OpenAI Prioritizes Market Share Over Revenue

ChatGPT uses rate-limiting tactics to retain free users

Yesterday, it was suggested that OpenAI may need to raise their prices in order to address capacity issues. However, in a surprising turn of events, the company has instead reduced their prices, even for paid accounts, back down to zero. This move has infuriated paid users who are now being rate-limited in order to keep the service available for free customers.

It's easy to see the analogy to drug dealers giving new users a free taste, while telling the addicts that they're out of supply. But this strategy makes sense for OpenAI, as the lifetime value of those free customers far exceeds the few dollars they might be able to get from paid users over the next few days.