# OpenAI Small Business Report: 4M Users, 2/3 Agentic > OpenAI's Sept 30, 2026 small-business report: 4M small-firm users in a week, two-thirds of output agentic, and the SBDC training partnership. - Author: Nitish Garg, Founder & CEO, CellCog - Published: 2026-09-30 - Canonical (HTML): https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-small-business-report/ - Section: Guides / Choosing a platform - Publisher: CellCog (https://cellcog.ai), the AI employee platform. Blog index for agents: https://cellcog.ai/blog/llms.txt ## Key points - On September 30, 2026, OpenAI announced a partnership with America's SBDC and published a report, Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities, on how small firms use its tools. - The report counts around 4 million employees at firms of 1 to 499 people using OpenAI's tools in one week, September 9 to 15; nearly one in five work at firms with fewer than 10 employees. - In August, agentic output tokens from products like ChatGPT Work and Codex made up two-thirds of small-business output tokens, up from one-third in April. - Small-business users lean on agents for finance and accounting (3.7x the share of larger-business users), supply chain (3.7x), legal and compliance (3.6x) and marketing (3.1x). - The partnership starts small: around 150 SBDC advisors trained, workshops across SBDC networks, and a goal of reaching at least 1,000 small businesses in person. - Every usage figure is OpenAI's internal analysis of its own users; the report publishes no method for the measured cohort. ## At a glance - **What did OpenAI announce for small businesses?** A training partnership with America's SBDC and a report on small-business AI use, both on September 30, 2026. - **What is the headline number?** Two-thirds of small-business output tokens were agentic in August, double the April share. - **What is the one caveat to carry?** All usage data is OpenAI's own, from its own customers, with no published method. **OpenAI says small businesses have moved from chatting with AI to handing it work.** In a report published September 30, 2026, Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities, it finds that agentic output tokens from products like ChatGPT Work and Codex "made up two-thirds of all small-business output tokens, up from just one-third in April 2026." The same day it announced a training partnership with America's SBDC, the national network of small business development centers. This page is read from OpenAI's [announcement](https://openai.com/index/helping-small-businesses-put-ai-to-work) and the [report itself](https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/66991d3b-5dac-48b5-aa3d-f40ccc5d6d0f/small-businesses-bigger-capabilities-september-2026.pdf), an 11-page PDF. A disclosure first: we build AI employees for small businesses, so this report describes the market we sell into. ## The numbers, as OpenAI reports them *Table: OpenAI small-business report, September 30, 2026: the headline figures* | Figure | What the report says | |---|---| | Around 4 million | Employees at firms of 1 to 499 people who used OpenAI's tools, September 9 to 15 | | Nearly 1 in 5 | Of those users, the share at firms with fewer than 10 employees | | Two-thirds | Agentic share of small-business output tokens in August, up from one-third in April | | More than 900% | Growth in ChatGPT Work weekly active users in the measured cohort, July 15 to September 15 | | Nearly 300% | Growth in Codex weekly active users in the seven months after its desktop app launched in February | Two growth details cut against the obvious reading. ChatGPT Work grew fastest among firms with 100 to 499 employees, at more than 1,000% over two months. Codex grew fastest at the smallest firms, 1 to 9 employees, at more than 300% over seven months. ## What small teams hand to agents The report compares small-business users with other users on OpenAI's Business, Team and Enterprise plans, measured as a share of analyzed interactions with agents. *Table: Share of agent interactions, small-business vs larger-business work users (OpenAI internal analysis)* | Work area | Small vs larger, ratio | |---|---| | Finance and accounting | 3.7x | | Supply chain | 3.7x | | Legal, compliance and risk | 3.6x | | Marketing and growth | 3.1x | OpenAI's reading is that these "are areas where a small team may need help without having a dedicated specialist on staff." Inside the small-business group the tilt is steeper at the bottom: at firms with 1 to 9 employees, marketing and growth took 2.8 times the share it did at firms with 100 to 499, and customer service 3.3 times. ## The SBDC partnership The pilot is small next to the usage numbers. Through OpenAI Academy's Community Trainer Program, OpenAI plans to train around 150 SBDC advisors, run at least one three-hour workshop at each participating network, and reach "at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training." Advisors follow up with owners after the workshops, and the two organizations will write practical guides, with topics such as marketing, operations, manufacturing, exporting and government contracting under consideration. It builds on the Small Business AI Jams OpenAI ran with DoorDash and SCORE last November, and on its ChatGPT for small business program from July 2026. ## What the report does not tell you - **Whose data it is.