OpenAI's Ambitious Plans for High-Priced AI Agents: A New Era of Specialized AI Services

OpenAI sees substantial revenue from AI agents, may offer plans up to $20k/month By Investing.com

Investing.com -- OpenAI, a leading AI company, is anticipating significant revenue from its AI application, ChatGPT, which is already generating a minimum of $4 billion in annualized revenue. However, according to a Wednesday report by The Information, the firm is also focusing on another promising source of income: AI applications known as agents. Agents, in the AI context, are applications that can perform tasks for customers autonomously, without requiring much guidance. SoftBank (TYO:9984), an investor in OpenAI, has pledged to invest $3 billion in OpenAI's agents this year. OpenAI has recently disclosed its pricing strategy for these agents. The company's executives have informed some investors about their plans to market low-end agents at a price of $2,000 per month for high-income knowledge workers. Mid-tier agents, designed for software development, could be priced at around $10,000 a month. High-end agents, which function as PhD-level research agents, may be sold for $20,000 per month. This information was shared by an individual who had discussions with the executives. In the future, OpenAI envisions that agent products will contribute to 20% to 25% of the company's total revenue, according to the same individual.

OpenAI Might Charge Up to $20,000 a Month for Expert-Level AI Agents

The AI firm's most expensive AI agent will assist in PhD-level research OpenAI is reportedly planning to release several artificial intelligence (AI) agents soon. As per the report, these AI agents will be specialised and have expertise in specific domains. Unlike most of the offerings by the company so far, these are said to not be part of its existing subscription tiers, and instead, the AI firm could offer them as standalone services. These AI agents are said to be able to do the work of an expert-level professional, and could fetch a significantly high price tag. The Information reported that the San Francisco-based AI firm is planning to launch as many as three different AI agents, which would be highly specialised in their knowledge domain. Citing people familiar with the matter, the publication claimed that these AI agents could come at a monthly subscription of up to $20,000 (roughly Rs. 17,40,800). The report did not mention when these AI agents could be released. One of the AI agents is reportedly a "high-income knowledge worker." This designation is generally used for humans who have deep knowledge in their domain, and their work involves critical thinking, strategic planning, and decision-making. Some examples include CXOs, management consultants, financial analysts, and more. The report claims that this AI agent could be priced at $2,000 (roughly Rs. 1.74 lakh) a month. Another AI agent, currently under-development, is said to be a software developer that could cost $10,000 (roughly Rs. 8.7 lakh) a month. This AI agent is likely to be adept in coding, debugging, bug fixing, and code deployment. In comparison, Devin AI, which is also a software developer AI agent, is priced at $500 (roughly Rs. 45,500) per month. Notably, OpenAI already offers coding capabilities via its ChatGPT platform, although it cannot perform tasks autonomously, which is expected from AI agents. However, as per the report, the pièce de résistance of the AI firm will be a "PhD-level research" agent, that will arrive with a price tag of $20,000 a month. Google also released its Gemini Deep Research feature, which is described as a "personal research assistant" and can autonomously research on topics and prepare comprehensive reports. It is available to Gemini Advanced subscribers who pay Rs. 1,950 a month. With such a significantly high subscription price, the AI agent might be able to perform highly complex tasks including ideation of a topic, research simulation, and deep analysis. Looking at the prices, it is likely that these AI agents will be offered to enterprises and not end-consumers. The report highlighted that OpenAI's investor, SoftBank, has committed to spend $3 billion (roughly Rs. 26,112 crore) on the company's AI agent products in 2025.

OpenAI's AI agent workforce is coming - who will keep their job?

