OpenAI says an 80% reduction in the price of its Luna model helped increase usage by roughly ten times, as the company seeks to expand its presence among enterprise customers and counter growing competition.
Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar discussed the strategy at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology Convention in San Francisco. She said OpenAI is concentrating on sectors including chip design, life sciences and financial services, where businesses are increasingly seeking AI systems built for specific tasks rather than general-purpose tools.
Pricing pressure intensifies
Friar said deploying Luna through OpenAI is less expensive than running Chinese open-source models through cloud providers. She specifically compared the cost with Z.ai’s GLM 5.3, while acknowledging the pressure created by Chinese open-weight models and competitors such as Anthropic.
OpenAI is also testing outcome-based pricing, which would move away from charging customers solely according to usage. The shift comes as enterprise clients demand clearer returns on their AI investments.
According to Friar, OpenAI’s coding assistant Codex has reached 25 million users. The company’s lower pricing for Luna is intended to make the model more accessible while preserving a competitive position against lower-cost alternatives.
Enterprise revenue gains
OpenAI’s enterprise revenue increased 32% from June to July, ahead of the company’s overall 20% growth during the same period. Friar said enterprise and consumer revenue had reached approximately an even split by the middle of the year, earlier than OpenAI’s goal of achieving that balance by the end of 2026.
The company has also highlighted its internal use of AI as evidence of its capabilities. OpenAI said it used its own models to develop the “Jalapeno” chip, taking the design through tape-out and into manufacturing within nine months.
OpenAI’s combination of lower prices, industry-specific products and outcome-based billing reflects its effort to turn enterprise adoption into a larger source of future growth.
