Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
ChatGPT is a sensation — but one that’s burning a hole in creator OpenAI’s pocket, with the company thought to be paying millions of dollars a month to keep the chatbot free to use. It’s no surprise, then, that as OpenAI seeks billions in funding from close partner Microsoft, the company is experimenting with ways to monetize its software.
In the official company Discord, OpenAI shared a waitlist for what the company is calling “ChatGPT Professional” — an “experimental” paid version of ChatGPT with all the benefits you’d expect. OpenAI says ChatGPT Professional will be “always available,” offer “fast responses” with no throttling, and give users “at least” twice the daily number of answers compared to the free version of the chatbot.
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