OpenAI says it will charge $200 per month for ChatGPT Pro, a new premium tier that costs ten times the Plus subscription price.
The company's notion is that researchers and engineers able to use the "research-grade intelligence" will want to pay for the chance.
The cost is quite a jump from the company's $20 per month ChatGPT Plus plan, but adds unlimited access to the company's GPT-4o and o1 models, unlimited access to advanced voice, and access to o1 pro mode, "which uses more compute for the best answers to the hardest questions."
OpenAI says, somewhat grandly, that the pricier version provides access to a model "that thinks longer for the most reliable responses."
"In evaluations from external expert testers, o1 pro mode produces more reliably accurate and comprehensive responses."
The intent is to add additional compute-intensive productivity features to the plan, but OpenAI did not specify exactly what is coming. OpenAI is currently working through "12 Days of OpenAI", so it might be wise to see what else is coming down the pipe before signing up for ChatGPT Pro.
The o1 model was introduced in September. The model set then consisted of o1-preview and o1-mini, and OpenAI claimed the LLM was capable of emulating complex reasoning. According to OpenAI, the pro version of o1 that comes with the ChatGPT Pro subscription is able to generate better answers and requires more compute.
The fact it takes longer to do so is demonstrated by a progress bar while the service fetches its answer. Users can switch to other conversations until a notification pops up to indicate a response has been generated.
According to OpenAI, "In evaluations from external expert testers, o1 pro mode produces more reliably accurate and comprehensive responses, especially in areas like data science, programming, and case law analysis."
While the hike might seem steep, it also represents a clear statement of intent. OpenAI needs to make money, and if the o1 model can genuinely increase productivity and/or cut staffing costs then CEO Sam Altman & co would like a piece of the action.
OpenAI has also announced it is awarding ten grants of ChatGPT Pro to US medical researchers and expects to expand the awards to other regions and research areas in the future. ®
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