ChatGPT is still fairly new, but the AI-powered chatbot has already gotten the “Plus” treatment. While ChatGPT Plus won’t show you TV shows and movies without ads — that’s a different “Plus” — it will give you access to some additional features beyond what you get in the free version of ChatGPT. Here’s everything you need to know about the paid version of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Plus: Price and availability
ChatGPT Plus currently costs $20 a month and is supposed to only be available to those who are on a waitlist. However, if you have an option that says “Upgrade to Plus” in the bottom part of the left-side menu of ChatGPT’s web interface, you may be able to bypass the waitlist. For instance, I was able to get to a payment screen without needing to sign up for the waitlist in this manner.
Regarding availability, OpenAI says that the service is currently only available to customers in the U.S. However, there are some signs that OpenAI has already begun expanding availability. A recent article from Alarabiya News says that the paid subscription model of ChatGPT is now available in the U.A.E. for the same $20 a month price, though there’s no evidence provided to back up this claim.
Additionally, an FAQ article on OpenAI’s site hints at a few regions that ChatGPT Plus will expand to first, Under the question “What is the refund policy?” OpenAI states that residents of the E.U., U.K. or Turkey are eligible for refunds. So it seems likely that ChatGPT Plus is already in those regions. The subreddit r/OpenAI makes reference to paying for ChatGPT in Euros, seemingly confirming this theory.
ChatGPT Plus: Features
OpenAI touts the benefits of ChatGPT Plus as constant access to ChatGPT, even during peak demand. It also says that users will get faster response times and priority access to new features.
While OpenAI has yet to announce any new, Plus-exclusive features, there are some reports of new features making their way into ChatGPT. First, there is a “Turbo mode” that some Redditors have been showing off, but the results they are reporting have not been worth the $20, with Plus users in Turbo Mode still getting bandwidth error messages. According to some Redditors though, this new Turbo Mode is now the default for ChatGPT Plus users.
Additionally, there is a Medium article from Manish Salunke comparing ChatGPT to ChatGPT Plus that suggests several performance differences. These include ChatGPT reportedly using an updated version of the transformer model that powers the chatbot. However, there is no evidence cited in this article to back those claims, and therefore we cannot confirm that ChatGPT Plus uses a more up-to-date version of the GPT-3.5 model powering ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Plus: Plus vs. Pro
At one point, there were reports of a ChatGPT Professional Plan that certain users were able to get access to. This model appears now to be ChatGPT Plus, though as OpenAI technically never confirmed the Professional Plan’s existence we cannot unequivocally state there isn’t a secret “Pro” tier in existence. Still, our research indicates that the Professional Plan is now ChatGPT Plus.
ChatGPT Plus: Is it worth it?
There are some benefits to ChatGPT Plus, namely the purported access to the AI-powered chatbot even during peak demand. As someone who has spent a lot of time with ChatGPT researching what it can and can’t do, the frequency with which I get messages saying that there are too many requests to handle my query has definitely increased.
However, there are a couple of reasons to not upgrade to the paid version right away. First, despite claims from OpenAI of unimpeded access, there is evidence that Plus users are still affected by bandwidth issues.
Second, while ChatGPT Plus does give you access to certain new features, it doesn’t guarantee that the chatbot will provide you with the correct answers. Given that Google Bard and Microsoft’s GPT-powered version of Bing both have had issues with accuracy, it may be worth waiting for AI-powered chatbot technology to get a bit more polished before paying money to use it.
