPT Plus version over the next five years, as indicated by internal documents presented to potential investors.
ChatGPT+ New Price
ChatGPT Plus subscription currently costs $20 per month and this version provides access to new models, fewer limitations, and the DALL-E image generation tool. However, this pricing will soon change and will go up to $22 per month by the end of 2024 as it is stated in the table below.
The model also shows that the price could reach $44 per month by the year 2029. The New York Times report also reveals that OpenAI has about 10 million ChatGPT Plus users.
Also, with the iOS 18.2. update, Apple plans to integrate ChatGPT into Siri support. These features will not be tied to an OpenAI account or a ChatGPT Plus subscription but will allow users to sign in for additional functionality right in iOS.
The rationale behind the anticipated price increase for ChatGPT Plus is straightforward: the maintenance cost of running the AI service is relatively high. The report also says that OpenAI is “burning through piles of money” and is expected to post a loss of $5 billion in 2024.
OpenAI is now looking for up to $7 billion which would give the firm a $150 billion market cap. While there were rumors that Apple was going to be part of this funding round, it seems they are no longer interested. This $150 billion valuation is a sharp rise from the $30 billion a year ago that was the valuation when Microsoft started investing.
OpenAI Revenue
OpenAI has been recording $300 million in monthly sales and is projected to earn $3.7 billion in sales for the year. However, after recovering all the costs, the company expects to be in the red to the tune of $5 billion. The expenditures involved in the development of AI are relatively steep, and OpenAI will probably need to look for more capital to fund its projects.
Out of the expected $3.7 billion annual revenue, $2.7 billion is expected to be from ChatGPT subscriptions, and the rest $1 billion from other tech firms using its APIs to integrate AI into their products. It also predicts that its revenue will triple next year to $11.6 billion. At the $44/month level by 2029, they expect revenue to be $100 billion for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions.
What the future holds for OpenAI is still unknown but these developments will not be felt by end users at least not until the prices go up. Lately, OpenAI has released updates to the ChatGPT 4o-mini model and has opened the chatbot’s Advanced Voice mode to more people.
