Print desk·2026-08-29·.md
OpenAI sells a habit. Anthropic sells a pipe.
Same lab shape. Different book. One is tokens plus ChatGPT. The other is mostly API into someone else's product.
OpenAI's mix is split — API, ChatGPT, enterprise. Anthropic is 70% API. If you sit on the model, the customer is not the same person.
The mix
Hover a slice
- API usage45%70%
- ChatGPT35%—
- Enterprise / reserved15%—
- Other5%5%
- Claude seats—25%
- OpenAIAnthropic
API usage first. ChatGPT subscriptions second. Enterprise seats on top of both.
Pays: Developers on the API. Consumers on ChatGPT. Enterprises on reserved capacity.
Builds: Research and applied engineering. The product is the model and the surface on it.
Mostly API. Claude seats sit on top. Less consumer habit than OpenAI.
Pays: Labs and enterprises calling Claude. Teams on Claude.ai.
Builds: Research, alignment, and the API surface. Fewer consumer PM seats than a chat app.
The seat
An applied engineer who wants the consumer surface should clear OpenAI before treating Anthropic as the same seat. Anthropic is the builder-customer lab: the API is the product, Claude seats sit on top. OpenAI has a habit business (ChatGPT) that an Anthropic IC will not ship. Do not interview both as interchangeable 'frontier lab' jobs. Name whether you want to bill tokens into other products or keep a consumer sitting on the model.