OpenAI is planning for ChatGPT to become a much larger business, and its pricing may rise with that ambition. Internal documents obtained by the New York Times show a company trying to convert rapid product adoption into a revenue engine that could reach $100 billion by 2029.
The plan centers on ChatGPT, but the broader picture is about more than a monthly subscription. OpenAI is balancing free access, paid users, business customers, developers, investor expectations, and the large computing bill behind its AI systems.
A pricing plan tied to much bigger revenue goals
OpenAI currently has around 10 million ChatGPT users paying $20 per month. According to the source article, the company plans to increase that price by $2 by the end of the year and could potentially take it to $44 within five years.
That would more than double the current monthly price for paying users. The documents also show OpenAI targeting $100 billion in revenue by 2029, a figure that puts the subscription plan into a wider growth strategy rather than a simple price adjustment.
The revenue base is already expanding quickly. The documents prepared for potential investors show that OpenAI’s revenues tripled year-on-year to $300 million in August. ChatGPT is described as the main driver of that growth.
OpenAI expects ChatGPT to bring in $2.7 billion this year, compared with $700 million last year. About $1 billion of this year’s ChatGPT revenue is expected to come from businesses, showing that the product is not only a consumer subscription but also a workplace and enterprise tool.
Free access is still central to ChatGPT’s reach
The pricing plan does not necessarily mean ChatGPT becomes less available overall. The source article notes that the free version, especially the version that does not require sign-up, is helping drive growth.
Monthly users jumped from around 100 million in March to around 350 million in June. That increase matters because OpenAI can use a broad free audience to build habit, awareness, and demand before converting some users into paid customers or business buyers.
There are several ways higher pricing could fit with continued free access:
OpenAI could keep a free version while charging more for premium access.
The company could add new features that are available only to paying customers.
Better models could become more widely available to subscribers.
Business revenue could grow alongside consumer subscriptions.
The source article also notes that ChatGPT has become much more powerful since its launch, particularly in its free version. That creates an important pricing question: how much value remains free, and which capabilities become part of higher-priced paid plans?
Businesses and developers are part of the same growth story
ChatGPT’s consumer base is only one part of OpenAI’s revenue outlook. The documents say about $1 billion of expected ChatGPT revenue this year should come from businesses. That points to demand from organizations as well as individual users.
OpenAI’s technology is also used by over a million third-party developers. This matters because developer adoption can extend the company’s reach beyond ChatGPT itself. Developers can build products and workflows using OpenAI’s technology, creating another layer of commercial activity around the company’s models.
For OpenAI, these audiences are connected. Free users help make ChatGPT widely known. Paid users provide recurring subscription revenue. Businesses can become larger customers. Developers can place OpenAI technology inside other products and services.
The source article does not say exactly how OpenAI will divide features among free, paid, business, and developer offerings. But it does show that the company’s revenue targets depend on growth across multiple customer groups, not just a single subscription tier.
Microsoft’s computing power shapes the economics
The biggest cost for OpenAI is the computing power provided by Microsoft. That detail is central to understanding why pricing, revenue growth, and funding are linked.
AI products require substantial computing resources to operate. In OpenAI’s case, the source article says much of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI flows back to Microsoft through computing costs. That means the commercial relationship is not only about ownership or funding; it is also about infrastructure spending.
The source article also says Microsoft is improving its cloud financials, which boosts OpenAI’s valuation and Microsoft’s own share price. Other large cloud providers such as Amazon are described as making similar strategic deals with AI startups such as Anthropic.
This creates a business model in which AI companies need enormous computing capacity, while cloud providers become both strategic partners and major beneficiaries of AI demand. For OpenAI, raising more revenue from ChatGPT can help support the cost structure behind the product.
Investors are still circling OpenAI’s next phase
The pricing and revenue projections come as OpenAI prepares for another funding round. Venture capital firm Thrive is set to lead the round with an investment of over $1 billion.
Microsoft also plans to add another $1 billion to its $13 billion investment to date. That continued investment underlines Microsoft’s role as both a major backer and the provider of OpenAI’s most important computing resource.
Not every major technology company is staying in the talks. The Wall Street Journal reports Apple has pulled out, despite extensive collaboration with OpenAI on ChatGPT and Apple Intelligence.
The direction is clear from the documents described in the source article: OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as a product with much higher revenue potential, a large free funnel, a growing paid base, and deep links to business and developer customers. The key question is how the company manages the balance between access, performance, and price as it tries to turn enormous usage into $100 billion in revenue by 2029.