TL;DR — the direct answer: OpenAI's revenue topped $10 billion in a single quarter for the first time, the company told investors on Tuesday, 10 November — a milestone that shows just how fast the maker of ChatGPT is growing. The catch: its operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in the same quarter, so OpenAI still spends more than a dollar for every dollar it brings in.
What happened: The figures were shared with investors on a call on Tuesday, 10 November, and first reported by Bloomberg, The Information and The Wall Street Journal. Quarterly revenue crossed $10 billion in the three months to September, up nearly 50% from about $6.7 billion in the second quarter and almost triple the level a year earlier. OpenAI posted $5.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026 and $6.7 billion in the second, before the jump to $10 billion in the third. The company's annualised revenue run rate now sits at roughly $50 billion. OpenAI is a private company, so the numbers come from reporting on the investor briefing, not from audited financial statements the company has published.
Why it's trending: The $10 billion quarter is the strongest commercial report card OpenAI has ever had, and it lands in the same week its chief rival is heading for the stock market. Anthropic, which priced its IPO at $70 to $78 a share this week, reported $33.24 billion of revenue in the nine months to 30 September in its filing — so the two AI labs are now operating at a similar scale, and the race between them is as much about money as models. The other reason the numbers are trending is the loss: an operating loss of $10.9 billion, up from $10.1 billion in the second quarter, even as the adjusted operating margin improved from minus 150% to minus 109%. Growth this fast is expensive, and the bill is getting bigger, not smaller.
Background / context: The growth is being driven by ChatGPT subscriptions and by the enterprise business — and, increasingly, by coding. OpenAI president Greg Brockman said at a public event on 5 November that sales of Codex, the company's coding tool, surpassed the consumer business for the first time in the third quarter, making it OpenAI's largest revenue source. The figures also reflect the sheer cost of frontier AI: training and running models for hundreds of millions of users requires enormous computing power, leased GPU capacity and data-centre deals, and OpenAI has committed to tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure spending in the coming years.
What we know / what's unconfirmed: Confirmed in the reporting: the $10 billion-plus quarter, the roughly 50% rise from $6.7 billion, the $10.9 billion operating loss, the margin improvement, and the $50 billion run rate. Unconfirmed: the exact figures, since OpenAI has not published them itself and the reports rely on people familiar with the investor call. Also unconfirmed: how much of the growth is sustainable. The same week the numbers emerged, the core lead of Codex stepped back from the front lines, and a large batch of accounts was suspended without warning — reminders that the business is still being built as it grows.
What happens next: Investors will watch whether the fourth quarter keeps the pace, and whether the losses start to narrow as the run rate grows. The bigger question is the one hanging over the whole AI industry this month: with Anthropic about to list at a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion, and OpenAI now doing $10 billion a quarter, the market is being asked to decide how much the AI boom is actually worth — and how long the losses can keep growing before someone has to pay for them.
Q: How much revenue did OpenAI make in Q3 2026?
A: More than $10 billion in a single quarter for the first time, up nearly 50% from about $6.7 billion in Q2 and almost triple the year-earlier level, according to reports of an investor briefing on 10 November.
Q: Is OpenAI profitable?
A: No. Its operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in Q3, from $10.1 billion in Q2, though its adjusted operating margin improved from minus 150% to minus 109%.
Q: What is OpenAI's annual revenue run rate?
A: Roughly $50 billion, according to the reports — the pace its current quarterly sales would imply over a full year.
Q: What is driving the growth?
A: ChatGPT subscriptions and enterprise sales, plus Codex, its coding tool, which OpenAI says became its largest revenue source in Q3, overtaking the consumer business.
Q: Are the figures official?
A: Not yet. OpenAI is private and has not published audited figures; the numbers were shared with investors and reported by Bloomberg, The Information and The Wall Street Journal.
Sources: TechCrunch — OpenAI's quarterly revenue reportedly crosses $10B for the first time, Dealroom — OpenAI tops $10B in quarterly revenue for the first time, up ~50%, and Gadget Review — OpenAI Hits $10 Billion in Quarterly Revenue, But Losses Grew Too.
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