OpenAI has opened developer access to the ChatGPT chatbot and the Whisper speech-to-text model via the API.
ChatGPT and Whisper are now available through our API (plus developer policy updates). We ❤️ developers: https://t.co/vpoyxZ7XnD
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) March 1, 2023
The GPT-3.5-turbo family, on which ChatGPT is built, is priced at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens. It is enough to process about 750 words.
According to OpenAI representatives, this is ten times cheaper than the previous GPT-3.5 model. Since December 2022, developers have managed to cut the costs of running the neural network by 90% thanks to “extensive optimizations”.
The Whisper large-V2 model costs $0.006 per minute. There is also an open-source version, though the company acknowledges that its rollout may encounter difficulties.
Some firms have already gained API access. OpenAI said that Quizlet, Instacart and Snapchat are preparing to introduce AI assistants and ChatGPT-based chatbots.
According to data scientist Max Wolf, API prices are extremely low.
“I have no idea how OpenAI can profit from this. They must incur colossal losses in the fight against rivals before they take off,” he wrote.
In November 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT. In two months, the service became the fastest-growing in history, reaching 100 million active users.
In February 2023, OpenAI introduced a paid version of the chatbot.
In the same month, ChatGPT became available in Ukraine.
In September 2022, OpenAI introduced the speech recognition system Whisper.