To reply query one, researchers created a case examine they referred to as the GPT-5 bundle, which they mentioned included all of OpenAI’s choices out there throughout GPT-5’s lifetime because the flagship mannequin, together with GPT-5 and GPT-5.1, GPT-4o, ChatGPT, and the API, and estimated the income from and prices of operating the bundle. All numbers gathered had been based mostly on sources of knowledge that included claims by OpenAI and its employees, and reporting by media shops, primarily The Info, CNBC, and the Wall Road Journal.
The income estimate, they mentioned, “is comparatively simple”. Because the bundle included all of OpenAI’s fashions, it was the corporate’s complete income over GPT-5’s lifetime from August to December final yr: $6.1 billion.
And, they identified, “at first look, $6.1 billion sounds wholesome, till you juxtapose it with the prices of operating the GPT-5 bundle.” These prices come from 4 most important sources, the report mentioned, the primary of which is inference compute at a price of $3.2 billion. That quantity is predicated on public estimates of OpenAI’s complete inference compute spend in 2025, and assumes that the allocation of compute throughout GPT-5’s tenure was proportional to the fraction of the yr’s income generated in that interval.
