ChatGPT has enjoyed a lot of success ever since it met the public. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was quick to roll out a paid version, ChatGPT Plus, to monetize the service, as it costs money to run, and almost everyone uses it.

The premium version was surrounded with a lot of hype at launch because it gave subscribers priority access to the newest version of OpenAI's language models (GPT-4). However, ChatGPT Plus offers much more than that today, with very few downsides.

What Is ChatGPT Plus?

ChatGPT Plus is the premium paid version of OpenAI's highly successful chatbot. At $20/month, the service gives you access to a ton of features, like GPT-4, third-party plugins, DALL·E 3, Browse with Bing (i.e., internet access), and Advanced Data Analytics.

Then, there are additional perks to getting the subscription. For example, you get incredible stability even during downtimes. You get faster responses and priority access to new releases (like newer versions of GPT and DALL·E).

The subscription originally only offered priority access during downtimes and was mostly disappointing. It now offers a variety of features in one place that users would otherwise have to either wait for or get through third-party plugins.

With the value it can now add to peoples' lives and businesses, ChatGPT Plus is easily one of the best subscriptions you can buy nowadays.

The Pros of Upgrading to ChatGPT Plus

ChatGPT Plus will cost you around $20/month. Here are the things that make the subscription such great value.

1. Higher Quality Responses With GPT-4

GPT-4 is allegedly trained on 1.7 trillion parameters, which means it is far better than GPT-3.5 at recognizing complex patterns in data to produce better responses.

Here's how GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 responded to the same prompt:

1. GPT-3.5 provided a brief introduction to summarize the main points of discussion.

2. GPT-4 got straight to the point and presented a numbered list illustrating key talking points.

As you can see, GPT-4 clearly did a better job, and for most prompts, it does. It is better at understanding the problem and context than GPT-3.5.

Where you'd have to try several different prompts to get your desired output from GPT-3.5 (the free ChatGPT version), GPT-4 produces the same output in considerably fewer prompts.

2. Create Beautiful Art With DALL·E 3

ChatGPT Plus gives you priority access to the latest versions of DALL·E, OpenAI's image generation AI. The latest version, DALL·E 3, is not only miles ahead of its predecessor but is also merged with the conversational prowess of GPT-4—perhaps the closest to AGI we've seen.

To see this in action, ask GPT-4 to explain a technical concept in simple terms and produce images to help visualize the concept. It will first explain the concept:

Then, it will generate the images required to understand the concept visually, along with explanations of what the images demonstrate:

This feature is immensely valuable for users from all walks of life, like homeschooling parents, who can use it to teach their children much more effectively and visually.

3. Browse Internet With Bing

The big problem with the free ChatGPT version is its knowledge cutoff. It wouldn't have been a problem had it been trained on data up to 2022. But it's September 2021, and the world has changed significantly since then. So, no matter what you're using ChatGPT for, its lack of knowledge of recent historical events puts you at a big disadvantage.

ChatGPT Plus solves this problem by accessing the web through Bing. Once you've enabled the Browse with Bing feature, you can chat with ChatGPT as you do, and wherever it feels recent context is important, it will browse the web and respond with up-to-date information.

4. Analyze and Understand Data With Advanced Data Analytics

To put it simply, the Advanced Data Analytics feature analyzes data for you. Based on your requirements, it can explain the data, create visual graphs, and even help you make informed decisions.

For example, you want to save money for the future but spend everything you make. Here, you can upload your expenditure and ask ChatGPT to analyze where you're wasting money, where you should be making cuts, and how you should be budgeting. Ask it to give you a plan to achieve your savings target, and it will.

5. Expand Functionality With Plugins

Plugins are third-party software components that integrate with the main platform. An example of plugins would be Chrome extensions, which expand the browser's functionality.

The plugin feature means the possibilities with ChatGPT are endless. With the OpenTable plugin, you can book a reservation at the restaurant of your choice simply by asking ChatGPT to do it for you. With the Zapier plugin, you can automate your workflow. With Kayak, you can plan trips and book flights.

And the fun part is that the ChatGPT plugin market is growing fast. There are already thousands of different plugins available to choose from. As the catalog grows, you'll be able to use ChatGPT in more and more areas of your life.

6. Priority Access to New Features

OpenAI is constantly working on new features to improve their language models further. If you subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, you'll get priority access to their latest releases, getting an opportunity to test them out before free users.

For example, OpenAI announces audio inputs to ChatGPT. If you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you'll be able to access the feature right away. The fact that free ChatGPT users don't have access to DALL·E 3, Advanced Data Analytics, or even Browse with Bing features, yet ChatGPT Plus users do, shows that you only get priority access to new features through the subscription. For example, check out the images created using DALL·E 3 below!

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And that is not the end of it. ChatGPT Plus has faster responses for GPT-3.5. It even has better availability during downtimes, so if you run a business and rely a ton on ChatGPT, you can rest assured that you won't suffer when the service is down for free users.

The Cons of Upgrading to ChatGPT Plus

While upgrading to ChatGPT Plus surely sounds like a no-brainer, you should be aware of some downsides to the service.

1. Limited Number of Prompts

The fact that GPT-4 can process over 25,000 words in one go through its API is underrated, as GPT-3.5 was limited to 3,000 words/response. Although longer and higher quality responses are a huge upgrade, the GPT-4 interaction cap holds users back: you can only send 50 messages every three hours.

This hard cap is limiting, though not as much as it used to be (25 messages per three hours). Originally, this cap was around 100 messages, but OpenAI reduced it to take its time with scaling GPT-4. So, you have limited access to the latest GPT language model, even if you purchase the subscription.

2. Bing Offers Some of the Feature for Free

There are a lot of differences between ChatGPT and Bing Chat. One is essentially an AI-powered search engine, while the other is more of a "traditional" chatbot. However, this does not mean you can't use Bing Chat for the same purposes. It's free to use, can access information from the internet in real time, doesn't have as many availability issues, and uses GPT-4 technology.

Accessing information directly from the internet makes Bing Chat much more versatile than ChatGPT. Unfortunately, Microsoft is cautious with how it responds to certain prompts. Sometimes, Bing will refuse to respond to controversial topics. Still, it's worth trying out before you pay for ChatGPT Plus to see if it suits your needs.

ChatGPT Plus Is For Everyone

Originally, ChatGPT Plus only suited business owners who had automation with ChatGPT in mind. Relying on the free version was detrimental, unpredictable, and went down often. Now, with added capabilities, ChatGPT Plus is your playground. You decide what you need it to help you with, and it will.

Granted, the prompts for GPT-4 are limited, and Bing includes some of the ChatGPT Plus features for free. But they are the only downsides to ChatGPT now—the upsides are still huge. And as OpenAI continues to scale its operations, the 50-message limit would ultimately become unlimited, just like the free version, with many more features added to the deck.