The OpenAI smart speaker price is expected to land somewhere between $300 and $400, according to a Bloomberg report published on 6 August 2026, marking the clearest picture yet of a device OpenAI hopes will weave ChatGPT into the fabric of everyday domestic life.
The product is donut-shaped, roughly the size of a hockey puck, and built from high-quality metal with what Bloomberg describes as a premium finish. The form factor is designed for portability within the home: users would carry it from room to room, setting it down on a bedside table, a kitchen counter, or wherever they happen to need a conversational AI on hand. It also has moving parts, which, Ars Technica reports, are intended to make the device seem ‘more alive.’
Bloomberg has also reported that OpenAI has ‘discussed’ charging up to $400, and that the company views the device not merely as a smart speaker but as a potential smartphone replacement, an ambition that helps explain the premium positioning.
OpenAI Smart Speaker Price vs the Competition
The pricing puts OpenAI in sharp contrast with the existing smart speaker market. Amazon’s Echo range spans roughly $40 to $240, depending on the model. An AI speaker at $300 to $400 is a fundamentally different commercial proposition, one that bets on consumers’ willingness to pay for dedicated hardware to access chatbot features, many of which, Ars Technica notes, also carry a subscription fee on top of the upfront cost.
Smart speakers have historically been a difficult category in which to make money. Amazon has sold its Echo devices at or near cost for years, relying on ecosystem lock-in and downstream commerce rather than hardware margins. OpenAI is entering that market from the opposite direction: charging more upfront and banking on the premium feel of the device, alongside the sophistication of its underlying AI, to justify the price.
The Mashable report notes the Wall Street Journal had previously described the device as something users could carry in a pocket, consistent with the hockey-puck scale Bloomberg has now confirmed.
Jony Ive, LoveFrom, and the Design Behind the Device
The hardware is being developed in partnership with LoveFrom, the design studio led by Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief best known for the iPhone and iMac. Ive is not formally an OpenAI employee, but Fortune has reported that he is spearheading the hardware project and working closely with OpenAI’s hardware team, which is now composed of full-time OpenAI staff. LoveFrom is providing design services and setting the aesthetic for what OpenAI has called a ‘family of devices.’
OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, said in January 2026 that the company was ‘on track’ to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026, Axios reported. The current Bloomberg reporting points to a release at some point in 2027, suggesting the timeline has slipped.
The Apple Lawsuit Hanging Over the Project
The hardware push is complicated by a trade secrets lawsuit filed by Apple on 10 July 2026 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The 41-page civil complaint, case number 5:26-cv-07078, names two individual defendants alongside OpenAI: Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple, and Tang Yew Tan, a former Apple vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, according to Al Jazeera.
CNBC reported that Apple’s complaint alleges Tan ‘directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring actual parts from Apple to their interviews for show and tell sessions’ so that his team could elicit Apple confidential information. The complaint further alleges that ‘at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information.’
Court records show that OpenAI and co-defendants filed an administrative motion, including a sealed motion to dismiss, on 5 August 2026.
OpenAI has denied wrongdoing. Its public response, described by Raconteur, published emails and iMessage exchanges it says contradict Apple’s account, calling the lawsuit ‘careless, aggressive and oddly personal.’ OpenAI also noted that Tan spent more than 24 years at Apple before co-founding io Products with Ive, and that Tan had always been clear his team ‘must not use any confidential information from other companies.’
The motion to dismiss is the next procedural moment to watch. If the court denies it, OpenAI faces full discovery on Apple’s claims at precisely the moment it is trying to launch a piece of premium hardware built around some of the same personnel Apple says took its secrets.
