ChatGPT Go, the cheapest version of OpenAI’s paid subscription service, has launched in places that aren’t its India test market. Africa, a continent known for not having much spare cash, is getting the stripped-back-but-still-paid service as of today. South Africa, being on the continent, is included in the 54-country rollout.
Also coming to SA is local pricing for all of OpenAI’s subscription plans, so you’ll know what’s being deducted from your account without performing a Rand-to-Dollar calculation first. We’ll list local pricing below, but first: ChatGPT Go.
ChatGPT Go-es to Africa
The available paid-for features for the African Go aren’t dissimilar to those that were initially rolled out. Higher message, image generation, and file upload limits compared to the free version of ChatGPT, with a longer memory, are the key reasons to give Sam Altman a little kickback each month. What you’ll use that for is up to you.
ChatGPT head Nick Turley said, as reported by TechCentral, “Millions of people across Africa are already using ChatGPT to learn new skills, solve everyday problems and start businesses. With ChatGPT Go, we want to make cutting-edge AI affordable and accessible – so everyone can benefit from it.”
Local pricing for the service is still a little high, given that the Indian launch pricing worked out to about 80 bucks a month. South Africans can expect to unlimber almost double that — ChatGPT Go is priced at R150/m here at home.
Scaling up to ChatGPT Plus will sting your wallet for R400/m, and opting for the Pro tier will require a business credit card for its R4,000/m price tag. The latter has priority access to everything OpenAI offers, but it’s unlikely to tempt regular folks. Perhaps start with Go and see just how lucrative your AI-generated shitposting works out.
