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I didn't use Bing much but in my experience, it's a lot harder to achieve what I want. For example, it almost always search the web for an answer which is a hit

I didn't use Bing much but in my experience, it's a lot harder to achieve what I want. For example, it almost always search the web for an answer which is a hit or miss for me. If you want to use GPTs or to generate images with Dall-E then ChatGPT Plus is a no brainer I guess. But if your focus is on GPT-4 then I highly recommend to use an API instead. There are multiple pros of using an API Key: - You pay for your usages. I've been using API Key exclusively and most of the time, it cost me around $5-$10 a month - Your data is not used for training. This is important for a privacy-minded user like me. Though you can disable this in ChatGPT (but you will lose chat history) - No message limit. Though there are rate limits to prevent abuse but generally, you do not have the message limit like the ChatGPT - You can choose previous GPT models. In my experience, `gpt-4-0314` was the peak gpt-4 model. Depends on the applications, you can also get these: - Access to multiple AI services: OpenAI, Azure or OpenRouter - Build custom AI workflows - Voice search & text-to-speech etc. - Deeper integrations with other apps & services There are also a few cons: - No GPTs support yet - If you use Dall E a lot then ChatGPT plus is more affordable. Generating images using Dall E API can be quite expensive Edit: Some tips when using an API Key: - You pay for tokens used (basically how long your question & AI's answers). The price per chat message is not expensive, but usually you will need to send the whole conversation to OpenAI, which makes it expensive. Make sure to pick an app that allows you to limit the chat context. - Don't use GPT-4 for tasks that doesn't require deeper reasoning capabilities. I find that GPT-3.5 turbo is still very good at simple tasks like: grammar fixes, improve your writing, translations ... - Use different system prompts for different tasks: for example, I have a special prompt for coding tasks, and a different system prompt for writing tasks. It usually give a much better result. Shameless plug: I've been building a native ChatGPT app for Mac called BoltAI[0], give it a try [0]: https://boltai.com https://boltai.com

