News Analysis
Enterprises that are evaluating artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and their pricing plans have another option to consider from OpenAI.
OpenAI released its ChatGPT Pro plan last week, which at $200 a month per user is the most expensive off-the-shelf chatbot plan among OpenAI’s major competitors.
Here, we examine the Pro plan to help enterprise leaders evaluate if it’s a good choice for their teams.
Table of Contents
- ChatGPT Pro’s Key Features
- ChatGPT Pro’s Target Users
- ChatGPT Pro’s Price Point and OpenAI’s Other Plans
- ChatGPT Pro’s Competition
- OpenAI’s Pro Strategy
ChatGPT Pro’s Key Features
ChatGPT Pro gives users access to the “best” of OpenAI:
- Unlimited access to OpenAI’s “smartest” o1 “reasoning” model and o1 mini
- The only plan with access to o1 “pro mode,” which uses more compute for the “hardest” questions and “thinks longer” for the “most reliable responses”
- Unlimited access to the GPT-4o model
- Unlimited access to advanced voice
If a Pro user doesn’t want their chatbot conversations to be used for model training, they can opt out in their data settings.
The Pro plan doesn’t include access to the OpenAI API.
Robin Patra, head of data, platform, product and engineering at ARCO Construction, said unlimited access to the o1 model is “valuable for complex problem solving” in areas such supply chain optimization and predictive maintenance algorithms.
Access to the pro mode version of o1 “enhances our ability to develop sophisticated AI models” for quality control and process optimization, Patra said.
Patra added that unlimited access to advanced voice could “improve our voice-controlled interfaces” for factory floor applications.
Related Article: Is OpenAI’s New o1 Model the Big Step Forward We’ve Been Waiting For?
ChatGPT Pro’s Target Users
According to the company, ChatGPT Pro is intended for researchers, engineers and users who use research-grade intelligence daily to help improve their productivity and access the latest advancements in AI.
The pro mode version of the o1 model that’s exclusive to the Pro plan performs better on machine learning (ML) benchmarks than the regular o1 version in competition-level math and coding prompts and Ph.D.-level science prompts.
As such, the Pro plan with o1 pro mode may make sense for a range of research-heavy industries: life sciences; biotechnology; pharmaceutical; medical; manufacturing; robotics; telecommunications; aerospace; defense; electronics and artificial intelligence.
The Pro plan may be a particularly helpful tool for users working in various research-based fields: mathematics; chemistry; biology; physics; pharmacology; pathology; oncology; computer science and data science.
The plan could "shine" in industries where “precision is essential” and help streamline workflows for coding, mathematics modeling and hypothesis testing, said Chris Harrop, CRO at Salsa Digital.
For example, Patra said ARCO Construction is considering Pro subscriptions for lead AI researchers, process designers and senior software architects.
ChatGPT Pro’s Price Point and OpenAI’s Other Plans
ChatGPT Pro’s price of $200 a month per user is 10 times the price of the $20 a month ChatGPT Plus plan and over six times the $30 a month Team plan.
The Plus and Team plans provide limited access to the o1 and o1 mini models and limited voice mode — and most notably, no access to o1 pro mode. Team also provides a workplace admin console and sharing GPTs among a workplace.
OpenAI’s Enterprise plan doesn’t have a posted price. The Enterprise plan provides analytics and enhanced support and ongoing account management.
That said, the only OpenAI plan that provides access to o1 pro mode is the Pro plan, which OpenAI is trying to stress in the rollout. OpenAI doesn't state if the Pro plan also includes workplace tools, GPT sharing, analytics and enhanced support and account management.
The Pro plan “isn't necessarily 10 times better” than the Plus plan for all users, said Patra.
“Its value depends on specific use cases and frequency of use,” Patra said. “At this stage, any claims about specific productivity gains or improvements in efficiency would be premature and speculative. Enterprises will need time to implement, test and measure the actual impact of ChatGPT Pro on their operations.”
For “general knowledge work,” the Plus plan “remains sufficient for most users,” said Harrop.
ChatGPT Pro’s Competition
Looking at the AI market, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro plan creates the highest pricing tier among chatbots by AI companies with foundation models.
The competition appears to be vying against OpenAI’s Plus and Team plans from a pricing standpoint. OpenAI, then, is banking on enterprises seeing its o1 pro mode as being multiple times better than the lower-cost chatbots by major AI companies:
- Microsoft Copilot: The Pro plan is currently $20 a month. It provides priority access to the company’s latest AI models and more usage.
- Google Gemini: The Business plan is currently $20 a month. It provides access to Gemini Advanced, priority access to new features and Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Drive, Slides, Sheets and Meet. The Enterprise plan is currently $30 a month. It provides full access and usage of Gemini, note-taking and document classifying.
- Anthropic Claude: The Pro plan is currently $18 a month. It provides access to more models, such as Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Opus, more usage and early access to new features. The Team plan is currently $25 a month. It provides more usage, central administration and early access to collaboration features.
- Amazon Q: The Business Pro plan is currently $20 a month. It provides access to connect business data to the chatbot, Amazon Q Apps to create apps and Amazon Q in QuickSight for business intelligence (BI).
- XAI Grok: X users can currently use the chatbot Grok-2 for free. There’s no stated business-level plan for the Grok-2.
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Custom enterprise pricing, however, for ChatGPT and other chatbots will remain the choice for certain leaders buying for enterprise teams.
“Competitors offering scalable enterprise pricing, customized for specific workloads, will likely retain appeal for large organizations with varied AI needs,” said Harrop.
Custom engagements with enterprises are “attractive for large-scale deployments,” said Patra. "We're negotiating such agreements with several vendors for our factory-wide AI initiatives.”
Related Article: 10 Top Generative AI Chatbots
OpenAI’s Pro Strategy
Based on its projected billions in losses this year and billions in fundraising as well as billions in backing by publicly traded Microsoft, the Pro plan appears to be a strategic move by OpenAI to more quickly monetize, sell and scale its flagship ChatGPT product to enterprise teams by offering them the company’s “best” in a much costlier plan.
OpenAI reported this fall it has over 11 million paid users, including over one million paid business users, according to The Information. If, for instance, all business users converted to the Pro plan, the company would generate over $2.4 billion in annual revenue. In comparison, the company reportedly expects to generate $3.7 billion in revenue this year, with over 75% from consumer plans, according to Bloomberg. If OpenAI’s user base continues to grow, the Pro plan could significantly increase its portion of business revenue — to the point of perhaps overtaking consumer revenue.
By pricing the Pro plan higher than the rest of the market, OpenAI may be banking on enterprise users viewing the Pro plan with access to o1 pro mode as the de facto “best” option. The Pro plan and its pricing may tap enterprise research leaders and their teams who are willing to pay a premium to gain a possible competitive advantage by using what they perceive as the “best” chatbot.
"Enterprises often equate higher pricing with premium quality," said Harrop.
Patra said the "perception of Pro as best in class could drive some adoption, but most enterprises will likely conduct cost-benefit analyses for each role.”
Related Article: 4 Truths About OpenAI's Wild Financial Position
