From within the app, users can subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, a premium version that costs $20 per month and offers faster response times and priority access to new features. Because OpenAI does not redirect users to a website where they subscribe but uses Apple’s in-app purchasing system, Cupertino is taking it’s usual 30% cut.
“Apple is getting their 30% tax,” as Bernstein tech analysts put it in a note to investors. Is there a better illustration of a tech monopoly? Apple is behind in AI, and the company has contributed very little to public research in the field. And yet, it will likely make hundreds of millions of dollars a year from this technology, while basically doing nothing.
Consider a hypothetical scenario, if ChatGPT Plus were to add 5 million new subscribers on iOS, that would equate to roughly $1.2 billion in annual revenue. Taking 30% of that, Apple would collect $360 million a year from OpenAI’s creation.