enginaar 3y ago
kudos for perpetual license. app looks neat. non-techy question: how do you ensure users their keys are safe?
- longnguyen 3y ago
  Thanks. By default, BoltAI stores user's API key in Apple Keychain. So other applications and scripts won't be able to access this key without triggering the OS's security dialog. Secondly, all requests are sent directly to OpenAI servers. There is absolutely no middle/proxy server. There is however a proxy server for Claude but this was due to a technical difficulty and user can host their own proxy server instead.
  - enginaar 3y ago
    thank you for the clear explanation
- outcoldman 3y ago
  It is not a perpetual license. "One year of free updates included." means subscription. Especially considering product depends on third party API, which rapidly evolves, you cannot really stick with the old version, because some new model will not be embedded in the one year old version of the app you have. So, in reality you pay $40-80 a year for this product. Plus your ChatGPT API Key usage. In that case I would just suggest pay for the OpenAI. If you are looking for an alternative of the app for the ChatGPT - I would suggest https://www.typingmind.com https://www.typingmind.com I have been using it since it was released. It is also available with Setapp subscription, which gives you some free usage of the OpenAI with Setapp embedded API key.
  - longnguyen 3y ago
    Technically it's perpetual fallback license, which was popularized by the Jetbrain team [0] > A perpetual fallback license is a license that allows you to use a specific version of software without an active subscription for it. The license also includes all bugfix updates, more specifically in X.Y.Z version all Z releases are included. After 1 year, you can continue to use the app without having to upgrade. You won't receive new features, but will continue to receive bug fixes for the features released previously. So I can argue it's not "subscription". Plus, renewal cost 50% less, so it's not $40-$80 a year, but only $20-$40 a year after the first year. And lastly, the app fetch model lists from OpenAI API so there is no need to "support new models". I believe this is a sustainable pricing model for an indie developer like me. And I believe it's fair for everyone. [0]: https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What-is-a-perpetual-fallback-license- https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What...
teruakohatu 3y ago
Is there a relationship between MindMac, which I have seen before on HN, and BoltAI? Websites are quite similar.
- longnguyen 3y ago
  No, there isn't. If you're talking about the design then I can see both were modified from a paid Tailwind UI template. For marketing copy, all I can say is they were "inspired" by mine. You can easily check using Wayback Machine [0][1] :D [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230522013022/https://boltai.app/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230522013022/https://boltai.ap... [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230711214004/https://mindmac.app/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230711214004/https://mindmac.a...
d1sxeyes 3y ago
I think your section on data privacy could mislead some folks. You’ve written: > Is my data protected? Absolutely. BoltAI operates locally on your device, and no user input or prompts are stored or sent to us. While the explanation might be true, as far as I understand it, you can’t assert that users’ data is “absolutely” protected, because it fundamentally depends on OpenAI to keep your users’ data safe too, which you can’t control. I would guess most of your audience would understand this anyway, but I would be careful as potentially someone could sue you in case OpenAI had a data breach or something.
- longnguyen 3y ago
  I think you're right. Thanks for the feedback. I will update it soon!
turkishmonky 3y ago
This is the way - I just had chatgpt make me a personal use command line utility that just uses the API to mimic chatgpt with whatever model you pass in, saves the running chat as a text file, and gives you a running cost with every prompt. It took about an hour to get something I was happy with, but now I average about a buck a month on it (but I still use the free chatgpt/claude for simpler queries)
eterps 3y ago
> But if your focus is on GPT-4 then I highly recommend to use an API instead. When you have made that choice is it still possible to use 'browse the web' or 'talk to a PDF' like functionality? If so, what would be the best way to do it?
- longnguyen 3y ago
  It depends a lot on the GPT client (third-party application). My app (BoltAI) does support web search (via Google Search) and web browsing (built-in) but not chat w/ PDF functionality. I built another app[0] specifically for that use case. So I guess if you need an all-in-one kind of functionality then ChatGPT could be a better choice. [0]: https://pdfpals.com https://pdfpals.com
  - jaggs 3y ago
    I'm a big fan of TypingMind as a front end. typingmind.com
    - longnguyen 3y ago
      Haha yeah, same. TypingMind is probably the client with the most features. Tony ships at a crazy speed. With BoltAI, I want to focus on MacOS with more native integrations.
      - jaggs 3y ago
        Heh, yeah, he is a crazy coder no doubt. Good to have a Mac specific option though. Good luck with it.
jaggs 3y ago
>> In my experience, `gpt-4-0314` was the peak gpt-4 model. That's interesting. Why do you say that? And where can we access the model from?
- longnguyen 3y ago
  It’s just my personal experience. So I mostly use GPT-4 for coding tasks and gpt-4-0314 usually gives me the answer I want, without having to use system prompt tricks like this https://twitter.com/voooooogel/status/1730726744314069190 https://twitter.com/voooooogel/status/1730726744314069190 If you use API Key then you can change the model parameter. Here is the list of models that OpenAI support: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4-and-gpt-4-turbo https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4-and-gpt-4-turb... Too bad it’s considered legacy model and will be deprecated next year.

enginaar 3y ago

kudos for perpetual license. app looks neat. non-techy question: how do you ensure users their keys are safe?

longnguyen 3y ago
Thanks. By default, BoltAI stores user's API key in Apple Keychain. So other applications and scripts won't be able to access this key without triggering the OS's security dialog. Secondly, all requests are sent directly to OpenAI servers. There is absolutely no middle/proxy server. There is however a proxy server for Claude but this was due to a technical difficulty and user can host their own proxy server instead.
- enginaar 3y ago
  thank you for the clear explanation
outcoldman 3y ago
It is not a perpetual license. "One year of free updates included." means subscription. Especially considering product depends on third party API, which rapidly evolves, you cannot really stick with the old version, because some new model will not be embedded in the one year old version of the app you have. So, in reality you pay $40-80 a year for this product. Plus your ChatGPT API Key usage. In that case I would just suggest pay for the OpenAI. If you are looking for an alternative of the app for the ChatGPT - I would suggest https://www.typingmind.com https://www.typingmind.com I have been using it since it was released. It is also available with Setapp subscription, which gives you some free usage of the OpenAI with Setapp embedded API key.
- longnguyen 3y ago
  Technically it's perpetual fallback license, which was popularized by the Jetbrain team [0] > A perpetual fallback license is a license that allows you to use a specific version of software without an active subscription for it. The license also includes all bugfix updates, more specifically in X.Y.Z version all Z releases are included. After 1 year, you can continue to use the app without having to upgrade. You won't receive new features, but will continue to receive bug fixes for the features released previously. So I can argue it's not "subscription". Plus, renewal cost 50% less, so it's not $40-$80 a year, but only $20-$40 a year after the first year. And lastly, the app fetch model lists from OpenAI API so there is no need to "support new models". I believe this is a sustainable pricing model for an indie developer like me. And I believe it's fair for everyone. [0]: https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What-is-a-perpetual-fallback-license- https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What...

