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I get that this isn't a trivial service to scale and deploy, but the $20/month fee to use ChatGPT reliably is one of the most unreliable and low-value products

I get that this isn't a trivial service to scale and deploy, but the $20/month fee to use ChatGPT reliably is one of the most unreliable and low-value products I subscribe to. It's basically a toy, and while I'm curious to learn to use it effectively and understand how it might fit into my workflows, I can't help but feel like I'm doing them more of a favour than they are me. It's kind of like ChatGPT Plus is more on the tier of a donation than a legitimate product. Apart from being unreliable, the user interface and experience overall is not that great despite being very simple in its requirements. Things break all the time, user sessions seem to break in unclear ways, now I suppose people are getting the wrong history entries. I want to keep using it in order to learn, but I really dislike paying for such a poorly implemented service. I suppose since there's nothing else like it, we just have to put up with it for the time being.

sourcecodeplz 4y ago
I am very happy with the free 3.5 version. Sometimes I use the Bing version for live data.
hansvm 4y ago
The API is cheaper (up to around 330 in-depth queries per day), more powerful, easier to use, by definition not subject to the whims of history unavailability, and doesn't seem to be down when the web platform is down. I wasted half a day making a nice frontend, but it was unaffected by today's outage and got better results than when I was restricted to the web UI.
- MacsHeadroom 4y ago
  >The API is cheaper Not for GPT-4 it isn't.
seba_dos1 4y ago
> Things break all the time, user sessions seem to break in unclear ways, now I suppose people are getting the wrong history entries. Perhaps the UI has been made by GPT itself.
furyofantares 4y ago
> I get that this isn't a trivial service to scale and deploy, but the $20/month fee to use ChatGPT reliably is one of the most unreliable and low-value products I subscribe to. Meanwhile, after 25 happy years in the industry, I suddenly don't want to work when it's down. It's hard for me to imagine describing it as low-value (though I certainly believe you that it has been to you.)
- dizhn 4y ago
  What are you doing with it. I am seeing this kind of comment a lot but nobody seems to actually say what it is this tool can actually do for them. My personal experience with it makes me really wonder.
  - DelightOne 4y ago
    When I do not know how to program something, I get a couple of options. Often better than Google.
  - ModernMech 4y ago
    I'm using it to write technical documentation. I can give it some specs and technical points about my project, then prompt it to write the docs. It gets a lot wrong, so I go back and fix it. But it's easier than starting from a blank page. I was planning on spending about a month writing it all and hiring some help, but I'll be done this week with ChatGPT for $20.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      That's fascinating, you and I are using it essentially in inverse fashion. I feed it docs to get code, you feed it specs to get docs! It's easier than starting from a blank page is precisely where my motivations come from. It spurs the neurons a little better when there's something to work with.
      - liveoneggs 4y ago
        You two should hang out
LightMachine 4y ago
Well I can't disagree more. I feel like that's the best value I get for $20 among everything I pay, by at least 3 orders of magnitude. This thing does so much for me, I can't live without it anymore. When it is down I just log in on playground and pay for the API. It got to this point...
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  It sounds like the issue is probably that I’m bad at using it, haha. Many of you are getting your money’s worth, so I should maybe simmer down and focus on getting more utility from it.
BoorishBears 4y ago
I usually hate when people drop platitudes like "iF yoU doN't lIkE doN't pAy", but this is the first time I've really felt that. ChatGPT is offering a lot more than $20 worth of compute to a lot of people. If you find it low value, I don't think you're going to like it when this stuff starts costing what it really should, so I'd say just stop paying for it.
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  I don't doubt that; I think my issue is centred around reliability and outputs though, not outputs alone. If it was more reliable I don't think I'd be concerned at all. Having so many outages and limitations makes me hesitant to support the company if this is what we're in for, if that makes sense. I also believe we're in a sort of training phase, both for GPT as well as its users. As such, we're giving the engineers are time and efforts in order for them to improve the product in essential ways – not only getting benefits from its outputs. I see that as a good reason for it to be as discounted as it is at the moment, but I don't feel like it's acceptable for the service itself to be so intermittent. I fully expect the price of successful AI products to scale with how useful and essential there are; I know $20 is intro pricing. I suspect we will begin to see highly specialized models pricing orders of magnitude higher in the coming years.

sourcecodeplz 4y ago

I am very happy with the free 3.5 version. Sometimes I use the Bing version for live data.

hansvm 4y ago

The API is cheaper (up to around 330 in-depth queries per day), more powerful, easier to use, by definition not subject to the whims of history unavailability, and doesn't seem to be down when the web platform is down. I wasted half a day making a nice frontend, but it was unaffected by today's outage and got better results than when I was restricted to the web UI.

MacsHeadroom 4y ago
>The API is cheaper Not for GPT-4 it isn't.

seba_dos1 4y ago

> Things break all the time, user sessions seem to break in unclear ways, now I suppose people are getting the wrong history entries. Perhaps the UI has been made by GPT itself.

furyofantares 4y ago

> I get that this isn't a trivial service to scale and deploy, but the $20/month fee to use ChatGPT reliably is one of the most unreliable and low-value products I subscribe to. Meanwhile, after 25 happy years in the industry, I suddenly don't want to work when it's down. It's hard for me to imagine describing it as low-value (though I certainly believe you that it has been to you.)

dizhn 4y ago
What are you doing with it. I am seeing this kind of comment a lot but nobody seems to actually say what it is this tool can actually do for them. My personal experience with it makes me really wonder.
- DelightOne 4y ago
  When I do not know how to program something, I get a couple of options. Often better than Google.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  I'm using it to write technical documentation. I can give it some specs and technical points about my project, then prompt it to write the docs. It gets a lot wrong, so I go back and fix it. But it's easier than starting from a blank page. I was planning on spending about a month writing it all and hiring some help, but I'll be done this week with ChatGPT for $20.
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    That's fascinating, you and I are using it essentially in inverse fashion. I feed it docs to get code, you feed it specs to get docs! It's easier than starting from a blank page is precisely where my motivations come from. It spurs the neurons a little better when there's something to work with.
    - liveoneggs 4y ago
      You two should hang out

LightMachine 4y ago

Well I can't disagree more. I feel like that's the best value I get for $20 among everything I pay, by at least 3 orders of magnitude. This thing does so much for me, I can't live without it anymore. When it is down I just log in on playground and pay for the API. It got to this point...

steve_adams_86 4y ago
It sounds like the issue is probably that I’m bad at using it, haha. Many of you are getting your money’s worth, so I should maybe simmer down and focus on getting more utility from it.

BoorishBears 4y ago

I usually hate when people drop platitudes like "iF yoU doN't lIkE doN't pAy", but this is the first time I've really felt that. ChatGPT is offering a lot more than $20 worth of compute to a lot of people. If you find it low value, I don't think you're going to like it when this stuff starts costing what it really should, so I'd say just stop paying for it.

steve_adams_86 4y ago
I don't doubt that; I think my issue is centred around reliability and outputs though, not outputs alone. If it was more reliable I don't think I'd be concerned at all. Having so many outages and limitations makes me hesitant to support the company if this is what we're in for, if that makes sense. I also believe we're in a sort of training phase, both for GPT as well as its users. As such, we're giving the engineers are time and efforts in order for them to improve the product in essential ways – not only getting benefits from its outputs. I see that as a good reason for it to be as discounted as it is at the moment, but I don't feel like it's acceptable for the service itself to be so intermittent. I fully expect the price of successful AI products to scale with how useful and essential there are; I know $20 is intro pricing. I suspect we will begin to see highly specialized models pricing orders of magnitude higher in the coming years.