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ChatGPT is arguably one of the most hyped pieces of technology ever. Users can create stories, scripts, poems and songs, or just talk to the highly advanced AI that drives it. While ChatGPT is free, there is a “Plus” version available, but is it worth the $20 per month that OpenAI asks for?
To find out, I decided to try it myself. I was there too working on an article about the possibility of writing a novel with AI, and that would be You’d probably require a “pro” version of ChatGPT if such a thing existed, so it seemed like an ideal reason to part with $20 of my own hard-earned money. Unfortunately, the results were quite disappointing.
What ChatGPT says you get
You’re not handing over $20 for no reason. OpenAI offers some benefits to Plus members. According to their website, the top features Plus members can enjoy are “General access to ChatGPT, even during peak hours,” “Faster response times,” and “Priority access to new features and improvements.” It will also support the concept and, as a result, keep the “free” version free.
What it doesn’t list is that you can access older versions of ChatGPT. This is just a single “legacy” build at this time, but will include releases like the current ChatGPT build once GPT4 fully takes over from 3.5 and later builds. This is really a useful feature. As is often the case with software still in development, things can change drastically. If an update removes a feature you liked, Plus may one day be able to bring it back. they should have put This feature in the bulleted list because the other features are disappointing. As things currently stand, it’s still hard to find differences between versions, and those differences may be due to how people perceive things. This will change as time goes by.
Most advantages are useless
Since getting “Plus”, I have managed to log in during peak hours on several occasions. This is very useful if you need to use ChatGPT and can’t wait until things settle down. Beyond this feature, it’s unlikely you’ll notice anything different.
In terms of “faster response times”, I honestly haven’t noticed any difference between the free and premium versions. I have no doubt that some OpenAI man could show up in a lab coat, clipboard, and very nasal accent to say, “Well, akshully, our data shows that responses are on average 1.2 seconds faster with Plus. That’s it.” an increase of more than 400%*” But the truth is, you won’t notice.You’ll get a quick response to your message, a slow response, or you’ll hang for about 30 seconds before responding, just like the free version.
Early access to new features may actually pay off, but it’s still too early. The first feature preview of ChatGPT Plus, which allows people to access a recently released version of GPT-4, actually allows Plus to stand out from the free version a bit. The preview is quite limited; it only gets 100 GPT-4 based messages for four hours, it can’t upload or create images, and many users are still trying to figure out what’s really better. I imagine when things like image and audio support are added, Plus users will get that first as well, along with expanded access. If you are really an AI enthusiast who has to test everything as soon as possible, this may change it. If you just want to read sugar free cookie recipes written in the style of Barry Manilow songs, then you don’t need this feature.
*These are not actual figures. I made them up for the purposes of that joke.
there are still limits
This was simultaneously the most annoying and shocking part of ChatGPT Plus for me. With regular ChatGPT, you may get stuck from time to time. If your notices are too vigorous, you’ll receive a message that too many have been sent and to check back in an hour.
Surely, since the premium version promises priority access, this annoying barrier will have been removed, right? Mistaken. It’s still there, though harder to hit. You can pay for OpenAI in real cash, but someone who has registered three or more free accounts will have a higher access level than you.
The confusing part about this is that removing this limit doesn’t seem to be problematic for ChatGPT. Truly unlimited access would also be one of the things worth paying for. But the company has left one of the biggest restrictions on the platform for its premium users.
There were also suggestions that the legacy version of ChatGPT that you can access via Plus is easier to jailbreak with things like a DAN prompt, as OpenAI constantly improves its filters based on user input, although not I found this to be the case for the “default” version based on GPT 3.5. It’s certainly harder to crack GPT-4 though, so jailbreakers will soon be happy with the ability to roll things back. It is unlikely that OpenAI will offer an uncensored version of ChatGPT to Plus users, although this would be a popular feature. If comments on Reddit are any good, many people would be happy to pay upwards of $20 a month for “ChatGPT Unchained.”
Other “free” models will be available soon
ChatGPT may have been groundbreaking in a number of ways, and it’s certainly the most hyped AI chatbot I can remember seeing. But it’s not as unique as it might seem. Many big tech companies are looking to produce a similar platform or just work together with OpenAI. Despite a rocky start, Google has its own version of ChatGPT on the way, while Microsoft has decided to remove the intermediary in the process.
The next chatbot of the Bing search engine, owned by Microsoft it’s basically a modified version of ChatGPT. You can manipulate it to do equally crazy things or just use it for boring things like recipes and letters. You are also limited to ten messages at a time. After that, you need to delete the conversation and start over. ChatGPT has a bigger memory limit and you don’t have to delete anything. It’s currently unclear if this is related to the testing phase or a limit we’ll see after Bing Chat has a full rollout. This is just what we know now, and this is all still in the early stages of development. Wait a year and you’ll probably be spoiled for choice when it comes to AI chatbots.
Actually, there may be a point where you can host something as powerful as ChatGPT locally. This is currently not possible due to the enormous amount of VRAM required by the large language model AIs. But as with other things, hardware is likely to improve and requirements to decrease as technology improves. Eventually there will be some incredibly powerful open source AI available, including one that Amazon is currently producing. If something is open source and you’re running it locally, it’s free and will stay free forever.
$20 is a lot under the subscription terms
Subscription services are absolutely everywhere, and some of them are pretty good value. When it comes to pricing, ChatGPT Plus is on the higher end of things. It’s the same price as a year of Adobe Creative Cloud and not nearly as useful. It is also more expensive than all the mainstream music and streaming services like Spotify. It’s only slightly cheaper than the post YouTube Premium price increase family plan, and YouTube received its fair share of criticism for setting its price above $20.
Value is somewhat subjective, but all of these services at least offer something. ChatGPT Plus offers you nothing more than the possibility to skip the queue from time to time. That may be worth something like $5, but as it is, $20 is almost ridiculous.
As it is, you shouldn’t bother
Later, the premium service of ChatGPT may be worth it. It could turn out to be better than its brother Bing, all restrictions may be removed and we could see some interesting additional features. A price drop might also be a sensible idea, or at least an expansion of what you get for $20. If they threw a bunch of Dall-E credits, could be more tempting.
But for now, unless you absolutely have to use a watered down version of GPT-4, you really should keep your money. The free version behaves similarly, so stick with that or pick one of the many alternatives that are likely to emerge in the coming months.
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