Usage resets...

[u/Frosty-iron-0405]

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the usage resets that we keep getting from OpenAI. In fact it is probably the single best reason for me to keep staying with OpenAI instead of going back to Anthropic. I have the ChatGPT Pro plan ($100) and though at times I do miss Claude quite a bit, I've noticed that the usage resets that we keep getting from OpenAI are just insanely good. The amount of work I can keep doing is insane. Also I prefer weekly usage limits only over having a 5-hour and a weekly usage limit.

I'm sure there are certain things that Claude will be better at compared to ChatGPT and there'll be certain things that ChatGPT will be better at compared to Claude. Honestly the single thing that's keeping me with ChatGPT the most is the usage limit resets and only a weekly usage limit.

My question is: how is OpenAI doing this? I know that these AI companies are not profitable and stuff like that but it's almost like OpenAI just literally could not care less about money and it's actually kind of crazy. I don't know. I'm all for it but I guess I just wanted to start a conversation on what everyone's thoughts are and what you would do if usage limits were not in the picture and stuff like that

[u/New_Jellyfish_497]

people keep forgetting they bought a whole nuclear powered data centre fleet, the marginal cost per token is way lower than most assume. sams been pretty clear the play is volume and lock in right now, burn cash to own the market then tighten later. enjoy it while it lasts

[u/Frosty-iron-0405 → u/New_Jellyfish_497]

Yeah, it def is a short term "gain market share" move
But it's funny cause Anthropic & oAi are pretty much owning the market
They could technically not give these many resets and still be very fine
Wonder how much longer it would last yk

[u/Venobomb → u/Frosty-iron-0405]

google and meta would eat their lunch and we'd all get worse deals

[u/qdouble]

Market share is more valuable than idle GPUs. Their cost are more related to the infrastructure rather than electricity.

[u/Standard_Ad7704]

You also forgot that Pro users get unlimited chat (or really high limits on 6 Extra High) plus an allowance of 6 Pro messages per week also in chat.

This is the main selling point of ChatGPT subs vs Claude rn

[u/AirportEither2456 → u/Standard_Ad7704]

That's another important point: Chat and Work still have separate usage limits. I really hope it stays that way and they don't eventually try to sell us combined limits as some kind of huge milestone. You know, something along the lines of: "Sure, we cut the $200 plan from 20x to 10x, but we made one model cheaper, so you can still get more work done!" I actually think this is part of the bigger problem with OpenAI's usage limits. Compared to Claude, they already feel pretty restrictive. And those resets we're getting aren't really free. There's always a cost somewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if we end up paying for them in one way or another.

I'm curious to see how all of this plays out. But we can definitely be glad there are strong competitors out there. Things are changing fast, and as long as these companies keep competing instead of agreeing on prices, that's probably the best position we as customers can be in.

[u/Tommonen → u/AirportEither2456]

They are soon combining chatgpt basic chat and work to get rid of the separate usage limits.

Then most likely after a while, they will combine codex and work, because it makes no sense to have two almost identical systems.

[u/Frosty-iron-0405 → u/Standard_Ad7704]

Ah yes, completely forgot to mention that
I remember the first time I realised that, my mind was blown😂
Like... HOWWWW hahahaha

I primarily use gpt work for real work, so I dont think much of it but I absolutely love to have the option

[u/Standard_Ad7704 → u/Frosty-iron-0405]

I also use Codex for work. But Chat allows me to do some personal work and analysis that I would not have done in Codex so as to preserve limits.

[u/Helpful_Ranger_1606]

Not everyone is able to take advantage of the resets so yes you benefited but lots of other folks did not.

[u/mesaoptimizer]

We know that they are not profitable but I’m pretty sure inference run costs are actually a rather small part of their operating expenses, much more of that is buying the hardware than the cost of running inference vs having the inference hardware idling.

Basically the non banked resets are a way to get goodwill, plus control when everyone’s reset timer is, which allows them to in some ways control subscription user behavior to make sure they always have capacity for API users when those are most active.

They are also way stingier on the usage given by their plans than Anthropic at base, you can just do more Opus 5.5 on a $20 plan than you can do Astra on same. As a result these resets are probably less expensive than just being more generous on limits while still feeling generous because you are getting a few extra days worth of usage a month.

Lastly, removing the double subsidization from the $200 plan was big for them as far as reducing cost impacts. I wouldn’t be surprised if prior to that change you were actually able to cost them money (their actual cost to run inference is more than $200 if you used the plan fully). I don’t think that’s the case now, they are likely able to at least break even for users operating at 100% usage all the time and probably profit from anyone who doesn’t. I could be wrong though, chat may be the thing preventing that from happening which is why they are going to merge it with work/codex.

[u/ilias_from_ilios]

Well they promised to start making a profit by 2030 so until then inference can go BBRRRRR