TL;DR: OpenAI plans to launch specialized AI agents for various professions, with costs ranging from $2,000 to $20,000 per month, depending on specialization. The most expensive agents will have Ph.D.-level expertise. OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to release specialized AI agents that can be hired for as much as $20,000 per month, according to a recent article by The Information. The article states that OpenAI is planning on releasing several "agent" products that specialize in various professions. These AI agents will vary in price depending on their specialization. For example, an AI agent software engineer could cost approximately $2,000 per month, with another software AI developer costing as much as $10,000 per month. The publication states that the most expensive AI agent could cost as much as $20,000 per month and would come with knowledge proportionate to "Ph.D.-level research." It's unclear when these AI agents will be released or if the aforementioned prices are set in stone, but SoftBank, an OpenAI investor, has committed to spending as much as $3 billion on OpenAI agent products in 2025. It appears OpenAI will need a $20,000 per month subscription, as the company paid as much as $5 billion in running costs for its products last year, among other expenses. It's abundantly clear that when AI can tailored for a specific profession, it will threaten the security of human workers in that profession, especially if the company behind the AI agent can sell their agent to the employer for a fraction of what a human in that profession is charging. Unfortunately, it only seems like a matter of time before humans will be directly competing with AI agents for positions in the workforce, and these AI agents don't take days off, don't get sick, aren't insubordinate, don't ask for raises, and are cheaper per year than a human. The quality of work seems to be the last determining factor, but given AI advancements, it seems it is only a matter of time before AI reaches a level of competency that it can check for its own mistakes, vastly improving its quality assurance capabilities, and therefore reducing its frequency of mistakes. Does this mean humans will be replaced entirely? Many positions in various industries will be jeopardized, but humans will still have a role for quite some time, even if it is managing these new systems. Moreover, the replacement won't happen overnight as employers will be extremely hesitant to hire a fleet of AI agents and risk their business crumbling under the mistakes of faceless AI workers. I believe the adoption will be slow, and then once proof of concept has been achieved, it will significantly speed up. At first, it might not be a total job replacement, but instead, the employee will wield AI as a tool. But how long will it be before that tool learns how to do the job better than the employee?

OpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI 'agents' | TechCrunch

OpenAI may be planning to charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI "agents," according to The Information. The publication reports that OpenAI intends to launch several "agent" products tailored for different applications, including sorting and ranking sales leads and software engineering. One, a "high-income knowledge worker" agent, will reportedly be priced at $2,000 a month. Another, a software developer agent, is said to cost $10,000 a month. OpenAI's most expensive rumored agent, priced at the aforementioned $20,000-a-month tier, will be aimed at supporting "PhD-level research," according to The Information. It's unclear when these agentic tools might launch or which customers will be eligible to purchase them. But The Information notes that SoftBank, an OpenAI investor, has committed to spending $3 billion on OpenAI's agent products this year alone. OpenAI needs the money. The company lost roughly $5 billion last year after paying for costs related to running its services and other expenses.

OpenAI is developing agentic AI which could cost $20,000 a month - Phandroid

By now, we're sure you're all familiar with AI and AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT. These AI models are basically the super smart versions of digital assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and so on. They can think, they can reason, and they can piece together complex replies. However, OpenAI wants to go further by developing what are known as agentic AI. According to a report from The Information (paywall), OpenAI wants to launch agentic AI in the future, but it won't come cheap. Apparently, depending on the complexity of the AI, could cost businesses as much as $20,000 a month! Obviously these AI agents are designed for regular consumers, so businesses will have to decide if spending $20,000 a month is worth it. Here's what it means if you're hearing about agentic AI for the first time. Like we said, current AI models are essentially supercharged digital assistants. They're way smarter than the digital assistants we've grown accustomed to and can handle way more complex queries. However, they don't really think for themselves. AI models like ChatGPT are trained on existing data. When you ask it a question, it pulls information from its data and formulates the most appropriate response. It doesn't think, it just does. However, agentic AI is the next level of AI, where these AI agents can think for themselves and solve problems without users having to do anything. A good example would be self-driving cars. These cars come with a host of sensors that collect road data, like obstacles, other vehicles, and pedestrians. Based on that data, it can make decisions for the driver, like jamming on the brakes when the car in front suddenly stops. If this was normal AI, you would have to ask it to brake before it did. Agentic AI can also sometimes be mistaken for AI agents. AI agents are like chatbots that you encounter when trying to get your airline ticket issues resolved, or asking your local mail service to track your parcel. It is definitely the next frontier of AI, but at those costs, it might only appeal to a niche audience -- for now.