teruakohatu 3y ago

Is there a relationship between MindMac, which I have seen before on HN, and BoltAI? Websites are quite similar.

longnguyen 3y ago
No, there isn't. If you're talking about the design then I can see both were modified from a paid Tailwind UI template. For marketing copy, all I can say is they were "inspired" by mine. You can easily check using Wayback Machine [0][1] :D [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230522013022/https://boltai.app/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230522013022/https://boltai.ap... [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230711214004/https://mindmac.app/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230711214004/https://mindmac.a...

d1sxeyes 3y ago

I think your section on data privacy could mislead some folks. You’ve written: > Is my data protected? Absolutely. BoltAI operates locally on your device, and no user input or prompts are stored or sent to us. While the explanation might be true, as far as I understand it, you can’t assert that users’ data is “absolutely” protected, because it fundamentally depends on OpenAI to keep your users’ data safe too, which you can’t control. I would guess most of your audience would understand this anyway, but I would be careful as potentially someone could sue you in case OpenAI had a data breach or something.

longnguyen 3y ago
I think you're right. Thanks for the feedback. I will update it soon!

turkishmonky 3y ago

This is the way - I just had chatgpt make me a personal use command line utility that just uses the API to mimic chatgpt with whatever model you pass in, saves the running chat as a text file, and gives you a running cost with every prompt. It took about an hour to get something I was happy with, but now I average about a buck a month on it (but I still use the free chatgpt/claude for simpler queries)

eterps 3y ago

> But if your focus is on GPT-4 then I highly recommend to use an API instead. When you have made that choice is it still possible to use 'browse the web' or 'talk to a PDF' like functionality? If so, what would be the best way to do it?

longnguyen 3y ago
It depends a lot on the GPT client (third-party application). My app (BoltAI) does support web search (via Google Search) and web browsing (built-in) but not chat w/ PDF functionality. I built another app[0] specifically for that use case. So I guess if you need an all-in-one kind of functionality then ChatGPT could be a better choice. [0]: https://pdfpals.com https://pdfpals.com
- jaggs 3y ago
  I'm a big fan of TypingMind as a front end. typingmind.com
  - longnguyen 3y ago
    Haha yeah, same. TypingMind is probably the client with the most features. Tony ships at a crazy speed. With BoltAI, I want to focus on MacOS with more native integrations.
    - jaggs 3y ago
      Heh, yeah, he is a crazy coder no doubt. Good to have a Mac specific option though. Good luck with it.

jaggs 3y ago

>> In my experience, `gpt-4-0314` was the peak gpt-4 model. That's interesting. Why do you say that? And where can we access the model from?

longnguyen 3y ago
It’s just my personal experience. So I mostly use GPT-4 for coding tasks and gpt-4-0314 usually gives me the answer I want, without having to use system prompt tricks like this https://twitter.com/voooooogel/status/1730726744314069190 https://twitter.com/voooooogel/status/1730726744314069190 If you use API Key then you can change the model parameter. Here is the list of models that OpenAI support: https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4-and-gpt-4-turbo https://platform.openai.com/docs/models/gpt-4-and-gpt-4-turb... Too bad it’s considered legacy model and will be deprecated next year.