ChatGPT launches $20 per month subscription service

San Francisco-based company OpenAI announced on Wednesday a subscription-based premium version of its ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that responds to user questions and prompts in a conversational mode, that offers new features, a faster response time, and access to subscribers at peak hours.

OpenAI tweeted, "We are piloting ChatGPT Plus, a subscription plan that offers faster response times and reliability during peak hours. And of course, the free tier of ChatGPT is still available."

According to OpenAI's website, "The new subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, will be available for $20/month, and subscribers will receive a number of benefits: General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times, Faster response times, Priority access to new features and improvements"

ChatGPT's algorithm takes a user's prompt, generates a summary, and within seconds delivers the relevant information in a more human tone. In the five days after its launch, over a million people signed up to test the chatbot. It's algorithm and popularity have caused some in the tech industry to suggest it will become more prominent than Google within two years.

The new pilot subscription service is available to US customers and OpenAI plans to create a waitlist in the upcoming weeks. The company will invite those on the waiting list as they also expand the chatbot into additional regions and countries.

According to the Verge, "Even just over a week ago, it seemed like OpenAI was going to introduce a plus or pro version of the service at $42 a month, a significantly higher price that would be hard to justify for those not making money with the service."

The $20 per month subscription plan opens the chatbot up to a broader base of potential users.

The move to monetization comes after "OpenAI president and chairman Greg Brockman posted to the company’s official Discord server asking users for input on ways to 'monetize ChatGPT,'" reports Forbes. 

ChatGPT has been banned by NYU in an effort to minimize students using the chatbot for plagiarism.

Parent company OpenAI was previously revealed to have been using Kenyan workers through the outsourcing company Sama, paid less than $2 per hour, to moderate ChaptGPT for sex abuse, bestiality, and other explicit content.