In AI Agent Battle, Meta Seeks Total Dominance as OpenAI Plans to Charge $20k for Some Models

Agents are much ballyhooed as the next big wave of AI adoption in the workplace. While generative AI systems like chatbots deliver useful content only after they've been prompted, agents are more sophisticated and can carry out actions on their own. This could include filling in web forms for office workers, controlling apps on computer desktops, or acting as sales agents, in the way Meta now promotes its AI agent tool. Shih sees an AI agent-centric future happening sooner than many people think: "we're quickly coming to a place where every business, from the very large to the very small" is going to have a specialized AI agents "agent representing it and acting on its behalf, in its voice -- the way that businesses today have websites and email addresses." For Meta, this means "hundreds of millions" of businesses using its tool, Shih envisions. That's quite an extraordinary vision, and it may give AI critics some pause (given the piles of cash Meta can bring to play to push its products). And, also on the topic of extraordinary AI agent plans, market-leading OpenAI may plan to charge some $20,000 a month for access to its specialized AI agent tools, news site The Information alleges. OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has been bullish about the promise of agents, and The Information says the company is moving fast, planning to launch "several" agent products targeted at different jobs -- like one to help sort and rank sales leads, or carry out software engineering tasks. One agent, tech news site TechCrunch notes, will be able to act as a "high-income knowledge worker" and OpenAI will charge a steep $2,000 a month for access to it, which implies the company has serious confidence in the tool's power. The software developer agent is expected to cost $10,0000 a month. And the agent capable of carrying out "PhD-level research" will apparently cost $20,000 monthly. No further information on when the tools will launch or who'll be eligible to buy them was available.

Is OpenAI's Rumored $20,000 AI Agent Good Enough to Take Your Job?

OpenAI is mulling over charging that much for "PhD-level" AI systems, according to The Information. While it sounds like a lot, keep in mind that human PhD students are only paid between $20,000 - $30,000 per year on average. "Just hire a PhD researcher for that money [and] give them access to open-access AI and I bet they will outperform OpenAI," says Jay Van Bavel, PhD, a Professor of Psychology at NYU. "Plus you'll have the advantage of a human with real expertise to oversee the work!" OpenAI would also offer lower-priced AI agents, such as $2,000 per month for a "high-income knowledge worker" agent and a $10,000-per-month software developer agent. "I'm personally skeptical that they're close to having reliable agents that are truly that level and can 1:1 replace a PhD level researcher," says one Redditor. "Obviously it won't be able to do the actual physical work required to work in most research labs. Even generating good and reliable documents seems unlikely to me." Another adds that while the $2,000 tier could work, the $10,000 and $20,000 tiers may be unrealistic. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been playing with the company's product offerings. This week, he tweeted a proposal to give subscribers "credits" they can cash in for services rather than fixed subscription pricing. "An idea for paid plans: Your $20 plus subscription converts to credits you can use across features like Deep Research, [GPT-]o1, GPT-4.5, Sora, etc.," Altman says. "No fixed limits per feature and you choose what you want; if you run out of credits you can buy more. What do you think? Good/bad?" OpenAI debuted its first AI agent, Operator, in January. It can automate simple web-based tasks like ordering groceries and is available with a $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription, the company's most expensive plan. OpenAI burned through an estimated $5 billion last year, The New York Times reports, and is in talks to raise another $40 billion, CNBC reports. Anthropic launched its own autonomous AI agent that can do web-based tasks for its Claude chatbot in October 2024. This week, CEO Dario Amodei warned the government of the serious economic challenges these AI agents present. He predicts that by 2026 the tech industry will have developed AIs that can mimic what "highly capable" humans can do today, including navigating digital interfaces and "interfacing with the physical world" by controlling lab equipment and manufacturing tools.

What does "PhD-level" AI mean? OpenAI's rumored $20,000 agent plan explained.

