OpenAI and ChatGPT: The Company Behind the Best-Known AI Chatbot

Few names represent the breakthrough of artificial intelligence in everyday life as much as ChatGPT. Millions of people now use the chatbot for writing, researching, translating, or planning – both privately and professionally. Behind the product stands the US company OpenAI, which has grown in just a few years from a small research lab into one of the most influential technology companies in the world. Anyone who regularly works with ChatGPT professionally or privately, or is thinking about using it, should know who is actually behind it, what the service costs, and what happens to their own data – one building block from our broader overview of AI models compared.

From research idea to global corporation: the history of OpenAI

• OpenAI Website
• Open ChatGPT directly

Founding and original mission

OpenAI was founded in 2015 in San Francisco, with the stated goal of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of all of humanity – not just for individual corporations or governments. Among the founding members was entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is better known today for other projects and later withdrew from the company. Originally, OpenAI was structured as a non-profit organization. Because developing powerful AI models requires enormous computing capacity and therefore a great deal of capital, a hybrid corporate structure with a for-profit division was created in 2019, into which software giant Microsoft has invested several billion US dollars.

The leap into everyday life: ChatGPT becomes a mass phenomenon

The decisive turning point was the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Within a few days, the service recorded millions of users, because for the first time it showed a broad audience how naturally one can converse with an AI. Since then, OpenAI has released increasingly powerful models at ever shorter intervals and expanded ChatGPT from a pure text chatbot into a comprehensive digital assistant that recognizes and creates images, understands speech, researches on the internet, and can now even independently complete multi-step tasks on a computer.

Rule of thumb: OpenAI is the company, ChatGPT is the product – when people talk about “OpenAI’s AI,” they usually mean ChatGPT, even though the company now offers a whole bundle of services.

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OpenAI’s product ecosystem

ChatGPT as the core product

ChatGPT remains by far OpenAI’s best-known product and, for most individuals and small businesses, the actual point of contact with the company. Through a simple chat interface in the browser, desktop app, or smartphone app, users can write and revise texts, create summaries, answer questions, explain tables and formulas, generate or analyze images, and hold voice memos directly by speaking. For users with a paid subscription, a so-called agent mode is also available: ChatGPT then doesn’t just provide individual answers but independently carries out multi-step tasks, such as researching across multiple websites or filling out forms.

Other products: Sora, image generation, Codex, and the developer interface

Besides the chatbot, OpenAI operates several standalone products. With Sora, the company offers a service for creating short videos from text descriptions, which is increasingly integrated directly into ChatGPT itself. Image generation is available directly in the chat and allows graphics, illustrations, or photo composites to be created from simple descriptions. For software developers, Codex offers a specialized tool for coding assistance. And through a so-called API, companies can build OpenAI’s models into their own applications, such as a website, an internal tool, or accounting software. For the vast majority of private users and small businesses, however, ChatGPT itself is the relevant point of access.

Pricing plans and subscription tiers for ChatGPT

OpenAI has significantly diversified its pricing structure in recent years. As of today, there are several tiers aimed at different user groups – from the free basic version to the expensive professional tier for very computation-heavy tasks.

Subscription tier	Approximate price	Intended for
Free	0 US dollars	Occasional use, simple questions, trying it out
Go	approx. 8 US dollars/month	Beginners with somewhat higher usage needs, affordable access to more requests
Plus	approx. 20 US dollars/month	Individuals and freelancers with regular use, including image generation, voice mode, and agent features
Pro	approx. 100 to 200 US dollars/month (two sub-tiers)	Heavy users with high demand for computation-heavy “reasoning” models, e.g. for complex analyses
Business / Team	approx. 20 to 25 US dollars per person and month	Small to medium businesses, with shared administration and additional contractual terms
Enterprise	individual terms	Larger companies with their own security and privacy requirements

What you get for your money

Important to know: OpenAI changes its exact feature set fairly often, and prices quoted in US dollars usually end up somewhat higher once converted and taxed locally. Even the free version offers a usable entry point, though with noticeable limits on the number of requests and no access to the most powerful models. For most individuals who want to use ChatGPT regularly for everyday tasks, the Plus tier is the most sensible entry into a paid plan, while the expensive Pro tier mainly pays off for users who regularly need very computation-heavy analyses or long, complex reasoning tasks.

