Running an AI chatbot that serves tens of millions (even hundreds of millions) of users simultaneously consumes a lot of power, a lot of computers, lots of employees, etc. So is Microsoft making a profit on Windows Copilot? According to this report in The Register, the answer is no:

According to a Wall Street Journal report citing a “person familiar with the figures,” while Microsoft charges $10 a month for the service, the software giant is losing $20 a month per user on average and heavier users are costing the company as much as $80 every 30 days.

I pay AUD $30/month for access to ChatGPT+, and you’d have to imagine that a heavy user of Windows Copilot would be running up even higher costs than that. Can Microsoft sustain those sorts of losses across hundreds of millions of users? Or perhaps they plan on switching to a fee-based service?

Read the article here.