Manners aren’t ruining the atmosphere: The prices of coaching and operating synthetic intelligence mannequin are large. Even excluding all the things however electrical energy, AI information facilities burn by way of over $100 million a 12 months to course of person prompts and mannequin outputs. So, does saying “please” and “thanks” to ChatGPT actually value OpenAI tens of millions? Brief reply: in all probability not.
Some stunning headlines involving the prices of being well mannered to AI chatbots like ChatGPT have circulated over the previous few days. A couple of examples embody:
- Your politeness might be pricey for OpenAI – TechCrunch
- Saying ‘please’ and ‘thanks’ to ChatGPT prices OpenAI tens of millions, Sam Altman says – Quartz
- Being good to ChatGPT could be unhealthy 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} nicely spent – you by no means know.”
tens of tens of millions of {dollars} nicely 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 Publish and Futurism down a rabbit gap of hypothesis, attempting to estimate the computing value of civility. The logic goes like this: each further phrase provides tokens to a immediate, and people further tokens require extra computational assets. Given the size of ChatGPT’s person base, these seemingly trivial additions can add up.
Nonetheless, a number of components complicate the maths 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 associated fee per use quantities to tiny fractions of a cent – someplace round $0.0000015 to $0.000002 per change. Based mostly on tough estimates, that quantity interprets to about $400 a day or $146,000 a 12 months. That is a number of orders of magnitude decrease than “tens of tens of millions.”
As for actual power prices, the US Power Data Administration’s Electrical Energy Analysis Institute estimates OpenAI’s month-to-month electrical energy invoice at round $12 million, or $140 million a 12 months. That determine consists of each interplay – not simply well mannered ones. So whereas it is theoretically attainable that courteous prompts account for greater than $10 million yearly, we merely do not have the info 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 well worth the negligible value, whether or not $400 or $40 million. Positive, bots do not have emotions – but when humanity finally ends up answering to a superintelligent AI sometime, it’d simply bear in mind who was well mannered – “you by no means know.”
Picture credit score: Abaca Press