The AI industry has a new buzzword: "PhD-level AI." According to a report from The Information, OpenAI may be planning to launch several specialized AI "agent" products including a $20,000 monthly tier focused on supporting "PhD-level research." Other reportedly planned agents include a "high-income knowledge worker" assistant at $2,000 monthly and a software developer agent at $10,000 monthly. OpenAI has not yet confirmed these prices, but they have mentioned PhD-level AI capabilities before. So what exactly constitutes "PhD-level AI"? The term refers to models that supposedly perform tasks requiring doctoral-level expertise. These include agents conducting advanced research, writing and debugging complex code without human intervention, and analyzing large datasets to generate comprehensive reports. The key claim is that these models can tackle problems that typically require years of specialized academic training. Companies like OpenAI base their "PhD-level" claims on performance in specific benchmark tests. For example, OpenAI's o1 series models reportedly performed well in science, coding, and math tests, with results similar to human PhD students on challenging tasks. The company's Deep Research tool, which can generate research papers with citations, scored 26.6 percent on "Humanity's Last Exam," a comprehensive evaluation covering over 3,000 questions across more than 100 subjects. OpenAI's latest advancement along these lines comes from their o3 and o3-mini models, announced in December. These models build upon the o1 family launched earlier last year. Like o1, the o3 models use what OpenAI calls "private chain of thought," a simulated reasoning technique where the model runs through an internal dialog and iteratively works through issues before presenting a final answer. This approach ostensibly mirrors how human researchers spend time thinking about complex problems rather than providing immediate answers. According to OpenAI, the more time you put into this inference-time compute, the better answers you get. So here's the key point: For $20,000, a customer would presumably be buying tons of thinking time for the AI model to work on difficult problems. According to OpenAI, o3 earned a record-breaking score on the ARC-AGI visual reasoning benchmark, reaching 87.5 percent in high-compute testing -- comparable to human performance at an 85 percent threshold. The model also scored 96.7 percent on the 2024 American Invitational Mathematics Exam, missing just one question, and reached 87.7 percent on GPQA Diamond, which contains graduate-level biology, physics, and chemistry questions. On the Frontier Math benchmark by EpochAI, o3 solved 25.2 percent of problems, while no other model has exceeded 2 percent -- suggesting a leap in mathematical reasoning capabilities over the previous model. Benchmarks vs. real-world value Ideally, potential applications for a true PhD-level AI model would include analyzing medical research data, supporting climate modeling, and handling routine aspects of research work. The high price points reported by The Information, if accurate, suggest that OpenAI believes these systems could provide substantial value to businesses. The publication notes that SoftBank, an OpenAI investor, has committed to spending $3 billion on OpenAI's agent products this year alone -- indicating significant business interest despite the costs. Meanwhile, OpenAI faces financial pressures that may influence its premium pricing strategy. The company reportedly lost approximately $5 billion last year covering operational costs and other expenses related to running its services. News of OpenAI's stratospheric pricing plans come after years of relatively affordable AI services that have conditioned users to expect powerful capabilities at relatively low costs. ChatGPT Plus remains $20 per month and Claude Pro costs $30 monthly -- both tiny fractions of these proposed enterprise tiers. Even ChatGPT Pro's $200/month subscription is relatively small compared to the new proposed fees. Whether the performance difference between these tiers will match their thousandfold price difference is an open question. Despite their benchmark performances, these simulated reasoning models still struggle with confabulations -- instances where they generate plausible-sounding but factually incorrect information. This remains a critical concern for research applications where accuracy and reliability are paramount. A $20,000 monthly investment raises questions about whether organizations can trust these systems not to introduce subtle errors into high-stakes research. In response to the news, several people quipped on social media that companies could hire an actual PhD student for much cheaper. "In case you have forgotten," wrote xAI developer Hieu Pham in a viral tweet, "most PhD students, including the brightest stars who can do way better work than any current LLMs -- are not paid $20K / month." While these systems show strong capabilities on specific benchmarks, the "PhD-level" label remains largely a marketing term. These models can process and synthesize information at impressive speeds, but questions remain about how effectively they can handle the creative thinking, intellectual skepticism, and original research that define actual doctoral-level work. On the other hand, they will never get tired or need health insurance, and they will likely continue to improve in capability and drop in cost over time.

