What Is OpenAI? Company, Products, and Model Training Explained

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research and deployment company best known for ChatGPT and the GPT family of models. Its stated mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. The organization develops models, consumer products, business services, and a developer platform rather than operating only as a research laboratory.

How OpenAI is structured

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit. It created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 to raise the capital required for large-scale model development. Under the structure announced in October 2025, the nonprofit is called the OpenAI Foundation, while the for-profit business is a public benefit corporation named OpenAI Group PBC.

The Foundation controls the Group through governance and voting rights. This is more precise than describing OpenAI simply as either a nonprofit or a conventional for-profit company. OpenAI explains the current arrangement on its organization structure page.

What OpenAI makes

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the conversational product through which people can use OpenAI models and tools. Depending on the plan and region, its capabilities can include text and image input, web research, file analysis, image creation, voice, data analysis, and task-focused agents. Features and model availability change frequently, so the product's current model picker is more reliable than an old list of version names.

GPT and reasoning models

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. OpenAI's early public model milestones included GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, followed by multimodal and reasoning-focused generations. “Multimodal” means a model can work with more than one type of input or output, such as text and images; it does not mean that every model supports every media type.

Developer platform

The OpenAI API lets developers integrate supported text, image, audio, reasoning, and agent capabilities into their own applications. API access is separate from a ChatGPT subscription and has its own pricing, rate limits, data controls, and documentation.

Codex and creative tools

Codex is OpenAI's software-engineering agent and is available through surfaces such as command-line, IDE, app, and cloud workflows. OpenAI has also developed image-generation systems, including the earlier DALL·E models and newer ChatGPT image models.

Sora was introduced as a video-generation model and product, but OpenAI's official pages now state that the standalone Sora product became unavailable on April 26, 2026. Articles that present Sora or Sora 2 as a current service should therefore be checked before readers rely on them.

How OpenAI says its foundation models are developed

OpenAI says the data used to develop its models comes from three broad sources:

• information publicly available on the internet;
• data accessed through partnerships or licensed from third parties; and
• information provided or generated by users, human trainers, and researchers.

Training teaches a model statistical patterns that support capabilities such as prediction, reasoning, and language generation. It is different from searching a database for a stored page and does not make a model an authoritative source. A model can return outdated, incomplete, or fabricated information even when its wording sounds confident.

OpenAI does not publish a complete item-by-item list of all training material. Its model development overview explains the categories and measures it uses to reduce personal information in training.

Does OpenAI train on user content?

The answer depends on the service and account settings. OpenAI states that content from consumer services such as individual ChatGPT accounts may be used to improve models unless the user changes the applicable data control or uses a mode excluded from training.

By default, data from the API and from listed business, enterprise, healthcare, education, and teacher offerings is not used to train models unless the customer explicitly opts in. Retention and abuse-monitoring rules are separate from model training, so “not used for training” does not necessarily mean “never stored.” Review the current privacy terms for the exact service before submitting sensitive information.

What “OpenAI” does—and does not—mean

The company's name reflects its origins, but it does not mean that every model, dataset, or production system is open source. OpenAI publishes research, safety reports, documentation, and some open-weight resources while keeping other model weights, training details, and product code proprietary. Debate about whether this balance matches the organization's original ideals is a matter of governance and policy, not a technical definition readers should infer from the name alone.

What to keep in mind when using OpenAI products

• Verify important output: Models can make factual and reasoning errors, invent citations, or miss recent changes.
• Protect confidential data: Match the account type and data controls to the sensitivity of the material.
• Review generated code and media: Check security, licensing, accuracy, and policy requirements before publishing or deploying it.
• Check current documentation: Model names, feature access, limits, and product availability change more quickly than general company information.

OpenAI describes itself and its mission on the official About page. That first-party description is the best starting point for company facts, while independent reporting remains useful for evaluating OpenAI's decisions and their wider effects.