OpenAI is racing to figure out how to turn its wildly popular AI tools into a sustainable business, as the cost of running and scaling its models keeps climbing. The company’s latest plan leans on a familiar Big Tech strategy: convert a huge base of free users into paying subscribers.
According to reporting from The Information, OpenAI is forecasting roughly 220 million paid ChatGPT subscribers by 2030. That’s a massive jump from where things stand today. The company currently has about 800 million users, and roughly 35 million are paying for Plus or Pro plans at $20 or $200 a month.
OpenAI’s internal projections assume it will grow to 2.6 billion weekly active users within five years, with about 8.5 percent of them paying for a subscription. Hitting that target would put ChatGPT in the same league as Spotify $SPOT ( ▲ 1.23% ) , which had 281 million subscribers as of September 2025, and Netflix $NFLX ( ▲ 1.67% ), which reported 302 million in December 2024.