If You Were Bankrolling OpenAI, the Percent of ChatGPT Users Willing to Pay for It Might Make You Break Out in a Cold Sweat

business • 10/16/2025

Only a tiny sliver — roughly five percent — of the 800 million people using ChatGPT are actually paying for a subscription.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has committed to spending more than $1 trillion to build out AI infrastructure, totaling 26 gigawatts of compute capacity from tech companies including Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle, according to the Financial Times‘ calculations. And... [3611 chars]