Dear OpenAI Team,
I appreciate the amazing work behind ChatGPT, which has been a valuable tool for learning. However, the $20/month cost of ChatGPT Plus is a barrier for low-income users. Many services offer discounted pricing through programs like SNAP and Medicaid, and a similar model could make ChatGPT Plus more accessible.
Thank you for considering this suggestion.
Best regards,
Hi welcome to the community!
Maybe they can expand this oppurtunity all over the world, who knows 
ChatGPT Plus is free for college students in the US and CANADA through MAY
I need to second this, but not exactly for the same reasons. I do think that for US, 20 dollars is a pretty relative accesible amount when it comes to the general public and the services provided, although the reality of each individual can be drastically different. BUT, one thing i donât think theyâre taking too much in consideration is how high is the pricing with local currencies. And i know they adjusted the number in the app through Google Play, instead of the general conversaion rate of the dollar during that specific day, and that is really helpful. But big companies with large LLM, specially with the spread of the worldwide usage, in my opnion as someone who uses it a lot to multiple things on my daily life-- they need to think about the economics withinâ those countries.
Let me show you why.
In Brazil, the minium wage is around R$ 1.500,00. This number represents a lot of people, but not all of them of course, but itâs pretty much the bare minimum you should be getting (and lots donât). So, thatâs basically roughly just above U$ 250, because USD to BRL is usually 5-6 times the value here. So the 20 dollars a month for Plus is already almost 10% of the whole thing, not to mention the Pro one, that is basically the whole thing But you could ask âthe medium wage per brazilian doesnât follow the same rule, since itâs around R$ 3.5kâ, and i agree. But, that doesnât mean is a pretty significant amount nonetheless. Around me, i donât see ANY person who pays a single subscription that is around or more 100 bucks a month, and when i tell them i pay, the usual response is âyouâre insaneâ or âthatâs the price of a âbasic food basketâ for a familyâ.
Now, is someone making me pay? No. Do i need to pay to survive instead of using the free versions with can be pretty helpful nonetheless? No. Am i complaining that i am unsatisfied by it? No. I am saying that since the market is very US/EUR based, i think other contries, specially develping/third world ones need to speak the reality a little bit to give a general idea of the daily life and impact price. I am still a student, i do not receive any loans, and 100 bucks here is pretty significant. And NOT EVEN MENTIONING the fact that GPT isnât my only subscription. Thereâs many stuff and they keep pilling up not just because of the quantity and new tools, but because here the prices are way high, and the salaries arenât accompanying it. And i even heard that âit doesnât matter since the product isnât focused on costumers from contries like thisâ or âthey wonât pay attention because the vast majority are from other contriesâ, arguments that seems pretty innacurate, since Brazil has a strong presence online from memes, to being the favorite contry for lots of artists to perform shows, and, the news are always exponetially growing with things like being the fourth country in the world to use it. Basically every student in public school that i know uses it, for example --even though the usage itself is very concerning, and professor collegues of mine are losing their minds with it.
And we need to keep that in mind since lots of different companies are being competitive with new tools and therfore, their prices, with some going to R$200 or R$300 easily. And i know. If you make the most of it, specially for life and productivity or your company, etc., this number can show a lot, lot more results in return. If youâre able to transform the tools provided not just for fun or entertaiment but actually as something that could help you grow and evolve, the money is well invested. Still, that doesnât mean i donât struggle a lot to pay it in the end of the month, specially with housing prices skyrocketing, food being so expensive, the governement and private institutions receeding in loans and student funds. I wish, just wish that âwhat i am doing with it right nowâ and the things i want to publish since iâve interact with it, can help me build a path and a career out of it too. Because yes, it changed my life in many ways, but for an invidividual who is highly commended and praised for their uniqueness and knowledge, those same traits keep me being very unfit for the market still. And in a world full of boxes, my relation to AI was symbiotic even before i noticed it, but that doesnât mean reality doesnât kick hard in countries that you canât even point out GPT to look through your camera outside, because someone migh rob you, let alone pay higher prices for it.
So, this is not venting. This is understanding.
Maybe more in between plans? (I know that it seems that they want to unify just two big ones with Plus and Pro, and i do agree that for management this could be pottentially better for them to work with it, but i donât understand yet how more plans could increase or decrease subscriptions with/out being a market strategic plan too.)
Maybe more specific conversion rates based on the contries? (Conversion rates are pretty high and thereâs a reason for dollar being the price it is, i am not complaining about that and i understand just a little about global finance to know that it isnât just easy for a company to go and just: âOh, ok. So the user aimeanlove barely have the money to pay the bills and are prying online about it. We will press a buttom and change the world just to better suit their needs.â I know. But this is not about it. Specially because i have seem companies, specially the ones with subscriptions, that HAVE adjusted the pricing to better suit the needs of people here. But to me, no matter how adjusted that is, i donât see myself using Pro for a long, long while, even though i would want a unlimeted access to this and that. And i ainât even gonna start with the whole API values, because that alone is a whole another topic. In dollars the value really seem reasonable. It really does. Specially for the low cost one that are basically cents. But after just some rapid and poorly executed calculations, there isnât a single chance that spending just enough time on a day there with the whole input/output/cache value wonât already have a drastic change on the financial status of the said user.
So, maybe in the near future i wonât even have the same POV as i do right now, specially because my understanding of this is still premature and i would highly encourage discussions about my positioning here. I do not hold any truth and the only thing i know is that i know nothing. But i thought it would be good to express this in my current reality, because i know that it can be insighful not just about me, but for the communities iâve been interacting with it online, and the discrepancy of what i have --which is already relatively low-- to other people. Strategic positioning could even lead OpenAI expansion to places like this not just on the company-money-user relation, but the whole livelyhood of something that is already shaping our reality in drastic ways.
With love.
(Brasil and being one of the top of the list in AI usage.)
(Again, showing top 4 as many other sources.)
(Brasil surpassing the global mid usage.)
(Costs being the biggest challenge for AI in Brazil.)
(Google about the impact of AI and startups in Brazil.)
i just wanted to add i know that there is a free tier which is truely amazing, but for example in the state i live in someone on medicaid their monthly income cannot exceed 1,730 and if they are elderly and living at home their monthly income cannot exceed $1,305. this is really why i created this post and why i think companies like amazon and walmart have a medicaid/snap discounts.
I agree for an elderly this is a must, but I cannot afford $20 especially given programs like Walmart+ that assist with delivery all these âfeesâ add up to a hefty chunk and I already rely on Food Bucks