OpenAI To Charge $20,000 a Month For AI Agents

For years, I read science-fiction books and books about artificial intelligence that posed worrying thought experiments about the future of work to come. Self-driving trucks would replace lorry drivers, autonomous cabs would leave Uber drivers without a gig, and eventually, artificial intelligence would become so capable that no human could compete in any task. Grandmasters first felt this playing against Deep Blue, and computer scientists posed that it was only a matter of time before all tasks would -- like chess -- be solved by computers. The only argument was whether this would happen in decades or centuries. If OpenAI is to be believed, they think it could be "months" as they continue to roll out new, more advanced features and versions intended to be able to match or surpass human labor. The first main sign of this was at the beginning of February, when OpenAI released their Deep Research function, running on their o1 model -- which they charge $200 a month to access. For the uninitiated, you would ask ChatGPT to produce a paper or research memo on a topic you were interested in learning about and, in about 5 to 30 minutes, it would create an extensive document that would take a person far longer to make. These papers are fundamentally derivative but, prompted the right way, they explain topics at a pretty high level and do so from a wide range of sources. According to The Information, the next product OpenAI is rolling out will be AI "agents;" virtual employees that can use applications, search the web, and so forth, to complete various tasks. In much the same way that companies use AI systems for their online help chats, these "agents" will replace humans in more complex jobs and tasks. A "high-income knowledge worker" agent would reportedly cost $2,000 a month; a software developer agent would jump to $10,000 a month; and a "PhD-level research" tier would be $20,000 a month. There's no timeline for when these products will roll out, but this is the obvious end goal for AI firms: offering a high-priced professional product that companies can use to replace their labor. And, if these agents work as advertised, their high-prices make sense. A code agent would work 24/7, wouldn't need benefits, and could be "fired," without notice or severance. If it's competitive with human programmers, then spending $120,000 a year with OpenAI is far less expensive than hiring a staff of programmers. However, this depends on the agents being as competent as advertised; and I have serious doubts about OpenAI. The company has generally had a poor history with management -- peaking in Sam Altman's brief firing in November 2023 -- and has rushed out new features while consistently losing billions in investor money. It lost $5 billion last year alone, and its products throw out more false information than ever before. Deep Research is highly compelling, but it also hallucinates a lot; and what use is a researcher who can't be relied upon not to imagine information? And if they haven't solved hallucination and safety jailbreaks on their less complex system, there's no reason to think it will be banished from their AI agents, even if they cost $20,000 a month.

OpenAI's PhD-research AI agent for $20000 a month: Future of work or AI hype?

