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Just when we thought we were getting on top of things, OpenAI came out with something new. In early December 2024, OpenAI announced the release of ChatGPT Pro. With a $200 monthly cost, the new ChatGPT Pro will provide you with access to the best OpenAI models and tools. However, many are questioning the big price jump, leaving a lot of folks asking, "is $200 a month really worth it?"
What You Get With GPT Pro
Let’s start with what you get and see if it’s worth it. Here is what you get:
- Unlimited access to OpenAI o1, o1-mini, and GPT-4o,
- Advanced Voice
- Access to GPT o1-Pro (Limited to 50 messages per week)
- Access to all models with the full 128-token context window.
If you're wondering if this is enough to warrant the increase, you’re not the only one.
GPT o1-Pro Capabilities
OpenAI has stated that the o1-Pro model performs better on challenging machine learning benchmarks across math, science, and coding domains. Some have tested out its capabilities and have stated that GPT-4o and o1 would miserably fail with some of the tasks that GPT o1-Pro can do.
With the increased capabilities, users can solve more complex and intricate queries than ever before. Some users report that outputs are more accurate, with comes with more confidence generally about their results. GPT o1-Pro allows anybody from anywhere in the world to benefit from state of the art generative AI and improve their day-to-day productivity.
But what about the bad?
As mentioned before, $200 a month when compared to $20 is a big jump in investment, and if all the capabilities do not align with what you want or need, the investment may not be worth it. The only way you can really understand if it’s worth the money is if you require the advanced logic and reasoning capabilities — and high availability of them — to do your job. Don’t follow the hype because it’s the new thing that is out and jump on the bandwagon. You need to weigh out the pros and cons and analyse how much you would really benefit from it.
Final Verdict
With what you know and if you’ve played around with GPT-Pro, should you upgrade or not?
If ChatGPT is your go-to, your right hand and you use it quite often with your technical tasks or if ChatGPT generates you income and this can offset the cost, then you may consider GPT-Pro. For example:
- Advanced Voice Mode is your favourite and you want more of it
- State of the art logic and reasoning is valuable to you
- You need the 128k context window for all your models
- You hit the weekly 50 message limit with GPT o1
However, if none of these reasons fit for you, I would stick with the Plus membership.
Nisha Arya is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and an editor and community manager for KDnuggets. She is particularly interested in providing data science career advice or tutorials and theory-based knowledge around data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wishes to explore the different ways artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. A keen learner, Nisha seeks to broaden her tech knowledge and writing skills, while helping guide others.