OpenAI’s ChatGPT is so popular that almost no one will pay for it
Summary
OpenAI is drawing huge user numbers for ChatGPT — roughly 800 million monthly active users — but only a tiny fraction pay for the service. Reports show ChatGPT generates around 70% of OpenAI’s recurring revenue, yet just about 5% of its users subscribe. For the first half of 2025 OpenAI posted $4.3bn in revenue while reporting a net loss of $13.5bn (with an operating loss of about $8bn). The company is simultaneously committing to massive datacentre capacity purchases and partnership deals that imply over $1tn of future spending, and it is exploring additional revenue streams such as e-commerce commissions and ads. SimilarWeb data attributes roughly 80% of generative-AI web traffic to OpenAI platforms, underscoring its dominant market share even as profitability remains elusive.
Key Points
- ChatGPT has about 800 million monthly active users but only ~5% are paying subscribers.
- OpenAI reported $4.3bn revenue in H1 2025 but a net loss of $13.5bn (operating loss ~ $8bn).
- Approximately 70% of OpenAI’s recurring revenue reportedly comes from ChatGPT subscriptions.
- OpenAI is committing to purchase more than 26GW of datacentre capacity and has partnerships implying > $1tn in spend over coming years.
- Investments and credits from partners like Nvidia are substantial, but commentators warn the financing looks bubble-like.
- Possible new revenue channels include ecommerce commissions and advertising, though ad models have proven tricky for rivals.
- Industry studies suggest a low willingness among users to pay for AI features (3–8% in various analyses), leaving a large monetisation gap.
Context and Relevance
This story matters if you follow AI as an industry, a business problem or an investment theme. It highlights a central tension in consumer AI: enormous user adoption does not automatically translate into paying customers. OpenAI’s dominant traffic share gives it strategic leverage, but its current losses and massive future commitments make its path to sustainable profitability uncertain. The piece ties into wider conversations about AI’s economics, cloud and GPU supply chains, and how vendors will ultimately monetise ubiquitous, mostly-free AI experiences.
Why should I read this?
Want the headline without wading through spreadsheets? Here’s the gist: ChatGPT is insanely popular, but people mostly use it for free — and OpenAI is spending like it expects everyone will start paying. If you care about where the money in AI comes from (or whether this whole thing is a bubble), this short read saves you the time of trawling multiple reports.