True AI Advice

ChatGPT usage is more prevalent than ever, and its current model offers a monthly subscription of $20 for ChatGPT Plus or the mind-boggling steep $200 per month for ChatGPT Pro. Beyond that, there are no other options, but an APK teardown suggests the service might soon offer both annual and lifetime subscription plans.

@M1Astra, a user on X, found code strings in the latest build that point to multiple new subscription tiers. There’s no clear price on these, but the second-to-last string suggests a discount will be offered for annual subscribers. There’s also a line for a possible weekly subscription that would allow users to use more advanced features as needed, rather than paying one month at a time.

The only way to subscribe annually is through the Team or Enterprise plans, both of which are geared more towards business or commercial use rather than the average user. For anyone who uses ChatGPT daily, an annual subscription would be a convenient way to save money (and make budgeting a bit easier), but what it might cost is anyone’s guess. If prices remain the same, a yearly subscription could cost $240 without a discount, but perhaps ChatGPT would price it at $200 — slightly over 15% off.

The lifetime subscription is much harder to estimate and will likely carry an exorbitant price tag. The team will have to account for future growth and development, new features that might be added, and numerous other factors. The service has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years, so it’s easy to imagine what it might be capable of in the years to come.

In many cases, a “lifetime” subscription to something is calculated at roughly ten years. ChatGPT could charge anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 for a subscription to the Plus plan, but if you want a lifetime subscription to the $200 per month Pro tier? That’s anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000 by those same calculations.

Of course, this is all speculation. ChatGPT hasn’t officially announced additional subscription options yet, so it remains to be seen what they will actually be priced at. However, regardless of what the annual plan costs, the lifetime plan is likely to be absurdly expensive.