ChatGPT may be preparing to offer weekly or lifetime subscriptions for your AI fix

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ChatGPT text.
OpenAI is looking for more ChatGPT subscribers (Image credit: Shutterstock/Ascannio)
  • Signs of new ChatGPT subscriptions have been spotted
  • For now the options are hidden away in app code
  • Monthly subscriptions are the only options currently available

OpenAI has to pay for its melting GPUs somehow, and it seems the ChatGPT developer is exploring new subscription options to encourage more people to start paying for AI text, coding, and image generation.

As spotted by tipster @M1Astra, the latest ChatGPT app builds include mentions of weekly, annual, and lifetime subscriptions, alongside the current monthly one. The team at Android Authority found the same references in the latest ChatGPT app for Android.

The decision-makers at ChatGPT could change their minds before any of this goes live of course, and we've heard nothing official about this yet. But it makes sense that OpenAI would want to offer subscribers more flexibility to encourage extra sign-ups.

There is a key piece of information missing here: how much these subscriptions would cost. Right now, you can either pay $20 (about £15 / AU$31) each month for a Plus subscription, or $200 (about £150 / AU$312) a month for ChatGPT Pro.

Would you sign up?

Of these new subscription options, the weekly deal seems the most appealing. It would help you quickly complete a project or generate an image gallery before having to go back to the usage restrictions of the free tier.

A lifetime subscription would be a real surprise – it's not something we tend to see much of elsewhere with high-profile software and services, and it's difficult to calculate the ongoing costs of AI processing and hardware across the decades to come.

What we do know is that running AI models is a very, very expensive business, and so far OpenAI has spent a lot more money on ChatGPT than it's made back. Getting more people to part with their cash is one way of fixing that.

We've also seen upgrades to the shopping capabilities of ChatGPT in recent days, which is another potential money-spinner: ChatGPT guides you towards the perfect coffee maker, and gets a cut of the purchase price in return.

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David Nield
David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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