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OpenAI has surpassed 1 billion users in 3 years and 8 months since the launch of its artificial intelligence model, ChatGPT.
On July 31 local time, OpenAI announced that the active user count for its AI has exceeded 1 billion, and the number of enterprise customers has surpassed 2 million.
This milestone was achieved 3 years and 8 months after ChatGPT was unveiled on November 30, 2022.
This is more than two years faster than Facebook, the world's largest social network, which took 6 years to reach 1 billion users.
ChatGPT gathered 1 million subscribers within 5 days of its release, followed by crossing 100 million weekly active users (WAUs) in a year.
The user base grew rapidly afterward, surpassing 200 million in August 2024, 500 million in August of last year, and 800 million in October of last year.
However, contrary to OpenAI's internal target of reaching 1 billion users by the end of last year, growth stagnated afterward. It reached 900 million users in February of this year, and it took another five months to cross the 1 billion mark.
The somewhat sluggish growth of ChatGPT since late last year is attributed to AI models from Google and rival Anthropic emerging sequentially as strong competitors.
In particular, Anthropic briefly surpassed OpenAI in corporate valuation after releasing models such as Claude Mythos and Fable, but OpenAI fought back with GPT-5.6 Sol and pursued them by introducing the coding model Codex and agent tool ChatGPT Work.
In addition, by introducing cost-efficient models such as GPT-5.6 Terra and GPT-5.6 Luna, OpenAI targeted Anthropic, which had been evaluated as relatively expensive.
OpenAI's latest user announcement came right after cutting the prices of the Terra and Luna models by 20 to 80 percent.
Sarah Friar, OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), described this price cut as an "economics of abundance" strategy.
CFO Friar explained, "As the cost of useful intelligence decreases, the range of tasks worth performing expands," adding, "As people gradually build trust in the technology, deeper utilization is taking place."
She particularly emphasized that AI infrastructure is being built systematically, stating, "The goal is not simply to build the most infrastructure, but to deploy the right capacity at the right time in alignment with reliable demand."
OpenAI's emphasis on user growth and systematic AI infrastructure investment is interpreted as an effort to prove profitability to investors and demonstrate cost control during the process of pursuing an initial public offering (IPO).
OpenAI submitted a confidential IPO application early last month with the goal of going public within the year, but as projections emerged that its corporate valuation might fall short of 1 trillion dollars after listing, it is reportedly considering postponing the listing to next year.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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