Are you still wondering whether to buy it?ChatGPT Plus?actually,ChatGPTIt can beat many domestic AI language models in seconds, but if you subscribe to ChatGPT Plus for $20 a month, you can useGPT-4, the most advanced AI language model to date.
However, GPT-4 is not perfect, it will also have errors and what we usually call "hallucinations". However, if you are looking for precise answers when dealing with some complex problems, GPT-4 is very suitable for you.
Below, Situ Wencheng will introduce the technical differences between GPT-4 in the free version of ChatGPT and the paid version of ChatGPT Plus.
If you have the following needs, please consider using ChatGPT Plus
1. You need more than just a text response
GPT-4 is not only more powerful at processing text, it can also process images and sounds.
For example, it can analyze images as input and give precise text answers, generate images, and also engage in conversations and respond via voice.
For example, GPT-4 can "see" the food in the refrigerator and provide recipes based on the pictures you take. ChatGPT Plus users can also upload files for GPT-4 to analyze, infer, or summarize.
However, it is important to note that GPT-4's answers always appear in text form unless you ask it to generate images for you.
You can also ask GPT-4 to create images, and it will use DALL-E 3's technology to do this without having to jump to other websites.
2. You want to use a customized GPT robot
Only ChatGPT Plus subscribers can access the GPT Store, as these features are only available in the GPT-4 environment.
GPT Store is a new platform that provides a store of custom AI chatbots powered by GPT-4 that combine different skills, training, and custom instructions.
You can find a GPT bot trained on specific data and use it directly.
For example, in the ChatGPT store, you can find bots like PromptGPT to help you with prompt word problems; or even use VEED’s VideoGPT to create videos for social media.
For more popular GPTs, please refer to: ChatGPT Store's 10 most popular custom GPT recommendations.
You can also @ any GPTs in any ChatGPT conversation and ask the GPT to complete a specific task for you.
3. You need a more detailed and accurate response
OpenAI describes GPT-4 as 10 times more advanced than its previous version, GPT-3.5. This improvement allows the model to better understand context and discern subtleties, thereby providing more accurate and coherent responses.
This improvement is partly because the GPT-4 model itself is much larger than GPT-3.5, meaning it has more parameters, which are the units of information that the model uses to understand and generate text.
Although OpenAI has not disclosed the specific number of parameters used by GPT-4, according to authoritative sources, GPT-4 has been trained with about 100 trillion parameters.
In comparison, GPT-3 has only 175 billion parameters, which makes GPT-4 far superior in scale.
In addition, GPT-4’s memory capacity has also been improved. GPT-3.5’s short-term memory was about 8,000 words, while GPT-4’s short-term memory has been expanded to about 64,000 words, and is expected to grow to 128,000 words soon.
4. You want to get the latest information
The free version of ChatGPT cannot access the internet, but ChatGPT Plus can.
OpenAI recently integrated the Browse with Bing feature into GPT-4, which means the AI chatbot can access the internet and provide up-to-date information about real-time events.
When you use the free version of ChatGPT to query a question like "What's the latest iPhone?", it might tell you it's the iPhone 13 Pro Max, released in 2021, because its training data only goes back to early 2022.
And if you ask GPT-4 the same question, it might tell you that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the latest high-end iPhone, which Apple launches in September 2023.
You should use the free ChatGPT if you...
1. No additional features required
While ChatGPT Plus has a ton of additional features, maybe you don’t need all the extra features that the Plus subscription offers.
In fact, even the free version of ChatGPT is already very powerful and popular.
ChatGPT reached 100 million users within two months of its release, months before GPT-4 was publicly released and before Plus subscriptions were created.
The free ChatGPT can generate text summaries, stories, poems, code, emails, resumes, solve math problems, and more, all without requiring a subscription.
In addition, if you want to communicate with ChatGPT by voice, OpenAI's automatic speech recognition system Whisper is also built into the ChatGPT mobile app. Whisper will convert spoken words into text.
When you communicate with ChatGPT using voice in the app, it will respond with a very natural-sounding human voice, which is also available in the free version.
If you’re not very tech-savvy, or only use ChatGPT occasionally, then sticking with the free version will be enough.
2. Just want to use it for free
Whether ChatGPT Plus is worth buying is a very subjective question.
But if you’re on the fence about upgrading to a paid subscription, you might want to consider Microsoft Copilot, an AI chatbot powered by GPT-4 and integrated with DALL-E 3 technology.
The experience of Copilot is similar to using ChatGPT Plus, but the advantage is that you don't have to pay for it unless you choose to pay. For more GPT-4 free products, please check out: 5 ChatGPT Plus alternatives that use the GPT-4 model for free.
It’s important to note that while the answers between the two may be different — Copilot tends to rely on search results from different websites and combines them into answers, the responses generated by ChatGPT tend to read more natural.
But whether it is Microsoft Copilot, the free ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus, they are all powerful generative AI tools.
When considering whether to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, it is important to decide based on your actual needs and usage habits.
If you often need to deal with complex queries, want answers based on the latest information, use AI to create images, or access customized GPT robots, ChatGPT Plus can undoubtedly provide more advanced functions and convenience.
However, for most ordinary users, the free version of ChatGPT already provides powerful functions that can meet daily information query and creative writing needs.