OpenAI breaks down price of ChatGPT politeness

TechRadar reports that one X user, under the nickname @tomiinlove, jokingly asked the question: "I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their models." To which Altman responded briefly but vividly: "Tens of millions of dollars."

Although ChatGPT indeed requires powerful servers and significant energy expenditures, the share of polite words, of course, constitutes only a small portion of the total costs. And still, the voiced amount sounds convincing — however, it is not excluded that the answer was given with a touch of irony.

Nevertheless, one should not give up on politeness. Studies show that clear and friendly queries more often lead to more accurate and useful responses from AI.

According to a survey by the research company Future, more than 70% of users try to be polite in conversation with AI, and 12% do so in case of a possible machine uprising.

I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying “please” and “thank you” to their models.

— tomie (@tomieinlove) April 15, 2025

You may be interested in:

• OpenAI is preparing its own social network based on ChatGPT

• 5 unexpected games you can play with ChatGPT

• ChatGPT has learned to remember everything you tell it.