OpenAI is expanding access to its best-in-class AI image generator to ChatGPT users who don’t pay for a subscription. They can now use the DALL-E 3 model to produce two images per day.
Until now, DALL-E 3 was only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers. However, if you pay a monthly subscription fee of $20, you can view up to 50 images per day for that money.
DALL-E 3 is a significant upgrade over OpenAI’s previous AI image generators, as it can produce photorealistic images and accurate text. It can also fill in missing parts of an image with generated content that is designed to match the rest of the image. This technique is called inpainting.
A two-image limit for free users suggests that OpenAI wants to show off just enough of DALL-E 3 to get users to sign up for the subscription service. Of course, you can use Microsoft’s image creator, which also uses DALL-E 3 but has a daily limit of 15 images. However, OpenAI is likely counting on the full suite of features on ChatGPT to keep those interested in high-end AI images on the platform.
But creating just two images per day is even more limiting than it may seem at first. One of the challenges of AI image generation is the iterative process that is often required to achieve the desired result. Users typically generate multiple images, adjust them based on the output, and repeat the process until they are satisfied. With only two attempts per day, this approach is essentially impossible. You’ll either be satisfied with, at most, one edit, or you’ll have to wait a day.
We’re introducing the ability for ChatGPT Free users to create up to two images per day with DALL E 3. Simply ask ChatGPT to create an image for a slideshow, personalize a card for a friend, or show you how something looks. pic.twitter.com/3csFTscA5IAugust 8, 2024
AI free for everyone
This also isn’t the first time a seemingly premium ChatGPT feature has made its way to the free tier. The custom GPTs created by third parties were only for premium subscribers when they first came out, but now any free ChatGPT user can view and use them.
The biggest example of ChatGPT’s free tier offering is the recently released GPT-4o, the company’s most powerful major language model, which is also available to all ChatGPT users. Like DALL-E 3, it does have some usage restrictions, but it’s nonetheless a way to get a lot more people experimenting with OpenAI’s more advanced AI projects.
That said, the inclusion of DALL-E 3 in the free tier also underscores the growing importance of visual content in digital communications. OpenAI is in a race with Google, Meta, and others to release tools to quickly and easily generate high-quality images. You’ll likely see increasingly better models for free as they compete for your valuable prompting time.