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ChatGPT price varies depending on which of the three tiers you choose – the free plan, ChatGPT Plus, or ChatGPT Enterprise. As a result, queries such as “How much is GPT-4?” have been persistent since OpenAI’s AI chatbot was released in November 2022. With multiple tiers to choose from, we explain what the free version and paid plans are, and how much ChatGPT costs.
How much does ChatGPT cost? – ChatGPT pricing tiers
OpenAI takes a tiered approach to pricing. All users will have access to a free version of ChatGPT. This is accessible via the official OpenAI website on desktop and mobile browsers, or the mobile apps for iOS and Android. There are also two paid tiers called ChatGPT Plus, and ChatGPT Enterprise – but what’s the difference, and how much is it?
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ChatGPT’s free version
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is free to use, and anyone can do so. This free version does come with some drawbacks for now.
While the company works to stabilize compute requirements with daily fluctuations of users, there will be outages. Even if there isn’t an outage, users have reported that response times from ChatGPT can sometimes be slow – presumably if it is dealing with a large number of requests. One of the key differences between the free version and the paid versions is that the latter entitles users to priority processing speeds and GPU resources. In other words, paid users get faster responses.
Unfortunately, not everyone has free access to this machine learning model. Several countries, including China, Russia, and Cuba, have implemented bans on the AI chatbot.
In these cases, you might consider a ChatGPT alternative like Beta Character AI. Even in countries where ChatGPT is not banned ChatGPT can go down. Here’s how to make your own AI chatbot Character, and why you might prefer it compared to ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Plus price
ChatGPT’s paid subscription “ChatGPT Plus” costs $20 per month. It is now available in almost all global territories (see above) and includes the following benefits:
- General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
- Faster response times
- Priority access to new features and improvements
Zhahid Khawaja, a developer, initially sparked rumours about the paid plan when he tweeted video of his own access to the plan on January 21st, 2023. On February 1st, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Plus, dispelling the rumours.
Explained in further detail on the AI chatbot page, a ChatGPT Plus subscription plan enables:
Availability even during peak times
This avoids the notice seen by users attempting access during times of heavy load: “ChatGPT is at capacity right now. Get notified when we’re back”. This is proof of popularity for ChatGPT, which struggles with success at peak times.
Constant access, even at peak times when active users are higher, is great for those who are trying to hit a deadline and need to use the AI chatbot.
Faster response speed
Another benefit to be expected when paying for access to OpenAI’s chat model. Faster response time for queries and prompts to ChatGPT allows for more productive in use.
Access to the GPT-4 model
OpenAI has since updated its AI model to the next generation called GPT-4. With this new update, you will now have access to their image-to-text model. This opens up new capabilities to users such as recipe suggestions, image descriptions and more accurate responses. GPT-4 is also objectively more powerful than GPT-3.5, and provides more accurate and relevant answers.
ChatGPT plugins price
ChatGPT plugins are free of charge. You can download unlimited plugins, install them, and use them without paying for the plugin itself. However, free users don’t have access to ChatGPT’s third-party plugins. These add-ons grant extremely useful integrations into a suite of popular software’s. You can now access data and features from third-party suppliers like Expedia, OpenTable and more. All of these software’s and more can be operated by artificial intelligence. This makes ChatGPT more useful and powerful than the free version.
The software’s you can integrate with ChatGPT are not necessarily free of charge.
Early access to new features
We have already seen evidence of this. With ChatGPT Plus, users have priority access to new features developed by OpenAI’s engineers. In the past, this has included access to newer versions of ChatGPT and exclusive features such as third-party plugins.
ChatGPT Enterprise price
ChatGPT Enterprise costs a scalable amount based on how many employees you’re paying for. The price per head is not revealed upfront, and instead inquiries must go through a human sales representative. This is different from the self-serve upgrade option of ChatGPT Plus.
Your ChatGPT Enterprise price will vary based on your number of employees. OpenAI caters this tier for company sizes of 1-50, 51-150, 151-1,000, 1,001-10,000 and lastly 10,000+ (the largest companies in the world).
As a result of upgrading your business to ChatGPT Enterprise, you will enjoy “enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, customization options”, with additional features to be announced later this year.
How much is GPT 4?
Access to GPT-4 is free, via OpenAI’s Chat GPT or Microsoft’s Bing Chat. There is a caveat, however. The former uses GPT 3.5 unless you upgrade to Chat GPT Plus, whereas the latter uses GPT 4 by default.
People asking this question usually mean “How much is Chat GPT?” instead. GPT 4 is an LLM (Large Language Model), and you won’t actually be using the AI model directly. Other examples of LLM are Microsoft’s Bing Chat and Google Bard. Chat GPT is a free web service (with a paid subscription available) that uses GPT 4 to power its AI-generated responses. Chat GPT and GPT 4 are different things.
How much does GPT 4 cost?
GPT 4 costs $20/month via Chat GPT Plus, but is free when using Bing Chat.
Again, this is not the right question to ask, because you’re not using GPT 4, you’re using an AI chat bot called ChatGPT. It is ChatGPT that comes with the cost (should you choose to upgrade).
How much is Chat GPT 4? – Chat GPT price
Another misunderstanding, Chat GPT 4 does not exist. Chat GPT and GPT 4 are different things.
How much is ChatGPT Pro? – Chat GPT price
ChatGPT Pro doesn’t exist. There is no subscription tier with that name. Twitter user Zahid Khawaja sparked a rumour about the name before the official name reveal of ChatGPT’s first paid tier. You may be looking for ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20/month.
ChatGPT Price – Final thoughts
With GPT3.5, ChatGPT is free. ChatGPT with GPT-4 is $20/month. Whether the upgrade in power and service provisions is worth it is up to you.
The paid plan came as no surprise. Referring to a purported six-to-seven figure daily run rate, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted on December 5th:
“We will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering”
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman
That’s proven to be true as the professional and plus plans roll out. It’s also not impossible that further pricing adjustments might occur in the future, given the success of ChatGPT Plus.
The paid version of ChatGPT undoubtedly provides fans with more advanced capabilities. Making it worth the upgrade for regular users.
Will OpenAI add new payment options to ChatGPT?
Looking towards the future, OpenAI says it “plan[s] to refine and expand this offering based on your feedback and needs. We’ll also soon be launching the ChatGPT API waitlist, and we are actively exploring options for lower-cost plans, business plans, and data packs for more availability.”
These “lower-cost” plans are unnamed and unreleased.
As popular and innovative as ChatGPT is, price is always a consideration, and, with the growing number of ChatGPT alternatives, OpenAI needs to balance costs and availability with discoverability and access for those keen to test. User feedback will also be crucial in ensuring that new versions of the ai chatbot are actually worth it for a variety of use cases, especially with the competition ramping up as of late. We’ll keep an eye on the ChatGPT price going forward, and a lot of other interesting areas being opened up in the AI-powered space.
Is the ChatGPT app free?
Yes, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app is free. OpenAI released the official ChatGPT iOS app on Thursday May 18th, 2023. This was followed by the ChatGPT Android app on Wednesday July 26th, 2023. While both of these options are free to download, their respective app stores will cite $20 in-app purchases. This the cost of a ChatGPT Plus subscription, should you choose to upgrade. This account upgrade will apply across all app-based and web browser instances of the service.
Looking for more information about ChatGPT? Then, head over to Is ChatGPT plagiarism free. Or what about, the best free AI essay writer tools?