But the figures rely on hardware and usage assumptions that may be inaccurate.

The University of Rhode Island’s AI lab estimates that GPT-5 averages just over 18 Wh per query, so putting all of ChatGPT’s reported 2.5 billion requests a day through the model could see energy usage as high as 45 GWh.

A daily energy use of 45 GWh is enormous. A typical modern nuclear power plant produces between 1 and 1.6 GW of electricity per reactor per hour, so data centers running OpenAI’s GPT-5 at 18 Wh per query could require the power equivalent of two to three nuclear power reactors, an amount that could be enough to power a small country.

  • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    I don’t believe api costs are tied all that closely to the actual cost to openAI. They seem to be selling at a loss, and they may be selling at an even greater loss to make it look like they are progressing. The second openAI seems like they have plateaued, their stock evaluation will crash and it will be game over for them.

      • dan@upvote.auEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Their point is that those API prices might not match reality, and the prices may be artificially low to build hype and undercut competitors. We don’t know how much it costs OpenAI, however we do know that they’re not making a profit.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          Or it might not. It would be a huge short term risk to do so.

          As FaceDeer said, that we truly don’t know.

          • dan@upvote.auEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            OpenAI are not profitable today, and don’t estimate they’ll be profitable until 2029, so it’s almost guaranteed that they’re selling their services at a loss. Of course, that’s impossible to verify - since they’re a private company, they don’t have to release financial statements.

            • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              3 days ago

              That’s not what I’m saying. They’ve all but outright said they’re unprofitable.

              But revenue is increasing. Now, if it stops increasing like they’ve “leveled out”, that is a problem.

              Hence it’s a stretch to assume they would decrease costs for a more expensive model since that would basically pop their bubble well before 2029.

              • dan@upvote.auEnglish
                1·
                3 days ago

                Revenue is increasing, but according to their own estimates, it has to increase 10x in order for them to become profitable.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        To be fair, OpenAI’s negative profitability has been extensively reported on.

        Your point stands though; there’s no evidence they’re trying to decrease revenue. On the contrary, that would be a huge red flag to any vested interests.