Most AI tools offer free and paid options, from ChatGPT and Gemini to all kinds of AI apps in the Play Store. Is paying for AI worth it?
Paying for AI: is it worth it?
Most AI tools are free to use, but the really advanced features usually require a subscription. The prices for these subscriptions are not cheap. If you want to use the most powerful version of Gemini, you pay no less than 21.99 euros per month. That’s more than a Premium subscription to Netflix. For ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro you pay $20 per month.
And those are just the major parties, because smaller AI tools often have their own subscriptions. Consider a subscription to Midjourney for image generation, Adobe’s AI tools, transcriptions from a service like Otter.ai and even Replika’s romantic chatbots.
If you pay you can expect various benefits. With ChatGPT and Gemini you mainly pay for a more advanced AI model that is smarter and more creative with every interaction, but you can also send more prompts with more information.
Why does it cost so much money?
The reality is that developing these AI models takes a lot of energy and a lot of money. It is therefore logical that AI companies charge money for its use, otherwise they cannot keep their heads above water.
The companies are looking for alternative ways to make money. For example, advertisements will increasingly appear in the responses of AI chatbots. However, this is still far from sufficient at the moment.
Free version is often sufficient
The free versions of AI tools are enough for most people. You will probably pay with your data, because the prompts you give are used to train the AI. Although you are not using the latest versions of the AI models, the free version is also getting better.
It is also not so obvious that a more advanced AI model always gives better results. A good result largely depends on your prompts. A good prompt with an older AI model can give better results than a bad prompt with a newer AI model.
That is why it may be worthwhile to delve more into formulating prompts, instead of immediately paying tens of euros every month.
When it’s worth it
If you are a heavy user or use this technology professionally, it may be worth paying for the best version without limits. With ChatGPT Plus you can send five times as many messages and upload your own files.
With Gemini Advanced you can feed more data to the AI if you pay. For example, with the free version you get a context window of 32,000 tokens, while with Gemini Advanced you get a context window of 1 million tokens.
So you don’t pay for nothing, but you really have to know what you are doing. For example, such a large context window is only useful if you know how to use it.
Multiple AI models behind one subscription
If you would like to get started with various advanced AI models, it may be worthwhile to look at a service such as Poe. Here you pay 22.99 euros per month for access to the latest versions of ChatGPT and Claude, among others, without limits on the number of messages. That is a lot cheaper than taking out a separate subscription for each service.
Everything about Gemini
Gemini Live has recently been able to speak Dutch, have you tried it yet? We will tell you more about all the different types of Gemini models. Also check out our Gemini guide to find out what you can do with the Gemini app.
Source: www.androidplanet.nl
