OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT, GPT-4o, and the DALL-E image models. Here's what it is, what it makes, and why it matters for businesses.
OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT and the GPT family of AI models. It is the most recognised name in the commercial AI industry, and its products are the most widely used AI tools in businesses globally.
ChatGPT — the consumer-facing AI assistant. Over 200 million weekly active users. Available free (GPT-4o Mini) or paid ($20/month for ChatGPT Plus with GPT-4o access). Teams and Enterprise versions add privacy controls and admin features.
GPT-4o — the current flagship large language model. Processes text, images, and audio natively. Powers ChatGPT and is available via API for developers to integrate into their own products.
o3 / o4 — OpenAI's reasoning models. Designed to think through multi-step problems — mathematics, coding, logic — rather than generating fast responses. Slower and more expensive, but significantly more capable on complex reasoning tasks.
DALL-E 3 — image generation from text prompts. Integrated into ChatGPT Plus and available via API.
Sora — video generation model. Generates realistic short videos from text descriptions. Available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
Whisper — open-source speech-to-text model. Widely used for transcription and voice input in third-party applications.
OpenAI API — developer access to all of the above. Powers thousands of third-party products and custom integrations.
| Model | Best For | Speed | Cost | |-------|----------|-------|------| | GPT-4o | General purpose, multimodal | Fast | Mid | | GPT-4o Mini | High-volume, lower-stakes tasks | Fastest | Lowest | | o3 | Complex reasoning, coding, maths | Slow | High | | o4-mini | Reasoning at lower cost | Moderate | Mid |
OpenAI competes primarily with Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini).
For most businesses, GPT-4o and Claude are the two models worth evaluating first — the rest of the market follows.
For individuals and teams: ChatGPT at chat.openai.com. No coding required.
For developers: The OpenAI API. Requires coding or a no-code platform (like n8n) that has an OpenAI node built in.
For enterprise: ChatGPT Enterprise with admin controls, SSO, and data privacy guarantees.
WhatWill AI builds AI systems using OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers based on what fits each use case. Book a discovery call to find out what the right tools are for your business.
OpenAI is an AI research company founded in 2015. It develops large language models, image generation models, voice models, and AI development tools. Its products include ChatGPT (consumer AI assistant), GPT-4o (the underlying language model), DALL-E (image generation), Sora (video generation), and the OpenAI API (developer access to its models). It is the highest-profile AI company in the world by brand recognition.
OpenAI is a capped-profit company. It began as a non-profit, transitioned to a capped-profit structure in 2019, and has been moving toward a conventional for-profit structure. Microsoft is the largest external investor and has invested over $13 billion. Sam Altman is the CEO.
OpenAI is the company. ChatGPT is its consumer product — a chat interface built on top of OpenAI's GPT models. GPT-4o is the AI model that powers ChatGPT. Similarly, the OpenAI API is how developers access GPT-4o and other models to build their own applications. OpenAI makes the models; ChatGPT is the best-known application built on them.
GPT-4o is OpenAI's flagship language model as of 2026. It processes text, images, and audio — hence 'omni' (the 'o'). It is the model behind ChatGPT Plus and the most widely used model in the OpenAI API. GPT-4o Mini is a smaller, cheaper version for high-volume, lower-stakes tasks. o3 and o4 are OpenAI's reasoning-focused models, optimised for multi-step problem solving.
Businesses use OpenAI via the OpenAI API to embed GPT models into their products and workflows. Common use cases: customer support chatbots, document processing, content generation, code assistance, data extraction, and AI agents. For non-developers, ChatGPT Teams or Enterprise provides a managed interface with privacy controls and team management features.
WhatWill AI builds and runs AI systems for Australian businesses. Book a free 30-minute discovery call — we’ll tell you exactly what’s worth building for your situation.