The paid version of ChatGPT is really here! 134 yuan per month, say goodbye to queues and lags, free ones are still there, netizens: squat in the 'Youth Edition'

ChatGPT is officially charging! $20 per month (approximately RMB 134).

Don’t panic, the free version is still available.

Since its launch, ChatGPT, the most powerful AI chatbot in history, has quickly set off a craze that has swept the entire technology industry.

Microsoft hastily spent 10 billion US dollars to get close to the OpenAI behind it, and announced that it will be integrated into almost all product lines of To B and To C, such as Office Family Bucket, Bing Search, Azure cloud services, everything you can get through.

Microsoft’s old rival Google has also seen executives come out to express their opinions, saying that they will not take action and wait for ChatGPT The more you learn, the better you become. Let alone Google search, the entire Google may be gone.

Even NVIDIA, which seems to have little to do with ChatGPT, has won.

Because of the popularity of ChatGPT, investors are eager to pursue the prospects of AI computing. Huang Renxun’s wealth increased by US$5.1 billion in 2023, ranking first on the Forbes wealth list in a single month.

Of course, the happiest people are ordinary users. It is trivial to use it to chat to relieve boredom or pretend to be an expert to answer questions. , someone used it to "assist" in writing a paper and even signed it. Some people used it for homework, which frightened the teacher into a daze.

Let’s not talk about the moral controversy of using AI tools to do these things. A direct result of it is:

ChatGPT is stuck. . New users who apply for the API enter the "waiting list", and during peak periods, users often need to queue up to log in, and sometimes freeze and stop responding.

How to deal with it? Faced with a cash cow, OpenAI chose the most realistic approach: charging, starting at $20 per month.

Today, OpenAI officially announced ChatGPT’s “pilot subscription plan”. This paid service is called ChatGPT Plus.

What is the strength of ChatGPT Plus?

OpenAI official website shows that compared with the basic level of ChatGPT, this Plus version has many benefits. ChatGPT can be widely used even during peak periods, without queuing, the response time is faster, and it can be prioritized Get new features and improvements.

Quick Pass is a very nice feature. After all, you have to wait several hours to access ChatGPT during peak periods. This feature alone can attract many users to subscribe.

As for the new features and improved ideas mentioned on the official website, we are also looking forward to it, but the main expectation is that no one knows what these new features are.

In view of the fact that ChatGPT-4, which claims to be a huge improvement, will be launched this year. One possible guess is that OpenAI may only offer the product to paying users.

Currently, ChatGPT Plus is only available to users in the United States. OpenAI said it will start inviting people on the waiting list in the coming months and expects to expand the paid version of the service to other countries and regions soon.

OpenAI said this on its official blog:

"We launched ChatGPT as a research preview so that we can learn more about it. system's strengths and weaknesses and gathered user feedback to help us improve its limitations. Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we've made several important updates, and we've seen users use it in a range of professional use cases Found value in drafting and editing content, brainstorming, assisting with programming, and learning new topics."

OpenAI hinted that ChatGPT Plus may be the first of several plans to come. The company said in a blog post that it is actively exploring additional low-cost plans in addition to APIs.

It’s Pro and Plus. Do you sell mobile phones?

Less than two weeks ago, some netizens discovered that OpenAI seemed to be testing the paid version of ChatGPT - "ChatGPT Pro", priced at US$42 per month (approximately RMB 285).

Although the price of $42 is indeed high, the advantages are also obvious. The description of this Pro internal beta version in the picture is:

• High availability throughout the day
• Faster response time
• Prioritize the use of new features

Judging from the descriptions in the screenshots taken by netizens, this Pro internal beta version, which has never been officially announced, cannot be said to be exactly the same as the officially announced Plus version. It's exactly the same.

In this official announcement of OpenAI, the description of the features of the Plus version has only been slightly modified compared to the Pro beta version.

We still don’t know exactly what the difference is between this Plus and the previous Pro.

Of course, it is not ruled out that OpenAI was scolded too harshly by foreign netizens and decided to change its name and reduce the price.

Charging is for better free

The good news is that the free version of ChatGPT will continue to exist and will not be cancelled.

OpenAI stated that it launched the paid version so that more people can access the free version more smoothly.

"We love our free users and will continue to offer a free version of ChatGPT. By offering this subscription price, we will be able to help support as many people as possible to get free access, And plans to improve and expand this service based on your feedback and needs."

With the surge in users of ChatGPT, OpenAI itself said that the free service is unsustainable and charges are It is an inevitable trend.

Let’s do the math, how much does OpenAI cost?

## According to AI industry data analyst Tom Goldstein, OpenAI spends at least $3 million per month on running costs.

ChatGPT is hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, so OpenAI does not need to purchase and set up a physical computer room.

At current rates, Microsoft charges $3 per hour for a single A100 GPU and $0.0003 per word generated on ChatGPT.

ChatGPT replies are typically at least 30 words long, so a single ChatGPT reply will cost the company at least 1 cent.

Calculating, it will cost at least 3 million US dollars a month.

Netizen Yusuke said that when you register for a ChatGPT account, there will be a fixed number of requests per month according to the selected package.

If the fixed quota is exceeded, additional fees will be incurred and cannot be used until the next cycle.

This charge is completely understandable from a motive point of view.

Since OpenAI "sold" Microsoft for US$1 billion in 2019, its status as a non-profit organization has encountered more and more doubts. The recent offer of US$10 billion from Microsoft is conditional.

According to previous reports, this $10 billion transaction is only part of a complex series of transactions. Before Microsoft recovers the funds invested, the company will receive 75% of OpenAI’s operating profits. After recovering the investment amount, Microsoft will hold 49% of OpenAI's shares.

Faced with profitability pressure, OpenAI, which has a valuation of nearly US$30 billion, is actually very difficult to withstand. At present, OpenAI's main revenue model is to cooperate with AI manufacturers to provide algorithm and model services. It is probably not even "selling solutions".

This time, ChatGPT has become popular out of the circle. It is like money falling from the sky. It is normal to seize the time to collect it.

On major issues involving the company's profit model or even development strategy, the opinions of netizens can be used as a reference, but they should not be taken too seriously.

But having said that, since OpenAI has planned Pro and launched Plus, is it not too much to expect a "Youth Edition" of ChatGPT?

The above is the detailed content of The paid version of ChatGPT is really here! 134 yuan per month, say goodbye to queues and lags, free ones are still there, netizens: squat in the 'Youth Edition'. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!