For those who want to access more of ChatGPT but simply find the current price points too high, OpenAI has good news.
Chief financial officer Sarah Friar told CNBC in a live interview on Tuesday that Dots, OpenAI’s new agent system, will initially be available through its Pro, Business, and Enterprise offerings, but the company wants them to reach its entire consumer audience.
“For the business, you’re going to see it show up inside our pro SKUs and then inside of our business enterprise offerings for now,” Friar said. “But absolutely our vision is to bring this to our whole consumer base as well, 1.2 billion people around the world.”
Friar described Dots as a step toward AI that actively helps people manage their lives.
“Dots is now productivity. It’s the agent that can tap you on the shoulder and remind you that you forgot to do that LinkedIn post for tomorrow,” Friar said. “So it can go to your email, it can go to your calendar, it can go to your Slack or wherever you work.”
CEO Sam Altman echoed the broader ambition during a question-and-answer session at OpenAI’s DevDay on Tuesday, saying that Dots is “starting out” as a premium product.
“I think there are very good reasons for that, and I think it will help us understand and help people understand how expensive what AI can do,” Altman said.
“But you should, of course, expect us to do a mass market thing for billions of people,” Altman added.
Neither executive gave a timetable or price for that wider rollout. For now, Dots will be available through OpenAI’s expanding premium subscription lineup. OpenAI announced Pro 500, a $500-a-month ChatGPT plan that totals $6,000 a year, with its highest usage allowance.
The plan includes “Ultrafast” computing for GPT-6 Astra in ChatGPT Work and Codex, which OpenAI says delivers up to an eightfold increase in speed. OpenAI said it also reopened its $200-a-month Pro plan while halving its compute allowance. Subscribers now get 10 times the allowance of the $20-a-month Plus plan, down from 20 times.
Friar doesn’t think the price point would deter subscribers.
“A year ago, two years ago, when we launched our $200 SKU, people thought we’d lost our minds. No one’s ever going to spend that per month. I heard that over and over again,” Friar said. “And now, actually, what we see is not only are people willing to spend more, they’re actually moving more towards consumption in consumers.”
