Sign up for ChatGPT

If you’ve been in the online marketing scene for more than two minutes in 2023, you’ll have probably heard about ChatGPT.

Just about everyone and their grandma’s boyfriend is praising it to the moon… and making it look like this AI tool is the panacea to all content creation ills.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

But sign up to find out more for yourself.

You may sign up for ChatGPT here: https://chat.openai.com

You will see a screen where you can log in if you already have an account or sign up if you don’t.

Click the Sign up button.

You will need a valid email address and phone number.

Enter your email address and click the Continue button.

You will be asked to enter a password with a minimum of 8 characters.

Enter your desired password and click the Continue button.

You will see a message telling you that a message has been sent to your email address containing a link that you must click on to verify your account.

Go to your email’s inbox and find the email sent by OpenAI.

Click the Verify Email Address button.

Enter the personal information requested.

Enter your name and click the Continue button.

You now have to enter your phone number in order to get a verification code.

Enter your phone number and click the Send Code button.

ChatGPT will send a 6-digit code to your phone. Enter it and you will be verified. The next screen you see is some introductory information.

Read and click the Next button.

After a handful of informational screens, you will see the ChatGPT main screen, covering Examples, Capabilities and Limitations.

There will be a bar where you can enter your first query.

On the left is a small menu that includes an optional upgrade.

At the time of writing, the upgrade to ChatGPT Plus cost $20 per month.

Should You Pay for ChatGPT Plus?

After gaining over 100 million users in record time, OpenAI has decided to offer a paid option for ChatGPT. Most users would have seen this coming a mile away.

The tool is popular, does an awesome job and lives up to the hype, most of the time. The creators are definitely going to monetize it.

Whenever something is free and good, you can bet the masses will rush to use it. Since resources are limited, in order to cope with the high demand, ChatGPT imposes limits on ‘free users’.

If you make too many requests within an hour, ChatGPT will not answer your prompt and ask you to return in an hour. This is to keep things fair and allow others to use the tool too.

However, as equitable as this may seem, when you’re in a rush and need to get a project done with ChatGPT’s assistance, waiting for an hour is just not going to cut it.

During times like these, you need ChatGPT Plus…

No restrictions

Once you’ve forked out $20 for the monthly subscription, you’ll be able to make unlimited requests/prompts on this marvelous AI tool. All limits will be removed and you can use it without any delays.

This is the main reason why most users pay for ChatGPT Plus.

If you’re using ChatGPT at least 3 times a week, it’ll make sense to pay for the Plus version.

For example, if you’re a freelance writer who uses this tool to generate quick research for your writing, you’ll know what an invaluable time-saver it is. The $20 you spend will earn you hundreds or even thousands over the course of a month.

Now, ChatGPT is a business cost that makes sense.

But if you’re not creating content frequently, paying monthly for a tool you don’t really use will be just an added cost in your business which yields no reward.

This is the most important factor to bear in mind when signing up for ChatGPT Plus.

Either you or someone you hire should be using it frequently enough to justify paying for it.

While $20 won’t break the bank, there’s no point in paying for something you barely use.

The Other Extra Features

Faster results… really?

OpenAI mentions that using ChatGPT Plus will be faster. You supposedly get ‘priority response’ and faster answers.

This is debatable because the tool roughly takes the same time to answer questions or prompts whether it’s the free or Plus version. A difference in a few seconds is almost negligible here.

Better answers

You’re also told that ChatGPT Plus will give you better answers because it has access to a wider range of data and language models. Well, no one really knows what that means – and we’ll have to take OpenAI’s word for it.

But generally, the free version gives you enough to work with. You could try paying for the Plus version for a month and see if the results you get are more in-depth. That’s probably the only way to know for sure… and even then, it all comes down to your personal preferences.

Customer support

Once you pay for ChatGPT, you’re officially a customer and if you have any issues, you’ll receive priority support. So that’s a plus point here… pun fully intended.

More security and privacy

Once again, a claim that we can’t substantiate. You may wish to do your own research to discover how paying for this tool makes using it more secure or private. But frankly, this is not a major selling point.

After all, ChatGPT is not telling you state secrets nor are you entering private details in the prompts (hopefully).

Expanded language capabilities

Sounds good… but how many languages other than English are you using it for?

If you’re translating your content into different languages, the paid version might be more helpful. But once again, you’ll have to test out the free version against the paid plan to see if there’s any improvement in the results you get.

Integrations and upcoming features

Since ChatGPT is relatively new on the market it doesn’t have a lot of integrations yet. OpenAI mentions that those on the subscription plan will have “priority access to new features and improvements.”

That may sound good to some people who wish to be on the cutting edge of things… while others may not wish to pay monthly for features that are yet to come.

So, what should you do?

Whether you pay for ChatGPT Plus or not will mostly depend on your content creation needs. If you keep being restricted by the tool because you’re on the free ‘plan’, it may be a relief to just pay the 20 bucks and use it without hassle.

You can cancel your subscription anytime you want because you’re not locked in for a year or any such contract.

On a final note, as awesome as ChatGPT seems, it’s not the be-all and end-all of content creation. It’s a tool and nothing more than that. If you’re using it for research or other purposes, you may wish to pay for a month.

Then bulk all your tasks and get them done before the subscription ends… and cancel it. You’ll have enough to work with for a while instead of paying for another month.

$20 isn’t that much, but the devil is in the details – and if you’re not prudent with your business costs, over time, when you add your monthly costs up, you’ll be shocked at how much money you’ve frittered away on tools which you barely use.

Decide wisely.

My recommendation is to try ChatGPT using the free plan and upgrade only if you intend to use it extensively and you find yourself running into limitations.

You are now officially a ChatGPT user!