OpenAI Could Be Blowing As Much As $15 Million Per Day On Silly Sora Videos

Forbes

Some back-of-napkin math suggests OpenAI is spending more than a quarter of what it’s making to power its AI slop factory.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2025/11/10/openai-spending-ai-generated-sora-videos/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, OpenAI could be blowing as much as $15 million per day on silly Sora videos.

00:09For a company that's burning more than twice what it's earning,

00:12OpenAI is giddily rolling out some ingeniously reckless new ways of racking up losses.

00:18Valued at about $500 billion, the AI behemoth last week projected an annual recurring revenue

00:25run rate of $20 billion, which is all well and good until you remember it lost more than $12

00:32billion last quarter. On September 30th, OpenAI debuted its Sora video creation app for Apple's

00:40iOS platform, racking up a stunning 1 million downloads in a week, despite an invitation-only

00:46rollout, inspiring a swoon of fawning coverage and vast slop of fantastical Ring security videos

00:53gratuitously farting celebrities, deceased only, and some truly disturbing home-shopping

00:58network ads. By Halloween, the app had been downloaded 4 million times, per app figures,

01:05and was churning out millions of 10-second AI-generated videos per day.

01:10So just how much money is OpenAI dumping on this firehose of imbecilic video?

01:15More than $5 billion annualized, or around $15 million per day, according to Forbes estimates

01:22and conversations with experts. When Bill Peebles, OpenAI's head of Sora, observed on October 30th

01:29that, quote, the economics are currently completely unsustainable, he was right on the money.

01:35These numbers bear some explanation and come with a handful of caveats.

01:40OpenAI declined to share specific usage data on Sora and to comment on Forbes' estimates.

01:45That means Forbes' calculations rely on estimates and several moving targets,

01:50including GPU prices, inference efficiency, user counts, and the number of videos being posted per day.

01:58Still, it's possible to get an idea of what this all costs.

02:02Video models like Sora 2 are much more expensive than their text counterparts, like GPT-5,

02:08because the data they ingest and spit out is more complex.

02:12For users trying to access OpenAI models directly in bulk via its API or Application Programming Interface,

02:20GPT-5 costs approximately $10 for some 750,000 words.

02:26Sora 2 is more complex, since it needs to process four-dimensional data,

02:31three spatial dimensions plus time,

02:33and make sure actions make sense over a couple dozen frames per second.

02:36Generating a 10-second video, the standard length of a Sora clip that costs one so-called, quote,

02:43video generation credit,

02:45costs OpenAI approximately $1.3,

02:48according to analyst Deepak Mathivanon of Cantor Fitzgerald.

02:53A.J. Kaurabi of Semi Analysis said the figure, quote,

02:56seems reasonable,

02:57but also depends on how often the different Sora models are used.

03:00Some are more complex.

03:03Mathivanon's analysis assumes each video generation

03:06takes around 40 minutes of total GPU time,

03:09or 8-10 minutes on four GPUs running at the same time,

03:13and that renting a GPU costs just under $2 per hour.

03:17Assuming OpenAI isn't building profit margins into its API pricing yet,

03:22this estimate checks out.

03:23The company is currently charging $1 for a 10-second video generated by Sora 2,

03:28and $3 for the more advanced model, Sora 2 Pro.

03:31Then there's the question of how many videos users are creating on Sora.

03:36The number is wildly fluctuating,

03:39and we don't yet know to what extent users will keep coming back for more,

03:42or when OpenAI will stop offering free access to AI video generation.

03:47But take Sora's estimated 4.5 million app users,

03:51and assume, per Kaurabi,

03:53that 25% of them post on average 10 videos a day.

03:57That comes out to 11.3 million videos per day.

04:01Multiply by $1.3 per video,

04:04which means nearly $15 million per day,

04:06or $5.4 billion per year.

04:09This number does not account for videos Sora's scraps

04:12before releasing because they are deemed infringing or violative,

04:16or drafts that use Sora credits but never get posted.

04:20Allowing just anyone to generate Sora videos for free is a gutsy move,

04:25though not uncommon in the tech world.

04:27OpenAI is making a play for market share and visibility at a loss,

04:32hoping that enough people use Sora for costs to come down,

04:35and, once OpenAI starts charging for it,

04:38revenues to go up.

04:39For full coverage, check out Phoebe Lou's piece on Forbes.com.

04:46This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:48Thanks for tuning in.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended