To Address Financial Woes, OpenAI Considers a 990% Subscription Price Hike to $2,000/Month

As absurd as it might sound, this news comes from the reputable tech website The Information, which cited early internal discussions at OpenAI. The company is contemplating a staggering 990% increase in the subscription price for its ChatGPT service.

Currently, the ChatGPT Plus subscription is priced at $20 per month, allowing users to access OpenAI's latest and most powerful GPT-4o model, though non-subscribers can also use it with certain usage quotas.

The issue lies in the fact that the revenue from existing paid users is insufficient to cover OpenAI's costs. The primary financial strain comes from the need for substantial funds for server infrastructure as well as the development and training of new models.

The investment in hardware alone is astronomical, including hardware purchases, data center construction, and the costs of electricity and cooling facilities. Similarly, the human resource costs invested in developing and training new models are significant.

Rumors have even suggested that OpenAI is on the brink of bankruptcy, although they are also in the midst of raising a new round of funding, potentially in the ballpark of $1 billion, so bankruptcy seems unlikely.

According to The Information, OpenAI's internal discussions revolve around the idea of raising the subscription price for ChatGPT to generate more revenue, with the highest proposed increase being 990%, equating to a maximum of $2,000 per month.

Naturally, this price point is not intended for the average consumer. It's likely that OpenAI will introduce various subscription tiers, allowing users who require the best AI services to pay more for higher subscription levels.

On the other hand, the competition in the AI sector is fiercely competitive. AI products like Anthropic Claude are continuously improving in performance and gaining user base, offering consumers alternatives to ChatGPT.