- ChatGPT now reaches more than 1.2 billion weekly users, OpenAI said at DevDay.
- OpenAI‘s annualized revenue rate is nearing $70 billion, up about 70% since Q3 began.
- Anthropic’s run rate reportedly passed $65 billion in July and may now match OpenAI’s.
- Enterprise sales, Codex, and an aggressive price war are driving the growth.
What Happened
OpenAI’s annualized revenue rate is nearing $70 billion, up about 70 percent since the start of Q3, The Decoder reported on September 29, 2026, citing Axios. At DevDay, OpenAI shared fresh usage figures: more than 1.2 billion weekly ChatGPT users, over 35 million weekly ChatGPT Work and Codex users, and 2.5 million businesses on OpenAI products.
Why It Matters
These are the numbers underwriting the reported $1.4 trillion valuation talks. A seventh of humanity touching ChatGPT weekly makes it one of the most used software products ever — and the ~$70 billion run rate explains why investors shrug off the safety turmoil. But the duopoly is real: Anthropic’s rate reportedly passed $65 billion in July and may now match or exceed OpenAI’s, with its IPO possible as early as November.
Technical Details
The growth engine is enterprise sales plus an aggressive price war against Claude and Chinese models — doubled down on with the just-launched GPT-6.1 Sol, which OpenAI says nearly matches GPT-6 Astra at lower cost (current rates on our LLM pricing tracker). Codex is growing fast on the GPT-6 family’s popularity. ARR projects current monthly revenue over a full year — a forward metric, not booked income.
Who’s Affected
Developers gain cheaper frontier options as the price war compounds. Enterprises get leverage between two ~$65-70 billion-run-rate vendors. The open question hangs over both: whether revenue can grow fast enough to cover the data-center bills.
What’s Next
Anthropic’s November IPO window and OpenAI’s funding close will test whether public and private markets price the duopoly the way its growth curves suggest.
