OpenAI launched ChatGPT’s paid plan in February 2023, and since then it's had various improvements – across both desktop and mobile! With no wait list, and new beta features frequently added through priority access to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, the reasons to upgrade keep on mounting. So what is ChatGPT Plus? And, what are the features and benefits of a ChatGPT subscription?

✓

Quick Answer

ChatGPT Plus is a paid tier of ChatGPT that utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. To subscribe to ChatGPT Plus users must pay $20 per month and in return receive additonal features like faster response times and priority acces to updates.

What is ChatGPT Plus?

In February 2023, the AI company launched a subscription service for those looking to get exclusive benefits when using OpenAI’s large language model. Considering the AI model has always experienced server problems – with the notification “ChatGPT at Capacity” – the news of a new Chat GPT paid plan was no surprise.

As explained by internal help guides writer Natalie, “ChatGPT Plus is a subscription plan for ChatGPT. It offers availability even when demand is high, faster response speed, and priority access to new features.”

For $20 a month, subscribers receive priority access to ChatGPT even during busy times, faster response times, and special priority access to the latest features and improvements such as GTP-4 and GPT-4V. One of these latest updates includes a new ‘custom instruction’ feature that creates a personalized experience with ChatGPT by setting persistent custom instructions for all future conversations with the chatbot. To achieve the same thing before this update, users would have to repeat the instructions in each and every prompt, which is more than just tedious – it also affects the output. Not ideal.

Due to its popularity, it’s become increasingly challenging to access ChatGPT lately. Many avid users have even been looking for alternatives after being completely blocked from the site due to high traffic. So, if you are a frequent user of ChatGPT, this subscription service may be an attractive purchase for you. Here’s everything you need to know about ChatGPT Plus.

ChatGPT Plus features and benefits

Following the popularity rise of ChatGPT, availability is limited at peak times. OpenAI has made sure to curate a subscription package that has many attractive benefits, offering you a lot more features than just simple prompts.

ChatGPT access without limits

Arguably one of the biggest benefits of ChatGPT Plus is the access to ChatGPT without limits. However, not without payment information. Guaranteed general access to the AI chatbot is a benefit for ChatGPT Plus users, even at peak times. Subscribers will enjoy faster response times than with the free version of ChatGPT. Essentially, paying for a subscription means you will be able to bypass any ‘server at capacity’ errors and jump straight into the software.

All Tools update — Browse with Bing, Advanced Data Analysis, Plugins, and DALL·E 3

Subscribers will get priority access to the latest updates and new features, including GPT-4, GPT-4V, Browse with Bing, Advanced Data Analysis, Plugins, and DALL·E 3. The implementation of the GTP-4 model means that answers will be more accurate due to its advanced processing. It also means that for Plus subscribers, ChatGPT is able to ‘read’ and analyze images as well as documents. Thanks to the integration of DALL·E 3, ChatGPT can also output images!

The GPT-4 foundation model, GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4V

The latest LLM from OpenAI is GPT-4. This AI model is exclusive to paid customers with a ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Enterprise subscription. A premium subscription also allows access to GPT-4V which you can access by turning on GPT-4 and submitting a prompt that involves an image input. Behind the scenes, ChatGPT will adapt to use GPT-4V rather than GPT-4 when necessary. The natural language processing capabilities of both are identical, so the VLM (Visual Language Model) version will not make any difference to text-based tasks. However, the VLM version does enable visual cognition, which is useful for tasks such as:

• Visual Question Answering (VQA): The capability of an AI system to respond intelligently to a visual input. This means cognition of the content and or context of the image through image recognition, not simply responding to the presence or metadata of an image, which can be done without image recognition. A visual input can be an image or a video in theory. However, ChatGPT doesn't accept video inputs yet.
• Multimodal Machine Translation (MMT): Generative summation of multiple data sources of different modalities. Artificial intelligence can take both a textual statement about an image, as well as the image in question, and output a new statement that takes both inputs into account. The translation refers to that of different modalities of media (i.e. text, image, audio, and video) as opposed to human language translation. However, modern AI systems can also do this in the same breath.
• Natural Language for Visual Reasoning (NLVR): NLVR pairs natural language processing (NLP) with text-image pairs to determine the accuracy of a statement about an image. Conceptually similar to fact-checking, but of course facts relating to current events will require internet access (possible with ChatGPT).

Web Browsing beta

As well as faster responses, ChatGPT answers for ChatGPT Plus will become even more complex as the chatbot can now browse Google on the internet with the Web Browsing beta. It is described on the ChatGPT website as “an experimental model that knows how and when to browse the internet”. Subscribing will allow users to feel the benefit of ChatGPT being able to browse the internet as the amount of content it can discuss expands.

How to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus

Here’s how to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus in a few short steps.

Step

1

Sign in or create an account

Create or sign in to your OpenAI account using your email, Google, or Microsoft account.

Step

2

‘Upgrade to Plus’

Open ChatGPT, and select the ‘Upgrade to Plus’ button located on the bottom left-hand corner of the page. This will open the ‘Upgrade Plan’ page.

Step

3

Enter payment details

Click ‘Upgrade Plan’ enter your payment details, and get right into enjoying ChatGPT Plus.

You can use ChatGPT Plus both on the ChatGPT website and more recently, the iOS app. ChatGPT Plus users will be quickly empowered with the versatility of ChatGPT at their fingertips at all times.

Essential AI Tools

Does ChatGPT Plus have a refund policy?

Yes, ChatGPT Plus does have a refund policy. Specifically, if you live in the EU, UK, or Turkey, then you're eligible for a refund if you cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase.

How to refund and cancel ChatGPT plus

To apply for a refund on your ChatGPT subscription, contact the OpenAI Help Center here. From there, click on the widget (bottom right)> Search for help>Billing>I need a refund. Or, if you would like to cancel your subscription follow the steps below.

Step

1

Login

Log into your ChatGPT account

Step

2

Click ‘My plan’

Click on your profile icon at the bottom of the left sidebar. Then click on the ‘My plan’ option that pops up.

Step

3

Click ‘Manage my subscription’

In the pop-up, choose the ‘Manage my subscription’ option in the bottom left.

Step

4

Select ‘Cancel Plan’

On the checkout page, select ‘Cancel Plan’.

Where is ChatGPT Plus available?

ChatGPT Plus is now accessible to users worldwide. Some territories are notably excluded due to government restrictions on internet access, or explicit censorship of AI, including but not limited to North Korea.

Final thoughts

ChatGPT has been a hot topic since its release as a research preview, and it is no surprise that OpenAI has released a paid version of the model. The capabilities of this artificial intelligence only continue to grow, and ChatGPT Plus subscribers will be able to be ahead of the crowd when it comes to their early access to new features and updates, such as custom instructions.

If you’re considering investing in ChatGPT Plus, you can have a look at ‘Is ChatGPT Plus worth it’? For more information about how much OpenAI’s payment plans cost and how to access them.