ChatGPT Pro subscription for $200 per month became unprofitable for OpenAI due to too much popularity

The $200 per month ChatGPT Pro plan, announced late last year, has proven to be too popular, negatively impacting the company. Due to the fact that users are using this subscription much more actively than expected, the company is incurring losses, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Image source: Growtika/Unsplash.com

«I personally chose the price and thought we would make some money,” TechCrunch quoted Altman as saying on Platform X.

The ChatGPT Pro plan includes unlimited access to all OpenAI models, including the powerful o1 pro – an improved version of the o1 model, which stands out for its reasoning and logical problem-solving skills. The subscription also provides access to Advanced Voice Mode, which allows you to conduct a conversation as close as possible to a human one. ChatGPT Plus users have a daily limit on using these features, while free users can only take advantage of a limited preview of them.

OpenAI is still not making a profit, which raises doubts about the return on investors’ investments, which amounted to about $20 billion. The company previously said that it expects losses of about $5 billion in 2024 on revenue of $3.7 billion. This is due to significant expenses for personnel, office rental and infrastructure for AI training. ChatGPT support alone was reportedly costing OpenAI approximately $700,000 per day at one point.