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ChatGPT Plus to bring priority access during peak times — at a hefty price

Alan Truly
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OpenAI’s wildly popular ChatGPT AI has become a bit harder to access, but soon, you’ll be able to move to the front of the line with ChatGPT Plus. While the free version is still available, priority will be given to subscribers.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise despite OpenAI’s non-profit status, given the huge network and computing costs that accumulate at the current rate of activity. The individual cost of $20 per month is relatively small if you’re an avid user of ChatGPT. Over the course of a year that’s $240, though, so it’s still a substantial amount to spend if you want faster access.

ChatGPT and OpenAI logos.

If you’ve been following ChatGPT news, you might have heard that the subscription cost would be twice that high. The rumored ChatGPT Pro hasn’t surfaced and might have been replaced by the much more affordable ChatGPT Plus.

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In addition to faster access during peak usage times, ChatGPT Plus subscribers will enjoy quicker responses and get early access to new features before others. OpenAI is moving so quickly that improvements to ChatGPT could be particularly intriguing.

OpenAI called the initial launch of ChatGPT a research preview. This makes it sound like the free version was temporary, but OpenAI stated free access will remain. The subscription service will help to support free access by offsetting the huge cost of making ChatGPT available to everyone.

It’s hard to believe that ChatGPT only debuted in January and has already had such a big impact on several industries, making it very clear that AI will play a major role in the future.

ChatGPT Plus will launch in the U.S. initially and there is currently a waiting list to sign up. The subscription option will expand to more countries over time, but no timetable has been provided yet.

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