OpenAI has now opened up its new GPT-4o AI tools available at no charge to anyoneNosource: OpenAIWith OpenAI announcing GPT-4o during its Spring Update event, the question now remains: is ChatGPT worth paying for?
ChatGPT-4o supports more complex uses, where all users can now achieve circular reasoning, meaning with popular stories such as discussing files and photos uploaded to ChatGPT. The AI can be used to: Can analyze data and create charts Can connect to the internet to help it generate a new dataset
But with all these features becoming free to all, even if non-paying users are limited in how much they can use, it's not clear if people should keep subscribing to the premium ChatGPT tier of OpenAI.
This is not like ChatGPT Plus has ceased to be useful. As always, subscribers retain their benefits and extra features; including the ability to build custom GPTs, higher usage rate limits on 4o, and early access to new features, with "Voice Mode" coming "in the next few weeks."
But it only seems fair anyway for the subscribers to be upset. For $20/m ( around £16 / AU$30), they are getting not much more than they get from the free service. For everyone else, it feels like a terrible time to get started with ChatGPT Plus, unless you are an extreme AI power user.
Thinking long term
Then why would OpenAI want to make its best service less attractive? There are two main theories.
The other one is completely absurd, and it is that OpenAI is planning to roll out a pre-release of GPT-5—or to perform some other incredible “Activia” to its premium membership on top of the spoken ChatGPT. This isn't completely impossible but it appears that OpenAI would have at least mentioned it during its May 13 Spring Update event, so the claim rings a little dubious.
The probable reason is that OpenAI has begun to pay less attention to paying users and started looking at as many users as they can onboard, at least for the time being.
That's because a recent study found that few of us utilize ChatGPT and other AI tools in our daily lives. If OpenAI wants people to be excited about its tools, it can't keep the best features behind a paywall.
Furthermore, ChatGPT's competitors, such as Meta AI and Google Gemini, are free to use and provide many of the same premium functions at no cost. If it's difficult to encourage people to use AI when it's free, imagine how much more difficult it is with a paywall in place.
We'll have to wait and see if ChatGPT Plus improves in the coming weeks, but if you're already a subscriber (or considering joining), you might want to hold off for now.