By: Craig Kennedy
ChatGPT—The First One Is Free
On February 1st, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Plus, the first of several for-pay services that it’s planning to make generally available to its growing user base.
In the coming weeks, ChatGPT Plus will begin rolling out in the United States to users that have signed up on its waiting list.
ChatGPT Plus—$20 per Month
ChatGPT Plus will be available for $20 per month which will include several key benefits over the current free version:
- General access to ChatGPT, even during peak usage
- Faster response times
- Priority access to new features and improvements
This service will initially only be available to users in the United States, but plans are to eventually expand the offering to other countries and regions.
What Does This Mean for the Free Version of ChatGPT?
OpenAI is saying it will continue to offer and support the free version of ChatGPT, using the proceeds from ChatGPT Plus to help fund access to the free version.
For anyone that has used the free version of ChatGPT, and there are a lot of you, it’s not uncommon for the service to be too busy to respond or to get throttled on usage due to too many requests. I suspect these limitations will remain in the free version as an incentive to upgrade to the paid version.
Incredible Growth = Incredible Revenue?
ChatGPT amassed its first 1 million users in just 5 days and has exceeded 100 million users in its first two months. To put that into perspective, it took TikTok nine months to reach that many users.
OpenAI’s user base is still growing rapidly, however even at 100 million users, if 5% of them decide to move to the for-pay service, that’s $100 million per month in revenue.
What Other Offerings Are in The Works?
In addition to continue expanding the features and functionality of ChatGPT Plus, OpenAI has plans to launch ChatGPT API, and will be creating a waiting list for users to sign up soon.
OpenAI is also exploring options for lower-cost subscription plans, business plans, and data packs for more availability.
Bottom Line
ChatGPT was only released just a few short months ago and has already taken the world by storm with its popularity.
OpenAI’s plans to monetize this and other offerings, while continuing to support a free version, seems like a win-win outcome for both OpenAI and its users.
The clock is ticking, and it will be interesting to see how rapidly Google is able to respond to this disruption in the force with an offering of its own.
For more coverage on generative content trends, catch analyst Adam Pease’s upcoming LIVE webinar for FREE.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET!
Leverage the Latest Generative Content Tools and Trends
Discussion of the generative content market has exploded in the past year as tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion reveal the power artificial intelligence has to automate critical processes for content creation and business communication.
Emerging AI models make it possible to generate text, voice, images, code, and more, as many exciting developments in open source and emerging SaaS products have the market moving at a dizzying speed.
Join Aragon Analyst Adam Pease on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 where he will discuss how to leverage the latest trends and content in generative content.
This webinar with Adam will:
- Bring you up to date on the latest developments generative content
- Give you tools that your business can leverage right now
- Cover recent research about the trends that are shaping the direction of the market.
This blog is a part of the Digital Operations blog series by Aragon Research’s Sr. Director of Research, Craig Kennedy.
Missed an installment? Catch up here!
