What is ChatGPT Plus? Everything we know so far
Thanks to its popularity, the ChatGPT AI text generator has often been at “full capacity” lately, which means frustrating expectations.
To address the issue, ChatGPT has officially announced a subscription model for those who need faster speeds, reliable access, and priority for new features. ChatGPT Plus has been rumored for months, but some of the details surrounding it have finally been made official.
What is ChatGPT Plus?
Details about ChatGPT Plus had been emerging from insiders for weeks, but official news finally broke on February 1 via a blog post from OpenAI, the company behind the popular generative text-based AI.
“We launched ChatGPT as a research preview so we can learn more about the system’s strengths and weaknesses, and gather user feedback to help us improve its limitations,” the blog post says. “Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we’ve made several significant updates, and we’ve seen users find value in a range of business use cases, including writing and editing. content editing, brainstorming ideas, programming assistance and learning new topics.”
Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) has become an AI (and investing) darling. It is a complex and highly accurate machine learning assistant capable of performing natural language “chats”. The latest iteration of its creator, OpenAI (co-founded by Elon Musk), was trained on massive amounts of data gleaned from the internet before 2022.
But as people started hitting “full capacity” notices when trying to access it, it became clear that OpenAI needed a solution for those who would be willing to pay for it. .
How much does it cost?
According to the blog post, ChatGPT Plus will cost $20 per month. This is despite rumors that it would cost significantly more. Of course, the free version of ChatGPT remains in place, so paying will no longer be mandatory to use the service in the future.
What does ChatGPT Plus include?
According to the blog post, ChatGPT Plus will provide three specific features:
General access to ChatGPT, even during peak hours Faster response times Priority access to new features and improvements
Having access to ChatGPT during peak hours is obviously the main benefit of paying for ChatGPT Plus. With some people having to wait hours to get in, that alone should ensure the popularity of the subscription model. The idea of having first access to new features and improvements is also interesting, although what those new features will be remains a mystery.
We know that ChatGPT-4, which claims to be a massive improvement over the previous generation, is supposed to launch in 2023. It’s possible that OpenAI could reserve the improved language model for paying users only.
Why does OpenAI want you to pay?
ChatGPT has high running costs – for hosting, maintenance, hardware upgrades, updates, satisfying its investor, etc. – while its own popularity led to an immediate need to improve its accessibility and speed for a larger user base. Some estimates put daily running costs at $100,000, or as much as $3 million per month! The premium subscription should help cover server upgrades.
It’s safe to assume that a premium tier will allow OpenAI to control bandwidth issues, especially during peak hours of the day.
Can I subscribe to ChatGPT Plus now?
No not yet. Currently, ChatGPT Plus is in the early access stage, which means it’s invite-only to a select group of users on its waiting list.
The fact that we’ve received an official announcement could mean that ChatGPT Plus will soon be widely available, but OpenAI hasn’t provided a timeline for when that will happen.
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