** Every usage figure is OpenAI's internal analysis of its own users. The report does not describe how the "measured cohort" was drawn or how firm size was assigned. - **People, not businesses.** Four million is a count of employees in one week. The report gives no count of small businesses, paying or otherwise. - **Interactions, not outcomes.** The 3.7x ratios compare shares of agent interactions. They say what owners ask agents to do, not whether the work was done well. - **The outcome numbers are self-reported.** The report cites the Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, in which 71% of AI-using small firms reported higher productivity and 31% of AI-using employer firms reported higher sales. Those are survey answers, not measurements. ## What this means if you run a small business The report's own phrase is that projects which "might otherwise wait for more time, money, or staff become possible with the team you already have." The work it names, bookkeeping, supply chain, compliance and marketing, is exactly the work a small team does last because nobody owns it. That is the useful question to take from the data: an agent helps when someone drives it, and the owner of a five-person shop usually has no one spare to drive it. The difference between a tool and an AI employee is who carries the task from one day to the next. ## What we are watching for - The guides America's SBDC and OpenAI said they would write, and which industries they start with. - Whether OpenAI publishes a method for the measured cohort. - A next edition of the report, and whether the agentic share keeps climbing past two-thirds. ## Update log - September 30, 2026: page opened, from OpenAI's announcement and report of the same day. ## Sources - OpenAI, [Helping small businesses put AI to work](https://openai.com/index/helping-small-businesses-put-ai-to-work), September 30, 2026. - OpenAI, [Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities](https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/66991d3b-5dac-48b5-aa3d-f40ccc5d6d0f/small-businesses-bigger-capabilities-september-2026.pdf), September 2026 (PDF). - [America's SBDC](https://americassbdc.org/). ## FAQ **What is America's SBDC?** The national network of Small Business Development Centers, which OpenAI says serves 1 million entrepreneurs each year. Its advisors will train through OpenAI Academy's Community Trainer Program and run hands-on workshops. **How many small businesses use OpenAI?** The report counts people, not companies: around 4 million employees at firms with 1 to 499 employees used OpenAI's tools between September 9 and 15, 2026. It gives no count of businesses. **What does 'agentic output tokens' mean here?** The share of generated tokens that came from agent products like ChatGPT Work and Codex rather than plain chat. OpenAI puts it at two-thirds of small-business output in August, up from one-third in April 2026. **What work do small businesses hand to AI agents?** Finance and accounting, supply chain, legal and compliance, and marketing each take at least three times the share of agent interactions for small-business users that they do for larger-business users, per OpenAI's analysis. **How reliable are these numbers?** They are OpenAI's internal analysis of its own users. The ratios measure shares of interactions, not outcomes, and the report does not publish how its measured cohort was drawn. The productivity and sales figures come from the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey and are self-reported. **Where does CellCog fit?** We build AI employees, and small businesses are who we build for, so this report describes our market. An AI employee owns a role across sessions, with its own inbox, task board and memory, rather than a seat one person drives. ## Related - [Muse for Small Business: What Meta Launched](https://cellcog.ai/blog/muse-for-small-business/index.md) - [Best AI Virtual Assistants for Small Business: 9 Ranked](https://cellcog.ai/blog/best-ai-virtual-assistants/index.md) - [OpenAI Dots: What They Are and How They Compare](https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-dots/index.md) - [What Is an AI Employee? The 5-Part Test for a Standing AI Worker](https://cellcog.ai/blog/what-is-an-ai-employee/index.md) ## The AI employee for this read [AI Virtual Assistant](https://cellcog.ai/ai-employees/ai-virtual-assistant): I built this page. For what it covers, the employee to hire is a personal assistant: lists, follow-ups and errands, with a person who approves the rest. --- Markdown alternate of https://cellcog.ai/blog/openai-small-business-report/. Try CellCog free, no credit card needed: https://cellcog.ai/signup