OpenAI is, according to a report from The Information, gearing up to roll out a new line of AI agents designed for professional use at a price that would make its current $200 ChatGPT Pro subscription look like peanuts to peanuts. The Sam Altman owned company is looking to charge as much as $20,000 per month at higher end, for PhD-level research agents. These agents are expected to cater to a variety of business and research needs, from sales and software development to academic research, though not really sure which “businesses” exactly would pick up the tab.
Reports indicate that OpenAI’s AI agent offerings will be available in multiple tiers, with the most affordable starting at $2,000 per month, and the highest tier (designed for PhD-level research) will be set at $20,000 per month. Take this with a grain of salt, though, since the company has yet to confirm details of these AI agents or when they might become available, but it seems that the firm is shifting its focus towards enterprise clients willing to pay a premium for AI-powered automation.
This is a steep price – prior to this, the company’s most expensive plan was the ChatGPT Pro subscription at $200 per month, a figure that now appears modest compared to the rumored AI agent pricing. These new AI agents are intended for businesses and organizations requiring high-level automation and other tasks, rather than for individual users.
The pricing structure includes a $2,000-per-month tier for “high-income knowledge workers.” A mid-range agent, reportedly priced at $10,000 per month, is aimed at software developers and IT professionals, so that could help with coding, debugging, and automating development tasks. The highest-tier AI agent, set at $20,000 per month, is described as being capable of assisting with PhD-level research.
The move toward expensive AI agents comes at a time when OpenAI is facing several financial challenges. Running large-scale AI models, especially those as sophisticated as GPT-4 and future iterations, requires extensive computing power and infrastructure. Reports suggest that OpenAI incurred losses of approximately $5 billion last year, due in part to high operational costs.
To address these financial pressures, OpenAI appears to be betting on high-value enterprise clients who can afford the premium cost of AI-driven automation. According to The Information, the company expects AI agents to contribute between 20% and 25% of its long-term revenue.
Investor interest in AI automation remains strong, with SoftBank reportedly committing $3 billion toward OpenAI’s AI agent products in 2024 alone. Nonetheless, things aren’t quite in the green for the AI research firm, and it still faces the challenge of convincing businesses that AI agents provide a strong return on investment.
OpenAI’s pricing strategy places it in direct competition with other AI companies that are working on similar technology, including Google DeepMind and Anthropic. If the AI agents turn out to be popular enough (possibly emulating ChatGPT’s success), then it is likely that (over time) they can replace or supplement human workers in the professional sectors.
