Character AI vs OpenAI
Side-by-side equity comparison for employees weighing offers at Character AI or OpenAI. Valuations, funding history, headcount growth, and secondary-market context.
| Character AI | OpenAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest valuation | $1B | $852B |
| Latest round | Series A | Series E |
| Round date | November 2023 | October 2024 |
| Total raised | $193M | $13.3B |
| Founded | 2021 | 2015 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Employees | 257 | 7,829 |
| Employee YoY growth | +5% | +71% |
| Primary industry | Artificial Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence |
| Secondary-market price | — | $664.96 |
| Base-case equity multiple | — | — |
| Upside equity multiple | — | — |
| Lead investors | Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel | Thrive Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Status | private | private |
Overview
Character.AI lets users create and chat with AI-generated characters featuring distinct personalities, enabling conversational entertainment, roleplay, and creative collaboration through personalized large language models.
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company that develops general-purpose AI systems including GPT large language models and the ChatGPT consumer product.
Why we compare these
Character AI and OpenAI both appear on AI foundation model labs .
If you're evaluating offers at either one, the equity math depends on more than the headline valuation — dilution, strike price, time to liquidity, and concentration risk all matter. Use our equity compensation calculator and exit calculator to model your own numbers.