The free version of ChatGPT got a major voice upgrade this week despite the CEO drama at OpenAI. The feature was previously available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers only, and it goes to show there are plenty of reasons to consider paying $20 per month to access the best generative AI software OpenAI has to offer. Access to custom GPTs and internet connectivity are two other reasons to get ChatGPT Plus. That’s on top of support for the latest, most powerful language model and access to Dall-E.
With all that in mind, and considering that ChatGPT is about to celebrate its first anniversary, I can’t help but wonder what sort of ChatGPT Plus Black Friday deals OpenAI would have offered if the premium tier wasn’t sold out.
OpenAI paused its ChatGPT Plus subscription a few days before Sam Altman’s firing. There’s no correlation between the two events, not that we know of. The easiest explanation is that ChatGPT Plus became too exciting after DevDay. That’s when Altman announced support for custom GPTs, and the only way to get them was through a Plus subscription.
ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month since OpenAI made the premium tier available to users looking to be the first to access the newest generative AI features. It never got any discounts since then, or price hikes. That’s not surprising considering the massive growth of OpenAI and the increased interest in ChatGPT.
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OpenAI’s store for custom GPTs based on ChatGPT. Image source: YouTube
Altman announced at DevDay that ChatGPT has more than 100 million monthly users. The company is expected to bring $1 billion in revenue a year. That’s money coming through Plus and Enterprise subscriptions.
Considering all that interest and hype, there’s probably little interest from OpenAI to drop prices for ChatGPT Plus, regardless of the time of the year. It doesn’t have to run Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals because the service already sells itself.
On the other hand, people tend to spend more money online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That includes deals on digital products, not just physical goods. A ChatGPT Plus sale would have been a great way to further promote OpenAI’s software. Maybe an option to buy a year of access to Plus for a cheaper price than the $240 over a year under the current scheme.
OpenAI did bring ChatGPT discounts at DevDay a few weeks ago when it announced cheaper prices for accessing the AI. Reducing costs is great news for both developers and end users. It might not be clear right now, but that $20/month should pay for more AI mileage, eventually.
Black Friday sales aside, the internal turmoil at OpenAI certainly didn’t help getting ChatGPT Plus sales back online. It’s unclear when OpenAI will resume sales either because it still needs to figure out ways to increase capacity. What you can do, however, is join a waitlist by clicking that upgrade button. Once ChatGPT Plus is available for purchase, you’ll be notified.