Under the rewritten OpenAI Microsoft deal, Microsoft stops paying OpenAI a revenue share, and OpenAI keeps paying Microsoft through 2030. That asymmetry is the story, and the headlines about a feud missed it. The deal changes who may sell OpenAI’s models, not what you pay for them, and your invoice won’t move until a second cloud posts a price.
Key points
- What did the OpenAI Microsoft deal change? Four things, per OpenAI’s own page of April 27 .
- Why won’t your invoice move yet? A licence rewrite between two companies doesn’t set a per-token price.
- What should you ask your cloud rep? Put three questions to your account lead, and get the answers by email.
What did the OpenAI Microsoft deal change?
Four things, per OpenAI’s own page of April 27. Microsoft’s licence to OpenAI’s intellectual property is non-exclusive and runs through 2032. OpenAI can serve all its products to customers on any cloud provider, though it says they ship first on Azure unless Microsoft can’t or chooses not to support them. Microsoft no longer pays OpenAI a revenue share.
And OpenAI keeps paying Microsoft a revenue share through 2030 at the same percentage as before, subject to a total cap, with payments independent of OpenAI’s technology progress.
That last phrase matters because of what it replaces. Under earlier terms, as Simon Willison’s account lays out, an AGI declaration, verified by an expert panel, could end Microsoft’s research IP rights. Willison reads the new wording as effectively ending that clause. We interpret it the same way, but OpenAI’s page doesn’t mention AGI at all, so that’s an interpretation.
The percentage and the cap aren’t stated on the page. Nobody outside the two companies has seen the contract.
Who gets paid, and who doesn’t?
Three flows of money show who gains. OpenAI keeps paying Microsoft a revenue share through 2030, up to a cap. Microsoft’s payments to OpenAI stop, which likely leaves it more of what it earns selling OpenAI models on Azure. The third flow is yours: your cloud spend, which is where your bargaining position sits.
OpenAI pays Microsoft through 2030. The share continues at the same percentage up to a cap. The page doesn’t say which revenue it applies to, so we can’t tell you whether a purchase through another cloud still sends a slice to Microsoft. Ask.
Microsoft’s payments to OpenAI stop. That presumably leaves Microsoft with more of what it earns from selling OpenAI’s models on Azure. This is our inference, and it’s a gain for Microsoft, not for you.
Then there’s the flow you control, your spend with your cloud, and it’s where your bargaining position sits. If you already commit a yearly sum to a cloud provider for a discount, the prize is being able to spend part of that commitment on models you’d buy anyway.
Here’s a worked example, and it’s hypothetical. A 150-person firm commits $100,000 a year to one cloud for a volume discount and also pays an AI vendor $30,000 directly. If OpenAI models become available through its cloud and that spend counts against the commitment, the $30,000 could move under the discount rather than sit outside it. If the spend doesn’t count, or the price is higher there, nothing is gained. Only the contract tells you which.
Size the prize before you chase it. Assume the commitment carries a 15% discount, which is our number, not a market rate. Moving the $30,000 under it saves $4,500 a year. That’s worth a phone call and an email, and it isn’t worth a migration. The second-order risk runs the other way. Once the vendors are free to sell everywhere, expect cloud providers to bundle OpenAI access into larger commitments, and a bundle can make a three-year deal look cheaper than it is. Resist multi-year terms until at least one cloud has posted a price you can compare, and keep the commitment you already have as the yardstick.
Why won’t your invoice move yet?
Because a licence rewrite between two companies doesn’t set a per-token price. Prices come from compute costs, competition and each vendor’s own plans, and none of those appears in the published terms. OpenAI’s page announces no price changes, so your invoice stays where it is until a vendor chooses to move it.
For a Microsoft 365 shop, the practical question is seat cost. Our Copilot pricing and setup guide for Canadian teams walks through it.
The background is the Amazon side. TechCrunch reports that in February Amazon agreed to invest up to $50B in OpenAI, with OpenAI co-developing a stateful runtime on AWS Bedrock and giving AWS exclusive rights to serve its Frontier agent tool, which Microsoft publicly disputed. The Financial Times reported in March that Microsoft was weighing legal action, per TechCrunch, and the new terms remove the exclusivity at the heart of that dispute. TechCrunch also quotes Amazon’s Andy Jassy saying OpenAI’s models would reach Bedrock customers “in the coming weeks.” OpenAI’s own page says only that it may serve products on any cloud.
What’s still unknown is the part that matters to you. OpenAI hasn’t said which products land on which clouds or when. A right to sell elsewhere is not a product on a price list, much as a landlord’s permission to sublet isn’t a tenant. The conditions attached to Amazon’s later $35B tranche haven’t been published either, and the Amazon terms rest on press reporting. Everything here describes the position on April 28, 2026.
What should you ask your cloud rep?
Ask your account lead three questions and get the answers by email: whether OpenAI models are available on that cloud today and in which regions, whether spending on them counts toward your existing commitment, and whether the per-token price matches buying from OpenAI directly. Write down any date they promise.
- Ask whether OpenAI models are available on this cloud today, and in which regions.
- Ask whether spend on them counts toward your existing commitment.
- Ask whether the per-token price is the same as buying from OpenAI directly.
If the answer to any is “not yet,” write down the date they gave you. Don’t renegotiate a contract on the strength of a partnership announcement. Add a fourth ask if you’re near renewal, which is how long any quoted price holds. A price that expires in 30 days is a sales tactic, and one that holds for the term is a number you can plan around. The Frontier agent tool at the centre of the dispute is the subject of our piece on OpenAI’s consulting deals for AI agents, and it shows why a promised capability isn’t a delivered one. For examples of headline savings that didn’t survive the invoice, see our Sonnet 4.6 pricing piece and our Cursor Composer 2 pricing piece. Once a second cloud lists a price, run the small trial in our GPT-5.4 computer use test before moving any workload.
Some will say we’re underselling this. Exclusivity ending is a big shift in a market where one cloud had a privileged route to the leading models, and more sellers usually mean lower prices. That’s a reasonable expectation, and competition between clouds could produce discounts over time. Where we differ is on timing and evidence. Nothing published shows lower prices, wider availability or a changed committed-spend treatment. If the lower prices come, expect them as a line on a cloud price list, not a press release. A second cloud listing OpenAI models with prices would change our view at once, and so would filings that disclose the share and the cap.
Until then, a buyer who acts on the headline is paying for a rumour.
Frequently asked questions
What is in the new OpenAI Microsoft deal?
Microsoft’s licence to OpenAI’s models runs through 2032 and is non-exclusive. OpenAI can serve products on any cloud, and it keeps paying Microsoft a capped revenue share through 2030.
Will the OpenAI Microsoft deal lower my AI costs?
Nothing published says so. The terms don’t set customer prices, so any saving depends on whether other clouds offer OpenAI models at lower prices.
What should I ask my cloud provider after this deal?
Ask whether OpenAI models are available on your cloud now, whether that spend counts toward your commitment, and whether the price matches buying direct.
Archive entry dated April 28, 2026, written and fact-checked on October 8, 2026. Sources are linked on the claims they support.
