ChatGPT’s Rising Costs and Viral Politeness Myth: Why Sam Altman Says It’s All Worth It

The Myth About ChatGPT's Rising Prices and Viral Politeness:

Why Sam Altman Claims That It's All Worth It On the internet, there has been a surprising claim that users keep saying "please" and "thank you" and that OpenAI's ChatGPT is spending "tens of millions of dollars" on it. While humorous and clearly exaggerated, the viral statement taps into a very real issue—ChatGPT is getting expensive. Additionally, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that he is willing to pay that cost. Let’s separate fact from fiction and dive into the real financial stakes behind one of the most popular AI tools on the planet.

🧠 The Origin of the Claim: Where Did “Tens of Millions on Politeness” Come From?

The viral quote about OpenAI spending millions on polite words is more joke than journalism, but it reflects a deeper truth: ChatGPT is being used far more than expected, and it’s costing OpenAI a fortune.

While no official statement confirms OpenAI is financially burdened by pleasantries, CEO Sam Altman did recently admit something even more eye-opening:

“Insane thing:

we are currently losing money on OpenAI Pro subscriptions! People use it much more than we expected.”

This quote comes from a post Altman made on X, which was previously Twitter. In it, he talked about how even the $20-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan doesn't cover the costs of computing for power users.

💰 How Expensive Is ChatGPT, Really?

OpenAI’s financials are becoming increasingly public, especially as the company seeks more partnerships and funding. Here's a breakdown of the real costs behind the scenes:

System infrastructure Running advanced models like GPT-4 requires massive amounts of GPU power and electricity. Every query you send has to go through high-performance servers—often powered by NVIDIA’s most expensive chips.

Employees and Research The safety teams and researchers at OpenAI are of the highest caliber. They're constantly training new models, testing AI behavior, and pushing toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

🔹 Licensing and Partnerships

OpenAI makes significant investments in product development, training infrastructure, data partnerships, and partnerships with major cloud providers like Microsoft Azure.

🔹 Estimated Finances:

• Revenue in 2023: ~$3.7 billion
• Reported losses: ~$5 billion
• Monthly compute expenses: Estimated at millions per day
• So no, politeness isn’t the budget killer—but massive usage at scale definitely is.

📈 Why So Many People Are Using ChatGPT

The viral popularity of ChatGPT since its 2022 launch has shocked even OpenAI. From students and researchers to coders, marketers, and casual users, millions have made it part of their daily workflow.

Important reasons for its adoption: Affordable or free access to powerful AI Useful for writing, coding, summarizing, and translating

new features and updates frequently (such as voice chats, custom GPTs, and image generation) In fact, Altman revealed that many Pro users are using the system far beyond the average expectations, creating an imbalance between usage and revenue.

The Long Game of Altman: "It's Worth It" Despite the enormous costs and unprofitability, Sam Altman isn’t backing down. His view is focused on the future—not just the present bottom line.

In interviews and public comments, he’s said:

“If we’re lucky enough to succeed at building AGI, the value created for society will be immense. It will be worth spending billions.”

This philosophy is driving OpenAI’s ambitious mission: to build Artificial General Intelligence that benefits humanity. And if that means losing money now to dominate the AI race and gather feedback from real-world users—so be it.

The Big Picture: The Price of AI Compared to Value

This situation mirrors the early days of other tech giants. Amazon lost money for years to build infrastructure. Google poured billions into search before monetizing with ads. OpenAI might be following a similar path—sacrifice now, scale later.

The jokes about ChatGPT costing millions of dollars due to "please" and "thank you" may be exaggerated in the interim, but the message is clear: The world is changing because of this technology, which is expensive.

📝 Final Thoughts

ChatGPT is at the center of a storm, whether it's friendly users, power users, or ambitious AGI goals. The costs are enormous, the stakes are high, and the future is uncertain. But one thing is clear:

OpenAI is betting big. And Sam Altman believes it’s worth every penny.