OpenAI comes with a paid API for ChatGPT

By admin On Mar 2, 2023

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OpenAI has released a paid API for ChatGPT. Developers can thus integrate both ChatGPT and the speech recognition algorithm Whisper into their own products. The API is part of the AI company’s future revenue model.

Developers can always use the latest version of ChatGPT via the API, writes OpenAI, but by default they are on version gpt-3.5-turbo. If new versions are released in the future, developers can choose to implement those new models. Developers always end up alone on a stable release. For Whisper they can use version large-v2.

OpenAI charges $0.002 for every thousand ‘tokens’ to the API. This makes the API much cheaper than the GPT-3.5 model API, which cost $0.02 for the same tokens. OpenAI does not charge money per call to the API, but has its own token model. Text and metadata are converted into a format that is then converted into tokens.

Together with the API, OpenAI also makes it possible for developers to reserve a dedicated instance on Azure so they have more control. Normally ChatGPT still runs on shared instances on Azure where all users pay individually per token, but with the new API it is possible to reserve a specific instance. In that case, developers can do load balancing, set limits and take snapshots. According to OpenAI, this is especially interesting for developers who use more than 450 million tokens per day.

With the introduction of the paid API, OpenAI is also changing some of its policies. For example, data extracted from the API is no longer used to train the model. The retention period for API data will also be shortened to thirty days and OpenAI will no longer conduct a review before a company puts the API into practice.

OpenAI has been working for several months with companies that could test the API, whether in beta or not. The company cites Snapchat as an example of a service where the API works; Snapchat announced earlier this week that it would be launching its own AI function. OpenAI probably sees the API as one of the most important revenue models for the future; currently the company is receiving a lot of money from investors and has signed a billion-dollar deal with Microsoft. A paid API can mean a more sustainable revenue model.