ChatGPT o3-pro is only available on $200+ plans – here's what you're missing
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OpenAI just released a new ChatGPT model that's better and more reliable than its best reasoning models to date. ChatGPT o3-pro joins the list of AI chatbot options in the app, replacing the o1-pro model. As exciting as the new model is, however, most ChatGPT users don't have access to it… even if they pay for the Plus plan.
If you're on ChatGPT Free or ChatGPT Plus ($20/month), you won't get access to OpenAI's new reasoning AI. ChatGPT o3-pro is coming to the $200/month ChatGPT Plus tier. ChatGPT Team users also have access to o3-pro, and Enterprise and Edu users will get the upgrade soon.
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There's some good news for ChatGPT Plus users, too. OpenAI has significantly reduced the costs for o3.
As someone who chats with ChatGPT o3 almost exclusively, I definitely appreciate the improved efficiencies. It's not like I worried too often about running out of ChatGPT o3 chats, but it did happen. It's good to see OpenAI bring down costs for its frontier models. That means Plus users are getting better rate limits than before.
OpenAI explained in its release notes that 'like o1-pro, o3-pro is a version of our most intelligent model, o3, designed to think longer and provide the most reliable responses.'
o3-pro will excel in the same areas as o1-pro, including math, science, and coding.
Like o3, o3-pro has access to various tools available in ChatGPT, including online search, file support, reasoning with visual prompts, coding (Python), and memory. It's not quite on par with o3, though. ChatGPT o3-pro doesn't have temporary chats for now, and it can't use the 4o image generation tool or the Canvas feature.
What really matters here are the performance improvements, and o3-pro excels in all benchmarks OpenAI conducted. That's not surprising for a new frontier model. OpenAI wouldn't add the 'pro' suffix without ensuring o3-pro outperforms o3.
The company also says that o3-pro is routinely favored by reviewers:
In expert evaluations, reviewers consistently prefer o3-pro over o3 in every tested category and especially in key domains like science, education, programming, business, and writing help. Reviewers also rated o3-pro consistently higher for clarity, comprehensiveness, instruction-following, and accuracy.
OpenAI's tests show an average win rate of 64% in favor of o3-pro when compared to o3.
As I said before, I'm a ChatGPT Plus user who's quite happy with what I get for that monthly $20 fee. I can't justify going Pro, just as I can't downgrade to ChatGPT Free.
I've been using o3 more and more lately, even if I have to fight with the AI sometimes. Naturally, I wondered whether I really needed the slightly better o3-pro performance and the reduced hallucination rate (aka improved accuracy).
I don't think I'll miss much for now, and this o3-pro review that Sam Altman retweeted does a great job explaining where o3-pro shines and why ChatGPT Plus users might not need it. Here's a longer snippet that includes the detail Altman cited:
The weekly limit for ChatGPT o3 chats sits at 100 messages for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users.
Developers will appreciate the price drop the most. ChatGPT o3 input/output is priced at $2/$8 per 1 million tokens, down from $10/$40.
But then I took a different approach. My co-founder Alexis and I took the time to assemble a history of all our past planning meetings at Raindrop, all our goals, even recorded voice memos, and then asked o3-pro to come up with a plan.
We were blown away. It spit out the exact kind of concrete plan and analysis I've always wanted an LLM to create, complete with target metrics, timelines, priorities, and strict instructions on what to cut.
The plan o3 gave us was plausible, reasonable. But the plan o3-pro gave us was specific and grounded enough that it actually changed how we're thinking about our future.
This is hard to capture in an eval.
That sounds amazing, but it's also something I don't need right now. I recommend reading the entire review to see the differences between o3 and o3-pro and decide for yourself.
While I won't get o3-pro anytime soon, I'm glad to hear that operating costs for ChatGPT o3 queries have dropped significantly.
Altman said on X that OpenAI has reduced the price of o3 by 80%. OpenAI's Kevin Weil tweeted that the company has doubled the rate limits for o3 in the Plus tier. That might not match the 80% drop in costs, but it's still a big improvement.
The weekly limit for ChatGPT o3 chats remains at 100 messages for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users.
Developers will appreciate the price drop the most. ChatGPT o3 input/output is now priced at $2/$8 per 1 million tokens, down from $10/$40.
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