OpenAI Revenue Tops $10B in Q3 While Losses Hit $10.9B

OpenAI's third-quarter revenue surpassed $10 billion for the first time, growing nearly 50% quarter-over-quarter and rebounding from the previous ~18% growth rate. The growth was driven by API demand for GPT 5.6, Astra, and image models, as well as enterprise customers and 100 million ChatGPT paid subscribers. However, the adjusted operating loss reached $10.9 billion. Although the loss margin narrowed from -150% to -109%, revenue growth has not improved the profit structure.

Compared to competitor Anthropic, which reported $17 billion in revenue and only $567 million in operating loss, OpenAI's operational efficiency lags significantly. To compete for enterprise customers, OpenAI is cutting prices, potentially further squeezing margins.

These figures highlight the immense cost pressure of scaling frontier models. Despite accelerating revenue, widening losses indicate that OpenAI still faces serious challenges in balancing R&D, compute investment, and market expansion. Intensifying competition, especially from Anthropic and Chinese open-source models, will continue to test OpenAI's path to profitability.