OpenAI Explained (2026): Who Owns It, Products, Models, Users and Valuation

01 · The company

What OpenAI is

A research lab that became one of the largest consumer software companies in the world.

What is OpenAI?

OpenAI is an AI research and product company based in San Francisco. It started in 2015 as a nonprofit lab with the stated mission of making sure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity, and it now sells consumer, business and developer products built on its own models. ChatGPT is the product most people know; Codex, the API and enterprise tools make up a growing share of revenue.

Source: OpenAI: Our structure; AI Magazine: OpenAI's billion users, $852bn valuation and Stargate

Who owns OpenAI?

No single owner. The recapitalization that closed on October 28, 2025 turned the for-profit arm into OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation. The nonprofit OpenAI Foundation appoints every director of the PBC and holds 26% of its equity plus a warrant for more. Microsoft holds about 27%, and current and former employees and investors hold the remaining 47%. Sam Altman holds no direct stake.

Source: OpenAI: Our structure; Penchan: Who owns OpenAI? Microsoft, SoftBank and the nonprofit

Is OpenAI a public company? Can I buy OpenAI stock?

No. OpenAI confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the US SEC on June 8, 2026, the first formal step toward an IPO. In September 2026 Sam Altman said the company would not go public in 2026, and later reporting points to 2027 at the earliest. Until then, shares only trade privately among approved investors and employees.

Source: Luminix: OpenAI valuation 2026, new round and IPO timing; SmartAsset: OpenAI stock IPO, valuation and timeline

How much is OpenAI worth?

OpenAI's last closed round, $122 billion raised in March 2026, valued the company at $852 billion, a figure reconfirmed by an employee share sale in August. In October 2026 it was reported to be negotiating about $30 billion more at a valuation near $1.4 trillion, but those terms had not been finalized when this page was updated.

Source: Exploding Topics: OpenAI revenue and valuation statistics (October 2026); Luminix: OpenAI valuation 2026, new round and IPO timing

How many people use ChatGPT?

OpenAI said at DevDay 2026 that its products reach a collective 1.2 billion weekly users. That is up from 900 million weekly users in February 2026, when it also reported 50 million paying subscribers, and 800 million in October 2025. Separately, slides reported from an August 2026 all-hands put weekly users of its coding and work products at about 20 million.

Source: OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap; Exploding Topics: OpenAI revenue and valuation statistics (October 2026)

02 · Products

Everything OpenAI sells today

Five product lines, all sharing the same ChatGPT account and models.

What products does OpenAI make?

ChatGPT, the chat assistant on web, desktop and mobile; ChatGPT Work, for longer professional tasks; Codex, the coding agent in the terminal, IDE, desktop app and cloud; Dots, always-on agents that handle ongoing responsibilities; and the OpenAI API, which lets developers build the same models into their own apps. Business plans add Space, Pages, collaborative slides, team tasks and @ChatGPT in Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Source: OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap; OpenAI: ChatGPT is now a partner for your most ambitious work (ChatGPT Work); OpenAI: Codex

What did OpenAI announce at DevDay 2026?

More than 20 launches. The headline items were GPT-6.1 Sol, a cheaper model with near-Astra intelligence at a fifth of Astra's token prices; Dots agents; the Ultrafast speed tier, up to 8 times faster in Codex; Codex in the cloud with reusable environments; Codex Security Cloud; an Agents API with computer use; plugin extensions inside ChatGPT; Sign in with ChatGPT across 16 partner tools; and a new $500 Pro tier with 25 times the Plus allowance.

Source: OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap

What ChatGPT plans are there?

Free, Go, Plus, three Pro tiers ($100, $200 and $500 a month), Business, Enterprise and Edu. Codex is limited on Free and Go and expanded on Plus and Pro. Our ChatGPT pricing page lists each plan's current price and limits.

Source: GPTPrompts.AI: ChatGPT pricing 2026; OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap

Does OpenAI still make Sora?

No. OpenAI closed the Sora web and app experiences on April 26, 2026 and shut down the Sora API on September 24, 2026. Leftover Sora credits can be spent on Codex. Our Sora guide covers exporting old videos and the alternatives people moved to.

Source: OpenAI Help: What to know about the Sora discontinuation

03 · Models

OpenAI's models in 2026

Four tiers of the GPT-6 generation do almost all of the work.

What is OpenAI's latest model?

GPT-6 Astra is the most capable model, GPT-6.1 Sol (launched at DevDay 2026) is the default workhorse in ChatGPT and Codex, GPT-6.1 Terra (October 26, 2026) is a fast, efficient model built for computer use that OpenAI says matches Astra at a tenth of its price per token, and GPT-6 Luna is the small, fast and cheap tier used on Free plans and in the Decisions API. Our GPT models page lists every model OpenAI has released, newest first.

Source: OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra, a new generation of intelligence; OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6.1 Sol; OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6 Sol and Luna; OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6.1 Terra (Oct 26, 2026)

How much does the OpenAI API cost?

Per million tokens, GPT-6 Astra costs $10 input and $50 output, GPT-6.1 Sol $2 and $10, GPT-6.1 Terra $1 and $5, and GPT-6 Luna $0.10 and $0.50. API billing is separate from ChatGPT subscriptions; you pay per token through platform.openai.com. Batch and cached input are cheaper.

Source: OpenAI API: Pricing; OpenAI: Introducing GPT-6.1 Terra (Oct 26, 2026)

Is OpenAI open source?

Mostly not. Its frontier GPT models are closed and only available through ChatGPT and the API. The Codex CLI is open source under Apache-2.0, and OpenAI has released some open-weight and research models over the years, but the models behind ChatGPT are proprietary.

Source: Context.dev: Codex vs Claude Code vs OpenCode vs Cursor (Oct 18, 2026); OpenAI: Codex

04 · In context

OpenAI versus its rivals

How the company compares, and what to watch next.

Who are OpenAI's main competitors?

Anthropic (Claude and Claude Code), Google (Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Antigravity), xAI (Grok), Meta (Meta AI and Muse models) and Chinese labs such as Z.ai, DeepSeek, Moonshot and Alibaba's Qwen team. In coding, Claude Code is Codex's closest rival; see our Codex vs Claude Code comparison.

Source: Context.dev: Codex vs Claude Code vs OpenCode vs Cursor (Oct 18, 2026); Exploding Topics: OpenAI revenue and valuation statistics (October 2026)

What is the difference between OpenAI and ChatGPT?

OpenAI is the company; ChatGPT is its best-known product. The same OpenAI account and models power ChatGPT, Codex and the API, which is why ChatGPT credits and limits now increasingly carry across products, for example using a ChatGPT plan inside partner tools through Sign in with ChatGPT.

Source: OpenAI: DevDay 2026 recap

Is OpenAI down right now?

Check status.openai.com, which reports ChatGPT, Codex and API incidents separately. If the status page is green but you still see errors, our ChatGPT status guide and the AI errors and fixes hub cover the most common local causes.

Source: OpenAI Status

Sources

Read and checked October 2026. Policies change, so confirm anything time-sensitive on the source page.

OpenAI: What It Is, What It Makes and Who Owns It (2026)