Rule of thumb: the cheapest plan isn’t automatically the most economical – anyone who only uses ChatGPT occasionally for short questions rarely needs more than Free or Go, while anyone using it daily for work will hardly get around Plus.

Privacy and data protection: what this means for users in Germany

Where is the data you enter actually processed

OpenAI is a US company, and by default chat conversations are processed on servers in the USA. For most individuals this is unproblematic in everyday use, but it can become legally relevant for sensitive topics – such as customers’ personal data, health data, or confidential business documents. Since February 2025, OpenAI has additionally offered so-called EU data residency with processing on European servers, which was expanded in January 2026 to include local compute capacity in Europe – though so far only for certain contract types such as Enterprise, Education, and selected API customers, not automatically for standard private subscriptions like Plus.

The EU-US Data Privacy Framework in practice

For the standard case of data transfer to the USA, OpenAI relies on the so-called EU-US Data Privacy Framework, an adequacy decision by the European Commission from 2023 that generally provides a legal basis for transferring data to the USA. OpenAI is certified under this framework. For a private individual or small business in Germany, this means in practice: the data transfer itself is formally permitted, but a certain residual risk remains, because the political situation surrounding this agreement has already changed several times in the past, and US authorities can, under certain circumstances, gain access to data held by American companies.

Practical recommendations for individuals and small businesses

For everyday private use, a conscious approach is usually enough: don’t enter unnecessary real names, addresses, or third parties’ account details into the chat, and check in the settings whether chat histories may be used to train further models. Small businesses that want to use ChatGPT for customer contact or with personal data should get at least the Business tier, because only from this level upward is a standard data processing agreement (DPA) with standard contractual clauses available. A practical example: a property manager who has ChatGPT draft responses to tenant inquiries should not enter full names, rental accounts, or deposit details into the chat unless a Business contract is in place. Anyone working in the real estate sector with sensitive customer data who values German hosting from the outset will find Lukinski AI an alternative developed exactly for this use case.

Rule of thumb: not every ChatGPT plan is equal when it comes to data protection – without a Business or Enterprise contract there is no standard data processing agreement, and without one, no third parties’ personal customer data should be processed.

Strengths and weaknesses of OpenAI and ChatGPT

Strengths	Weaknesses
Very broad feature set: text, image, voice, video, and independent task completion in one product	Data processing in the USA by default, EU data residency only for higher contract tiers
Largest user ecosystem, many additional tools and third-party integrations	Pricing structure with many tiers can feel confusing
Very rapid development, regular new model versions	Frequent model changes require occasionally relearning how to use it
Free entry tier available for trying it out	Certain features such as agent mode are partly restricted in the EU

Who is ChatGPT suitable for

ChatGPT suits different groups of users in everyday life and at work.

• Individuals writing and researching
• Freelancers drafting texts and translations
• Small businesses running first analyses
• Anyone who prefers natural language over software

The standard service is less suitable for high requirements around data residency and confidentiality – except with a Business or Enterprise contract.

Frequently asked questions about OpenAI and ChatGPT

Is ChatGPT the same as OpenAI?

No. OpenAI is the company, ChatGPT is its best-known product. OpenAI also offers other services such as image and video generation or the programming interface for developers.

Can I use ChatGPT for free?

Yes, there is a free version with limited features and a restricted number of requests. For regular or more demanding use, a paid subscription is usually worthwhile.

Is my data safe with ChatGPT in Germany?

The transfer of data to the USA is formally covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, though a residual risk remains. For sensitive data, a Business or Enterprise contract with a corresponding data processing agreement is recommended.

Which plan is worthwhile for a small business?

For small businesses with several employees, the Business tier is usually the sensible choice, since it offers shared administration as well as a standard data protection agreement.

Which models power ChatGPT?

Depending on the plan, ChatGPT uses different OpenAI model versions with different speed and reasoning depth. You can find a detailed comparison of the current models on our in-depth page ChatGPT models compared. A comparison with the models of other major AI providers is available on our overview page AI models compared.