Key points
- OpenAI's Q3 revenue reportedly topped $10 billion, up about 50% from roughly $6.7 billion in Q2, per Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and The Information.
- Anthropic reported $17 billion in Q3 revenue, and The Decoder says its operating loss was far smaller than OpenAI's $10.9 billion adjusted loss.
- OpenAI president Greg Brockman said enterprise revenue doubled in Q3; OpenAI cut model prices and put more resources into its coding tool Codex.
- ChatGPT reportedly has 1.2 billion weekly users and 100 million paying subscribers; its ad product hit a $1 billion annualized run rate in August.
Why it matters for marketers: Price cuts, a stronger enterprise push and agent-focused products from both leading AI vendors may change the costs and terms marketers face when choosing which models to build on.
OpenAI's revenue for the third quarter reportedly crossed $10 billion, roughly 50% above the second quarter, according to reports from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and The Information. Growth had been about 17 to 18% in the prior quarter. The Decoder reports the adjusted operating loss still rose slightly to $10.9 billion, though the adjusted operating margin improved from negative 150% to negative 109%.
The acceleration appears tied to enterprise sales. OpenAI cut prices on new models, shut down projects such as a video app, put more resources into Codex and hired a new head of sales, according to The Decoder. Brockman said the enterprise business doubled in the quarter and now makes up most of revenue. Third-party data cited by The Decoder suggests some companies looked for cheaper alternatives to Claude, which lifted API sales.
Anthropic remains ahead. It reported $17 billion in Q3 revenue and is expected to go public soon. TechCrunch notes the two companies calculate annualized revenue differently, so run-rate comparisons ($50 billion for OpenAI, $81 billion for Anthropic) are not like for like.
For marketers and content teams, the competition is showing up in pricing and in agent products aimed at completing tasks. Cheaper API access and discounts could lower the cost of running content workflows at scale. OpenAI's consumer side is also growing, and its new ChatGPT ad product reportedly reached a $1 billion annualized run rate in August.
Watch how each company's pricing holds as both pursue public listings and face pressure from the recent tech sell-off. OpenAI is reportedly raising capital at a $1.25 trillion valuation but has raised less than half of its planned $30 billion. Teams locked into one vendor may want to keep their workflows portable.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.