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OpenAI said both weekly and daily active users are at all-time highs. Its CFO describes the driving factor as a flywheel linking computing capacity, model performance, product adoption and revenue.

OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as a new entry point for commerce, extending its business model beyond subscriptions and developer tools as the platform becomes embedded in everyday consumer and business decision-making.

In a blog post, chief financial officer Sarah Friar said ChatGPT has evolved rapidly from a research preview into infrastructure people rely on to do real work. That includes drafting emails and writing code to planning budgets and preparing for meetings. As usage deepened, she said, OpenAI aligned its monetization strategy with the value that intelligence delivers.

The company now operates a multi-tier model that includes:

  • Consumer subscriptions.
  • Workplace plans.
  • Usage-based pricing for its application programming interfaces (APIs).
  • A free tier supported by advertising and commerce.

OpenAI said both weekly and daily active users are at all-time highs. Friar describes the driving factor as a flywheel linking computing capacity, model performance, product adoption and revenue.

The company reported annualized revenue of about $2 billion in 2023 and $6 billion in 2024. In 2025, it reached more than $20 billion. That tracks closely with a near tenfold increase in compute capacity over the same period.

How ChatGPT is diving deeper into digital commerce

Friar said commerce is a natural next step as users increasingly turn to ChatGPT not only to gather information, but to decide what to do next. That could include what to buy and which option to choose.

Helping users move from exploration to action, she wrote, creates value for both users and the businesses that serve them. However, the commercial options must be clearly labeled and relevant. Advertising and commerce, Friar said, should appear only when they add value to the experience.

Compute remains the scarcest resource in AI, Friar said. OpenAI has diversified beyond a single infrastructure provider. That allows it to secure capacity, manage costs and deploy workloads more efficiently. OpenAI trains frontier models on premium hardware, while high-volume workloads run on lower-cost infrastructure, enabling AI services priced at cents per million tokens.

Looking ahead to 2026, Friar said OpenAI will focus on practical adoption, including AI agents and workflow automation that can operate continuously and take action across tools. As those systems become habitual, she said, they will support deeper usage and more predictable economics, opening the door to additional revenue models such as licensing and outcome-based pricing.

For ecommerce, the shift is meaningful. As ChatGPT becomes a place where decisions are made, not just researched, commerce is moving closer to the moment of intent. That positions AI interfaces as a new front door for digital commerce, with the potential to reshape how products are discovered, evaluated and purchased.

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Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, senior vice president of B2B and Market Research, at mark@digitalcommerce360.com. Follow him on Twitter @markbrohan. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube.

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