OpenAI launches a $20 per month subscription plan as ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January

ChatGPT took the internet by storm late last year as the dialogue-based AI chatbot crossed one million users just five days after its launch. Now ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced on Wednesday it is launching ChatGPT Plus, a $20 per month pilot subscription plan for its popular AI-powered chatbot.

The announcement comes this day UBS reported that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, Reuters reported. According to a UBS study on Wednesday, UBS analysts wrote in the note:

“In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app.”

The report, citing data from analytics firm Similar Web, said about 13 million unique visitors used ChatGPT per day in January, more than double the levels the company had back in December 2022.

Just five days after its launch, ChatGPT crossed one million users, according to a post by Open AI co-founder Sam Altman. To put that in perspective, it took Netflix 3.5 years, Facebook 10 months, Spotify 5 months, and Instagram 2.5 months to reach the one million users mark. It took about nine months after its global launch for the popular short video app TikTok to add 100 million users.

On January 23, Microsoft announced a new multi-billion dollar investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI following the $1 billion investment the software giant made in 2019. Microsoft declined to provide a specific dollar amount. However, as we reported earlier in back January, Microsoft was in talks to invest $10 billion in exchange for a 49% stake in the company.

Since its launch about two months ago, ChatGPT has impressed many experts with its writing ability, proficiency in handling complex tasks, and its ease of use. Before this announcement, ChatGPT was free to use but Altman said the company will at some point charge people to use the chatbot that many said could one day potentially replace humans.

History of OpenAI and The People Behind the Company

Open AI is a research institute founded in late 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman and 20 others including Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba. In 2018, Musk stepped down from OpenAI’s board of directors to avoid future conflicts of interest with Tesla’s self-driving car research. Both Musk and Altman said they were motivated to start OpenAI in part by concerns about existential risk from artificial general intelligence.

The company is focused on developing and promoting friendly artificial intelligence, with the goal of advancing and ensuring the beneficial use of AI in society. OpenAI’s mission statement is “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” The company aims to “freely collaborate” with other institutions and researchers by making its patents and research open to the public.

The Future of OpenAI

ChatGPT is currently free to use. Since ChatGPT reportedly costs $3 million per day to run, the question is: how is OpenAI going to stay afloat much less profitable? When asked if ChatGPT will be free forever, Altman said the company “will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering.”