ChatGPT Free vs. ChatGPT Plus: The $20 Per Month Is Worth It

Last year when I first reviewed ChatGPT, the most well-known AI chatbot in the world, I felt that most people shouldn't pay for it. A year later, I still believe that casual users are fine using the free version. However, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has rolled out a slew of updates and improvements making it the $20 per month. That's especially true if you're increasingly using it for research or for parsing through large amounts of data.
OpenAI now gives paid ChatGPT users access to the o1 and o3 reasoning models, advanced voice mode, better memory capabilities and a powerful coding agent. At the same time, OpenAI lowered token limits for more input and output text, which subsequently lets paid users generate additional images. Subscribers to the paid plan also get faster priority for image generation and keep full access to the latest models, whereas free users could be downgraded to lower models if servers are busy.
Free users have seen some upgrades as well. The GPT-4 model was sunset for GPT-4o in April, meaning ChatGPT will no longer downgrade itself to the now-retired GPT-4 model when usage is high. Free users also get some imaging capabilities, although they don't get priority queue. There's also ChatGPT Search, new shopping tools and light memory capabilities available for free.
ChatGPT offers a lot despite not costing you anything. If you're an occasional AI user, just looking to spruce up emails, do some light research or generate an image, then there's no major need to upgrade. But if you find yourself hitting walls consistently, where waiting three hours for your tokens to reset becomes unbearable, then it's probably time to consider making the upgrade.
Here are four major questions that will help you figure out whether the paid version of ChatGPT is worth $20 per month.
How patient are you?
Waiting is the biggest differentiating factor between the free and paid versions of ChatGPT. OpenAI obviously wants users forking over some cash and does so by sprinkling a little inconveniences to free users. Like with free mobile games, you can be left waiting for hours before you're allowed to continue, unless you pay extra to get a fast pass.
When you hit a rate limit after using ChatGPT a lot, you'll most often be asked to wait three hours. I've found that image generation is often the main culprit for suddenly running out of tokens and being asked to wait. On the other hand, for many other uses that didn't involve images, I found ChartGPT free rarely asked me to wait.
When doing research, for example, I found it nearly impossible to get ChatGPT Free to kick me out. It seems that lower-level inquiries don't trigger token limits as easily. Unfortunately, OpenAI doesn't broadcast the exact amount of tokens given to free or paid users, so it's hard to do a numbers-by-numbers comparison.
Creative inquiries, ones that take ChatGPT Free more time to compute, might eat away at your tokens faster, but I honestly still found it difficult to hit those limits. The writing quality did come off as a bit basic or with as much bravado and grammatical complexity as a young adult novel, but for a tool that costs no money, it's a good jumping off point, nonetheless.
Will you be doing deeper research?
One of ChatGPT's greatest strengths is in the realm of research. It can pull from the entire trove of online info and synthesize it in seconds. If you're a student, journalist, researcher or someone who has to put together well-sourced reports for work, ChatGPT is an incredible companion.
In my use, ChatGPT Free does a good job with finding sources, but ChatGPT Plus does it better. Mainly, it's ChatGPT Plus' reasoning models, o1 and o3, that prove to be extremely useful. These reasoning models do more than spit out words on your screen. They take extra time, sometimes minutes, to put together a detailed report with sources, recursively checking the output for accuracy before generating a final result.
The last thing you'd want in your report is to accidentally publish an incorrect piece of information or source something that doesn't exist. In my experience, o1 and o3 are less prone to these types of hallucinations. Still, it's important to go through and make sure all the links these models are referencing both exist and are accurate.
So, it's a question of stakes. If your job or grades depend on information being correct, don't risk it by opting for the free version of ChatGPT. If you're using ChatGPT as a learning tool, more like an interactive version of Wikipedia, then the free version will suffice. But you should still fact-check either way.
Do you care about generating images or analyzing photos?
ChatGPT Free can both generate photos and analyze your images. It's a handy tool to play around with, for example, to see if the shoes you're wearing match your dress. If you often find yourself hitting token rate limits, that's when the free version starts to (deliberately) become an annoyance.
Again, this is very much dependent on what you use ChatGPT for. If you find yourself running into rate limits, then upgrading becomes more enticing. I have friends that will jump between multiple free ChatGPT accounts when they hit rate limits to avoid handing over their credit card number. This is certainly a good tactic if you're trying to save cash. But you'll probably run into the other major annoyance when trying to generate photos: heavy server traffic.
Even if you haven't hit your imaging rate limit, you'll still find yourself waiting for results to propagate. ChatGPT gives priority to paid users. With the free version, I've found myself waiting over an hour for an image to generate. Your tolerance for this may vary, but some people will undoubtedly find that $20 per month is worth the faster results.
Are you planning to make custom agents?
Creating GPTs, which are bespoke chatbots aimed at a specific task, is a handy tool for avid ChatGPT users. For example, say you need to use ChatGPT to improve your nutrition and help you lose weight while building muscle. Instead of prompting ChatGPT each time with your goals and parameters, you can just create a custom GPT with that info saved and ready to go. There are all sorts of custom GPTs you can create, from analyzing the latest supply chain changes to a personal budgeting assistant to an astrology birth chart expert.
There's even an entire marketplace of freely available GPTs people have created, ready for your use. Some of the more popular/interesting versions include a Python coding assistant, an imaging prompt generator or a marketing mentor. Below, I took a stock photo of the Burger King Kids Club and had the Hot Mods GPT create a prompt to turn it into a cool trading card, the image of which was generated by GPT 4o.
A Burger King Kids Club trading card generated by ChatGPT.
Imad Khan/CNET
A trading card-style image of the Burger King Kids Club characters in a rare collectible card format. Background filled with intense stylized flames in vivid red, orange, and electric purple. Add holographic foil effects with rainbow starburst radiating behind characters. Chrome gold card border with glowing edge. Card stats at the bottom: 'Burger Power: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥', 'Friendship: ★★★★★', 'Adventure Level: MAX'. In the top-right corner, a foil badge that says 'ULTRA RARE - 1ST EDITION'. Apply glittering holofoil texture over the 'KIDS CLUB' logo. Stylized burger, crown, and token icons floating in the background with a reflective shine. Rim lighting around characters to blend them into a dynamic, high-energy scene.
Unfortunately free users can't create custom GPTs, but they can use custom GPTs created by others.
Bottom line: Use ChatGPT Free until you no longer can
Given how powerful the free version of ChatGPT is, I suggest you try using it for as long as you can before your frustrations start to mount. Depending on your usage, you might get what you need without having to pay. But if limits start becoming an annoyance, try giving the paid version a shot and see if things become easier and better for you. You can always cancel after a month or two.
I myself use ChatGPT Plus outside of work. But if I weren't being given access due to my job, I'd probably find myself forking over the $20 for ChatGPT Plus access all the same. Beyond just writing and research, there are enough added benefits that the time savings is critical to my work.

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