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OpenAI on Wednesday launched a new pilot subscription program for ChatGPT labelled ChatGPT Plus. The subscription is available for $20 per month and is only available in the United States at the time of writing. It includes the following benefits:
- Access to ChatGPT, even during peak hours.
- Faster response times.
- Early access to new features and improvements.
Despite only launching to the public only a couple of months ago, the AI chatbot has amassed a user base in the millions. With the new subscription, users will have general access to the chatbot, something free users aren’t given, especially during peak hours.
The company has stated that support for more countries and regions will be added soon. In the meantime, it’ll be inviting people to join the subscription from its waitlist. For those who don’t want to pay, ChatGPT will still remain accessible for free.
Additionally, we might even see more tiers as the company continues looking for “lower-cost plans, business plans, and data packs for more availability”. The waitlist for the ChatGPT API will also be launching ‘soon’.
OpenAI’s AI-based chatbot has quickly become an internet phenomenon since its launch. The presence of a paid tier isn’t necessarily bad news for free customers either. OpenAI claims that by offering a paid subscription it’ll continue to “be able to help support free access availability to as many people as possible”.
A paid subscription to access the chatbot was inevitable. Keeping the chatbot free does come at a large cost, as confirmed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman tweeted in December that the company will have to eventually monetise the bot as the “compute costs are eye-watering”.
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