That would place the chatbot among the largest subscription services in the world, rivalling giants like Netflix and Spotify.

Currently, about 35 million users, or roughly 5% of ChatGPT’s weekly active base, subscribe to the Plus and Pro plans at $20 and $200 per month. “By 2030, we expect 8.5% of an estimated 2.6 billion weekly users to pay for ChatGPT,” sources told The Information, noting the fast growth from fewer than 10 million paid users in early 2024.

However, OpenAI is currently facing financial challenges. The company’s revenue for the first half of 2025 reached $4.3 billion, a 16% increase over last year, but it also recorded losses of $2.5 billion, largely due to heavy research and development and the high computing costs of running ChatGPT.

By year-end, OpenAI’s annualised revenue run rate is expected to hit around $20 billion.

The company is looking to reduce dependency on subscriptions alone. OpenAI plans for roughly 20% of future revenue to come from new products, including shopping assistants within ChatGPT and ad-driven features that could introduce commission-based monetisation. 

Analysts note that while this approach is similar to the models of Google and Amazon, the company must scale through high operational costs and competition from companies like Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft.

Per reports, there are warnings that the subscription model carries risks. “Mounting losses and high compute costs mean OpenAI must diversify revenue streams beyond subscriptions,” analysts say, noting potential bubble concerns in the AI sector. 

Retaining users while expanding into commerce and advertising will be critical to sustaining growth over the next decade.

OpenAI has not publicly responded to requests for comment.

This feature, currently available in an alpha version, is being introduced to a select group of ChatGPT Plus users and is expected to expand to all Plus users by autumn 2024. 

The implementation of this technology follows controversy from its initial demonstration, which included a voice that bore a striking resemblance to actress Scarlett Johansson. 

Despite denying the use of Johansson’s voice, OpenAI faced issues, prompting the removal of the voice from its demo and a delay in the feature’s release to enhance safety measures.

The Advanced Voice Mode distinguishes itself from previous iterations by allowing seamless and direct processing of audio inputs, eliminating the need for intermediate text conversion. 

This update comes as a more fluid and efficient interaction, capable of recognising multiple speakers and interpreting emotions in speech. The feature is designed to enhance user experience with empathetic and human-like responses.

OpenAI has introduced safety measures to address misuse, restricting the voice system to four preset options—Juniper, Breeze, Cove, and Ember—developed in collaboration with professional voice actors. 

The company has implemented filters to prevent the generation of copyrighted content and impersonation of individuals, aiming to avoid the pitfalls of deepfake technology that have previously plagued the industry.

In preparation for this release, OpenAI conducted extensive testing involving over 100 external experts across 45 languages, ensuring the system’s security and efficacy. 

A detailed report on these safety efforts is expected in early August. 

The store enables users to discover, share, and even monetise their own GPT creations.

The GPT Store features an expansive range of GPTs developed by OpenAI’s partners and the community. Users can navigate through categories like DALL·E, writing, research, programming, education, and lifestyle, exploring popular and trending GPTs on the community leaderboard.

Every week, the store will show featured GPTs, aiming to highlight those with substantial impact. Among the initial offerings are personalised trail recommendations from AllTrails, academic paper synthesis with Consensus, coding skills expansion through Khan Academy’s Code Tutor, presentation and social post design with Canva, book recommendations with Books, and flexible math and science learning with the CK-12 Flexi AI tutor.

OpenAI encourages builders to contribute their GPTs to the store, offering a simple process that requires no coding skills. To share a GPT, builders need to save it for Everyone, verify their Builder Profile, and ensure compliance with OpenAI’s usage policies and GPT brand guidelines.

In an exciting development set for Q1, OpenAI plans to launch a GPT builder revenue program. US builders will receive compensation based on user engagement with their GPTs. Details on payment criteria will be provided closer to the program’s launch.

OpenAI introduces the ChatGPT Team plan, for teams of all sizes. Team customers gain access to a private section within the GPT Store, allowing secure publication of GPTs within their workspace. For ChatGPT Enterprise customers, the GPT Store will soon be available, featuring advanced admin controls for managing internal-only GPTs and external GPTs used within the business. It’s emphasised that all usage on ChatGPT Team and Enterprise maintains user conversation privacy, with no data utilised to improve models.