Grammarly vs OpenAI: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Grammarly reported $700M of revenue in FY2025 and — of net income. OpenAI reported $20B of revenue in FY2025 and — of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Grammarly
Grammarly is private and does not publish audited financial statements. On May 29, 2025, while announcing $1 billion in nondilutive financing from General Catalyst, the company said it had more than $700 million in annual revenue and more than 40 million daily users. The General Catalyst money was structured as capital repaid from revenue generated by the sales and marketing it funds, not as new equity, so the company's last equity valuation is still $13 billion from the November 2021 round led by Baillie Gifford and BlackRock funds. The company was profitable and bootstrapped from 2009 until its first venture round of $110 million in 2017, then raised $90 million in 2019 at a valuation above $1 billion. It has not filed for an IPO.
OpenAI
OpenAI reports revenue as annualized run rate rather than audited GAAP figures. The company says it reached $1 billion of revenue within a year of launching ChatGPT, was generating about $1 billion per quarter by the end of 2024, and passed $20 billion of annualized revenue by the end of 2025. Axios reported the run rate was nearing $70 billion at the end of September 2026. Funding has scaled alongside: $110 billion announced in February 2026 at a $730 billion pre-money valuation grew to $122 billion committed at $852 billion post-money by March 31, 2026, anchored by Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank. An employee tender of about $7 billion followed in August 2026 at the same valuation. The company remains unprofitable because compute spending outpaces revenue.
Revenue and profit by year
Grammarly
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $700M | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
OpenAI
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $20B | — | 0.0% | +400.0% | Source |
| FY2024 | $4B | — | 0.0% | +100.0% | Source |
| FY2023 | $2B | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Grammarly
- Individual subscriptions
Not disclosed
Monthly or annual Grammarly Pro plans bought by individuals.
- Business and enterprise plans
Not disclosed
Per-seat team, business and enterprise contracts, plus suite plans that include Superhuman Docs, Mail and Go.
- Education licenses
Not disclosed
Institutional plans for schools and universities.
OpenAI
- ChatGPT SubscriptionsMajor
Consumer, team, business, education, and enterprise subscriptions.
- API UsageMajor
Usage-based developer and enterprise model access through OpenAI APIs.
- Enterprise PlatformGrowing
Business deployments, governance, custom workflows, and platform services.
- Partnerships and LicensingEmerging
Strategic licensing, infrastructure partnerships, commerce, and outcome-based AI workflows.
Business model and strategy
Grammarly
How it makes money
Grammarly runs a freemium subscription model. The free browser extension and apps give basic spelling and grammar fixes and pull in tens of millions of users.
Growth strategy
Grammarly's strategy since 2023 has been to move from correcting text to doing work for the user. It launched GrammarlyGO generative features in 2023. It agreed to acquire Coda in December 2024 and made Coda co-founder Shishir Mehrotra CEO.
Competitive advantage
Grammarly's main advantage is distribution. It runs inside more than 1 million apps and websites through one extension, so users get suggestions in Gmail, Slack, Google Docs, Word or a CRM without copying text into a chatbot. That reach, which the company calls its in-app 'rails', is what Superhuman Go now uses to deliver its own and partner AI agents.
OpenAI
How it makes money
OpenAI earns revenue in three main ways. First, ChatGPT subscriptions: consumer tiers such as Plus and Pro, plus Business, Enterprise and Edu seats sold to organizations. Second, the API platform, where developers and companies pay per token to build OpenAI models (GPT, reasoning, image, audio and embeddings) into their own software.
Growth strategy
OpenAI is growing on four fronts: selling ChatGPT and Codex into enterprises, turning ChatGPT into a broader 'super app' with agents, shopping and apps inside the chat, building its own compute through the Stargate data center program and chip partnerships, and moving into hardware through the 2025 acquisition of Jony Ive's io.
Competitive advantage
OpenAI's advantage is distribution plus scale. ChatGPT is the most widely used AI assistant, with OpenAI citing more than 900 million weekly users in February 2026, which gives it a direct consumer channel that rivals have to buy or build.
Questions about Grammarly vs OpenAI
Which company has higher revenue — Grammarly Inc. or OpenAI?
Grammarly Inc. reported $700.0M (FY2025), while OpenAI reported $20.0B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, OpenAI is the larger business, with Grammarly Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
Which is more financially efficient — Grammarly Inc. or OpenAI?
Grammarly Inc. generates $700k / employee in revenue per employee, while OpenAI generates $4.44M / employee. OpenAI shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Grammarly Inc. and OpenAI make money?
Grammarly Inc. and OpenAI generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Grammarly Inc.: Grammarly runs a freemium subscription model. OpenAI: OpenAI earns revenue in three main ways.
Is Grammarly Inc. bigger than OpenAI?
By last reported revenue, OpenAI ($20.0B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Grammarly Inc. ($700.0M (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Grammarly vs OpenAI overview