In the latest buzz on how fast technology's transforming our day-to-day grind, OpenAI's planning to launch a whole host of advanced "AI agents". These new offerings won't look much like the ChatGPT Free or Plus we've come to rely on for quick Q&A. Instead, OpenAI is taking AI to new extremes with specialized agents having specialized skill sets, according to The Information. Not to be confused with the 'Deep Research' feature OpenAI launched earlier in February 2025, which is an AI-driven tool that empowers ChatGPT to perform extensive research and deep-dive into a topic much better than your garden variety of ChatGPT response. With these upcoming specialized AI agents, we're talking about an agent for "high-income knowledge workers" at around $2,000 a month, a developer-specific bot priced near $10,000 a month, and a show-stopping $20,000-a-month "PhD-level research" agent - roughly the yearly salary of some real PhDs out there. That's not just a steep price tag, it's a statement of clear intent from OpenAI. If you want elite AI for high-stakes tasks, get ready to spend big. Let's entertain the idea that an AI agent truly does the heavy lifting on an entire software cycle, or helps a data analyst churn out insights that ordinarily require a team of six. If those gains are real, a $10,000 monthly outlay might be peanuts for a well-funded startup or Fortune 500 company. That's especially true if the agent can handle specialized tasks that free up human experts for more creative, strategic work. Also read: OpenAI launches Operator: How will this AI agent impact the industry? If these specialized AI agents truly deliver on their promise, we're talking about an AI that's not just automating mundane tasks, but stepping into territory once reserved for skilled professionals. That's the deeper conversation that we will need to have, eventually. If a $20,000-a-month AI agent can replicate or augment the output of multiple PhD researchers, does that mean fewer entry-level roles, or a fundamental change in how we approach research? We're all pretty familiar with ChatGPT Free - millions of us have tried it, mostly for fun or light productivity. Some of us even pay for ChatGPT Plus to skip the lines and get faster response times. That's mainstream. But these new top-tier agents? They're not about chit-chat or generating a quick outline for your next blog. They're engineered for hyper-focused roles, from sifting through giant data sets for sales leads to delivering advanced code assistance or even performing what used to be considered "expert-level" research tasks. Also read: OpenAI launches ChatGPT DeepResearch - 5 things you need to know I've long believed that AI is as much about complementing human talent as replacing certain tasks. But with price tags this steep, we might see top-tier employers quietly downsizing entire departments, swapping them for a single AI subscription. Then again, it might also be that these AI agents are best used alongside humans, bridging gaps in knowledge so humans can focus on the intangible work that AI can't replicate. The immediate question is: Why the crazy prices? Part of it, I suspect, is OpenAI capitalizing on the hype while it's still hot. Another part reflects the cost of error in these specialized zones. If an AI agent can save an investment bank millions by accurately parsing financial statements or feeding a biotech firm real-time gene-editing data, the monthly fee might seem trivial. Still, it feels jarring. The typical ChatGPT user never imagined a version that costs more than buying an SUV or small house. Are we witnessing an AI arms race where only the top 1% of companies can play? Also read: AI agents explained: Why OpenAI, Google and Microsoft are building smarter AI agents Not so fast, because we've seen this movie before with the evolution of tech over the years. Every new wave of tech often starts with big, expensive solutions for big, expensive problems. Mainframes in the 1960s, for instance, or enterprise-level solutions in the 2000s. Over time, the cost plummets, the tools democratize, and everyday businesses - eventually even individuals - get on board. Which makes me wonder, are these $10,000 or $20,000 monthly price tags a footnote in history, or the start of a long-term stratification of AI access? Because, let's be real, plenty of organizations can't casually drop five figures monthly on an AI subscription. Small and mid-sized players might still rely on ChatGPT's free or modestly priced Plus variant, missing out on the top-shelf capabilities. The result might be a deeper digital divide - cutting-edge AI for the well-funded and a simpler tool for everyone else. Regardless, it's clear these new specialized AI agents represent a strategic pivot for OpenAI - and, by extension, a glimpse of how high-tech meets high finance in the next decade. As we weigh the cost of admission, we should also consider what it means for equality of access, the job market, and the evolving relationship between humans and AI. It might be an overhyped bubble or the earliest sign of a changing tide in professional work. Time - and the market's response - will tell.

OpenAI plans premium AI agents with monthly fees up to $20,000

Rumor mill: OpenAI is reportedly considering a significant shift in its pricing strategy, potentially charging up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI agents, according to a recent report by The Information. This move appears to be part of OpenAI's broader plan to introduce a range of agent products designed for specific applications. Among the various agents being developed, one targeting high-income knowledge workers is expected to carry a monthly subscription fee of $2,000. Meanwhile, a dedicated software developer agent is rumored to be priced at $10,000 per month. The most expensive offering, aimed at facilitating PhD-level research, could reach the upper tier of $20,000 monthly. Although the details about what these services would offer are still unclear, the company is justifying the pricing structure based on the economic benefits they would provide to clients, which are expected to be major corporations and research organizations rather than individual consumers. The pricing is also likely set to recoup the significant investment OpenAI has made in the AI's development. While the timeline for the launch of these higher-priced tools remains uncertain, the interest from investors is notable, the publication said. SoftBank, a significant backer of OpenAI, has pledged to invest $3 billion in the company's agent products within this fiscal year. This isn't the first time The Information has covered OpenAI's potential pricing changes. Last September, anonymous sources hinted at a possible $2,000 subscription model for access to advanced AI models. These pricing models align with OpenAI's ambition to provide tailored solutions for specialized tasks. This year, for example, the company launched new AI agents, Deep Research and Operator, which offer enhanced capabilities in several areas. Operator can perform complex online tasks with minimal human intervention. Unlike traditional AI models that only generate text, Operator can browse the internet, click buttons, fill forms, and complete real-world tasks. Deep Research offers advanced research and synthesis abilities, including multi-step research and the creation of reports. Deep Research and Operator are currently available at different price points. Deep Research is now accessible to users of ChatGPT Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise subscriptions. Operator, on the other hand, remains exclusive to ChatGPT Pro subscribers, who pay $200 per month.