Manners aren’t ruining the atmosphere: The prices of coaching and operating synthetic intelligence mannequin are huge. Even excluding all the pieces however electrical energy, AI knowledge facilities burn by over $100 million a yr to course of consumer prompts and mannequin outputs. So, does saying “please” and “thanks” to ChatGPT actually value OpenAI tens of millions? Quick reply: in all probability not.
Some surprising headlines involving the prices of being well mannered to AI chatbots like ChatGPT have circulated over the previous few days. Just a few examples embody:
- Your politeness may very well be pricey for OpenAI – TechCrunch
- Saying ‘please’ and ‘thanks’ to ChatGPT prices OpenAI tens of millions, Sam Altman says – Quartz
- Being good to ChatGPT is likely to be dangerous for the atmosphere. This is why – Laptop computer
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 tens of millions of {dollars} properly spent – you by no means know.”
That one-liner was sufficient to ship shops just like the New York Publish and Futurism down a rabbit gap of hypothesis, attempting 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 assets. Given the size of ChatGPT’s consumer base, these seemingly trivial additions can add up.
tens of tens of millions of {dollars} properly spent–you by no means know
– Sam Altman (@sama) April 16, 2025
Nevertheless, a number of elements 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” sometimes 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 alternate.
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 tens of millions.”
As for actual vitality prices, the US Vitality 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 contains each interplay – not simply well mannered ones.
So whereas it is theoretically doable that courteous prompts account for greater than $10 million yearly, we merely haven’t got the info to interrupt that down. Solely OpenAI’s inside metrics can say for certain.
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 probably meant that in an period when courtesy feels more and more uncommon, possibly it is well worth the negligible value, whether or not $400 or $40 million. Positive, bots haven’t got emotions – but when humanity finally ends up answering to a superintelligent AI sometime, it’d simply keep in mind who was well mannered – “you by no means know.”
Picture credit score: Abaca Press
