One of the most surprising announcements from the 12 Days of OpenAI event was the $200 per month ChatGPT Pro plan. At 10 times the price of ChatGPT Plus, it was clearly not meant for us mere mortal AI users — but why not?
I’ve paid the $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus since it was first introduced. It is invaluable for a variety of use cases including learning new skills, writing code and brainstorming. This last use is something o1 is particularly good at, but you don’t need o1 Pro or unlimited access to get the most out of it for most use cases.
Pro does come with some impressive perks but the $2,400 per year price tag is more than enough to make you question whether they are enough, especially if you are an AI hobbyist rather than using it for a specific, professional purpose.
The addition of unlimited slow video generations, 500 fast generations per month and access to higher resolution and longer clips in Sora did change the game slightly, but even then — there are new Sora only plans coming next year.
My recommendation, unless you’re a research scientist, or professional software developer working on particularly complex code, or have more money than you need and want to try it out for the sake of trying it out — stick with the $20 plan.
What exactly does ChatGPT Pro offer?
With the Pro subscription, you get unlimited access to Advanced Voice, the full o1 model, unlimited GPT-4o access and the ability to use the new o1 Pro model.
You also get more compute power behind your queries but this, and o1 Pro, are only useful for incredibly complex tasks in the research space.
The biggest update came on Day 3 of the 12 Days of OpenAI when they announced ChatGPT Pro users would also get the extra Sora use. This also includes the ability to generate videos of people, something not available with ChatGPT Plus.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO confirmed that all the core features of o1, GPT-4o and Advanced Voice would be available in the Plus plan for $20 per month. I am a heavy user of ChatGPT and have never hit the limit in any of the models, including Advanced Voice.
Today we’re also adding ChatGPT Pro, a new plan that allows us to offer the best of our models & tools at scale, including unlimited access to OpenAI o1 and a Pro-only version of o1 that thinks longer for even more reliable responses. https://t.co/UqhfbGkMglDecember 5, 2024
If the $2,400 per year price tag for ChatGPT Pro wasn't enough to tell you this is something aimed at a very specialist audience, OpenAI itself says it is aimed at "professionals who need research-grade AI intelligence at scale."
To cement this concept the company is offering 10 grants of a full ChatGPT Pro subscription to "foster breakthroughs in fields benefiting society".
The first of these grants will go to medical researchers working at leading institutions. There will be more grants across different disciplines in the future.
I will add one caveat to my "it isn't worth $200 per month" claim — if OpenAI adds full access to Sora or unlimited image generation in addition to all the other AI features already announced, then it becomes a more viable full AI stack option.
Most AI video generation platforms charge around $100 per month for unlimited access, or nearly unlimited access. Midjourney is $30 per month for unlimited images and if you add in unlimited voice chat with Advanced Voice, unlimited usage of reasoning and creative models — then the price tag becomes more appetizing. Without Sora and image generation, leave it for the researchers.
We will have full coverage of every new announcement from OpenAI over its 12 Days event — including Sora and AI image improvements.
