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Manners will not be ruining the setting: The prices of coaching and working synthetic intelligence mannequin are large. Even excluding every part however electrical energy, AI information facilities burn by way of over $100 million a yr to course of consumer prompts and mannequin outputs. So, does saying “please” and “thanks” to ChatGPT actually value OpenAI thousands and thousands? Brief reply: most likely not.
Some surprising headlines involving the prices of being well mannered to AI chatbots like ChatGPT have circulated over the previous few days. A number of examples embody:
- Your politeness could possibly be expensive for OpenAI – TechCrunch
- Saying ‘please’ and ‘thanks’ to ChatGPT prices OpenAI thousands and thousands, Sam Altman says – Quartz
- Being good to ChatGPT is likely to be dangerous for the setting. This is why – Laptop
The information stems from an offhand remark Sam Altman made on X. It started with a easy query: How a lot cash has OpenAI misplaced in electrical energy prices from individuals saying “please” and “thanks” to its language fashions?
Altman replied, “Tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} effectively spent – you by no means know.”
tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} effectively spent–you by no means know
– Sam Altman (@sama) April 16, 2025
That one-liner was sufficient to ship shops just like the New York Post and Futurism down a rabbit gap of hypothesis, making an attempt to estimate the computing value of civility. The logic goes like this: each additional phrase provides tokens to a immediate, and people additional tokens require extra computational sources. Given the dimensions of ChatGPT’s consumer base, these seemingly trivial additions can add up.
Nonetheless, a number of components complicate the mathematics behind Altman’s remark. First is the precise value per token. ChatGPT says GPT-3.5 Turbo prices roughly $0.0015 per 1,000 enter tokens and $0.002 per 1,000 output tokens. “Please” and “thanks” usually add between two and 4 tokens in complete. So the price per use quantities to tiny fractions of a cent – someplace round $0.0000015 to $0.000002 per trade. Based mostly on tough estimates, that quantity interprets to about $400 a day or $146,000 a yr. That is a number of orders of magnitude decrease than “tens of thousands and thousands.”
As for actual vitality prices, the US Power Info Administration’s Electrical Energy Analysis Institute estimates OpenAI’s month-to-month electrical energy invoice at round $12 million, or $140 million a yr. That determine consists of each interplay – not simply well mannered ones. So whereas it is theoretically potential that courteous prompts account for greater than $10 million yearly, we merely do not have the information to interrupt that down. Solely OpenAI’s inside metrics can say for positive.
Moreover, Altman’s phrasing wasn’t literal. The follow-up – “you by no means know” – suggests the comment was tongue-in-cheek. It reads extra like a wry endorsement of politeness than an actual monetary estimate. He doubtless meant that in an period when courtesy feels more and more uncommon, possibly it is definitely worth the negligible value, whether or not $400 or $40 million. Certain, bots do not have emotions – but when humanity finally ends up answering to a superintelligent AI sometime, it would simply bear in mind who was well mannered – “you by no means know.”
Picture credit score: Abaca Press
