O

OpenAI

Foundation Models

AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT and GPT-4

Founded 2015San Francisco, CA, USA1,000+ employeesfreemium · Free planFrom Free (ChatGPT); $20/month (ChatGPT Plus); API from $0.15/1M tokens (GPT-4o mini)Verified · Sep 2026
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About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company whose mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. It created ChatGPT, the GPT-4 large language model, DALL-E image generation, and Whisper speech recognition. OpenAI offers an API platform that lets developers build AI-powered applications using its models, as well as consumer products including ChatGPT.

Editorial Assessment

OpenAI is the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT, the most widely adopted AI assistant globally, and the GPT family of large language models that now underpin applications across every industry. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit by Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, John Schulman, and Elon Musk (who departed the board in 2018), the organization transitioned to a capped-profit structure to raise the capital required for frontier model training. The consumer product ChatGPT — released November 2022 — reached 100 million users faster than any product in history, driving OpenAI from research lab to global enterprise software company. The developer API provides access to GPT-4o (the current flagship model), GPT-4o mini, o1 (reasoning model), DALL-E 3 for image generation, Whisper for transcription, and text-to-speech — all pay-as-you-go. ChatGPT's paid tiers (Plus at $20/month, Team at $25/user/month) unlock GPT-4o full usage, Advanced Data Analysis, image generation, and custom GPT creation. Enterprise adds SSO, admin controls, and a 128K context window with no data training. OpenAI's competitive position rests on model capability leadership, the consumer distribution advantage of ChatGPT, and the breadth of the API ecosystem — but it faces intensifying competition from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta's Llama open-weight models.

Strengths
  • ChatGPT is the most widely used AI assistant globally with the strongest consumer brand recognition
  • GPT-4o and o1 reasoning models are consistently competitive at top AI benchmark leaderboards
  • DALL-E 3 integrated into ChatGPT provides image generation without a separate tool
  • API ecosystem with extensive SDK support across Python, Node.js, and all major languages
  • Assistants API enables stateful agent-style applications with file retrieval and code execution
  • Real-time API for low-latency speech-to-speech applications
  • Enterprise tier includes zero data retention by default and compliance controls
Limitations
  • API pricing is token-based and can become expensive for high-volume production applications
  • ChatGPT Free tier rate-limits access to GPT-4o during high traffic periods
  • No permanent free API tier — all API usage is pay-as-you-go with no free monthly allocation
  • Model training data cutoff means knowledge of very recent events requires web browsing integration
  • OpenAI's transition from nonprofit to capped-profit creates uncertainty about long-term mission alignment

Best For

Product teams building AI-powered features using the OpenAI API Businesses wanting the most recognized and trusted AI brand for customer-facing products Developers needing a broad suite of capabilities (text, vision, image, speech, code) from one API Organizations deploying ChatGPT Enterprise for internal productivity and knowledge management

Not Ideal For

Organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements that cannot use cloud AI APIsTeams needing completely open-source, self-hostable AI models (Meta Llama or Mistral are alternatives)High-volume consumer applications where per-token API costs make economics challenging

Key Features

GPT-4o multimodal model: text, vision, audioo1 reasoning model for complex problem-solvingChatGPT web, mobile, and desktop appsDALL-E 3 image generationWhisper transcription APIAssistants API with file retrieval, code interpreterReal-time API for speech-to-speechCustom GPTs and GPT Store

Who It's For

Software developers and AI engineersEnterprise IT and productivity teamsBusinesses integrating AI into products and workflowsResearchers and academics

Industries Served

TechnologyHealthcareEducationLegalFinanceMedia

Platforms

web ios android api windows mac

Support

Documentation Community forum Enterprise support

Founders

  • Sam Altman
  • Greg Brockman
  • Ilya Sutskever
  • Wojciech Zaremba
  • John Schulman

Products & Tools

ChatGPTAI Assistant
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AI assistant available across web, mobile, and desktop with GPT-4o, Advanced Data Analysis, image generation, and custom GPT creation on paid tiers.

freemium · Free planFrom Free; $20/month (Plus); $25/user/month (Team annual)
GPT-4o accessAdvanced Data AnalysisDALL-E 3 image generationCustom GPTsMemory
OpenAI APIAI API / Developer Platform
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Developer API providing access to GPT-4o, o1, DALL-E 3, Whisper, and other models for building AI-powered applications.

subscriptionFrom $0.15/1M tokens (GPT-4o mini input); $2.50/1M tokens (GPT-4o input)
GPT-4o and GPT-4o minio1 reasoning modelAssistants APIEmbeddingsModeration API

Sources & Verification

Last reviewed September 2026

Alternatives to OpenAI

A

Anthropic

AI safety company and creator of the Claude AI assistant

M

Mistral AI

Open and efficient frontier AI models for developers and enterprises

G

Google DeepMind

AI research lab building transformative AI systems at Google

View all OpenAI alternatives

Related Companies

A

AI21 Labs

Foundation models and language tools for enterprise applications

P

Perplexity AI

AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers with cited sources

H

Hugging Face

The AI community platform for models, datasets, and applications

OpenAI FAQs

Is ChatGPT free?

ChatGPT has a free tier with access to GPT-4o mini. ChatGPT Plus at $20/month provides access to GPT-4o, DALL-E, and advanced features.

What is the OpenAI API?

The OpenAI API lets developers integrate GPT-4, embeddings, image generation, and speech models into their own applications on a pay-per-use basis.

Tags

LLMChatGPTGPT-4Image GenerationAI ResearchAPI Platform

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