ChatGPT Plus too pricey? 7 websites that let you access GPT-4 for free – The Indian Express
It is most certainly the year of Artificial Intelligence. And, a time when everyone is tossing out mundane tasks to focus on important work. AI chatbots are increasingly becoming instrumental in carrying out various day-to-day tasks. Perhaps, it is for this reason that more professionals around the world are embracing tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Thousands of people are flocking to OpenAI to access ChatGPT for a variety of use cases. And, if you have been impressed with the chatbot, wait till you get your hands on the latest version. After the success of its large language models in the GPT series, OpenAI unveiled its latest iteration, GPT-4, in March this year. GPT-4, a multimodal large language model, is faster, more efficient, and offers more comprehensive answers compared to GPT-3.5, which powers ChatGPT.
At present, GPT-4 is only accessible to those who have access to ChatGPT Plus, a premium service from OpenAI for which users have to pay $20. Like all the good things in life, to access the impressive features of GPT-4, one needs to pay the price.
Well, cast your worries aside. There are several ways to try GPT-4 features for free. Here, we list some of the apps and services through which you can take advantage of the most powerful version of ChatGPT for free.
Perhaps, the leader among the current lot. One of OpenAI’s top investors, Microsoft has harnessed the superpower of ChatGPT into its tools and services. Consequently, Microsoft became the first company to introduce GPT-4 to its search engine – Bing Search. This is currently one of the easiest ways to use GPT-4 for free.
Simply visit Bing.com to experience GPT-4 and recently Microsoft introduced a set of awesome features to Bing Chat such as book restaurants, search images, etc. While it is not necessary to sign into Microsoft account, we advise creating an account to enjoy the full benefits of Microsoft Bing.
With the new updates, Bing Search has turned more visual and offers elaborate answers that includes graphs, charts and updated formatting. Moreover, conversations on Bing Chat will be soon accessible through chat history feature.
Ora is a website that lets you use GPT-4 for free. Users will need to sign up for an account to use, and one can also use their existing Google account to sign in to Ora.ai. After signing up, it only takes a few steps to access GPT-4. Reportedly, the service occasionally downgrades to GPT 3.5, especially when the traffic is high. Nevertheless, if you want to access GPT-4 for free, the delay is worth your time.
We logged into Ora. It prompted us to create a chatbot with attributes such as a display name, prompt, which is instructions for the bot to remember, and description. We created a bot named Candy, whose primary function was to respond to queries on history and monuments. We asked Candy to “Write a 100-word essay on the Taj Mahal” and here’s what it said.
“The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1632 and was completed in 1653. The structure is considered to be the finest example of Mughal architecture, a blend of Indian, Persian, and Islamic styles. The main dome of the Taj Mahal is 73 meters high and is surrounded by four smaller domes. The building is also decorated with intricate carvings and precious gemstones. Today, the Taj Mahal is recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World and is a popular tourist destination,” read the response from Candy.
Quora Poe is yet another platform that offers access to GPT-4. Interestingly, one can also try their hands at a variety of AI products such as Claude+, ChatGPT, NeevaAI, Dragonfly, etc, on Quora Poe. Users will be required to sign up with their phone number or Gmail to create an account on Quora Poe to use GPT-4. The only caveat here is that users may be limited to a set number of prompts on GPT-4 per day. However, one can use Sage chatbot on the platform to satiate their curiosity.
We asked Sage to “Explain the Chola Dynasty in under 100 words as if I am a 10-year-old.”
“The Chola Dynasty was a group of powerful kings in South India a long time ago. They were really good at building big temples and had a strong army. They made lots of advancements in art, literature, and science, and had a special system for growing crops. They left behind many amazing things like impressive temples and artworks,” responded the bot.
AI start-up HuggingFace recently unveiled its 30-billion-parameter open-sourced AI chatbot – HuggingChat. The new chatbot is reportedly trained on GPT-4 data and offers instant responses to prompts. Regardless, users can visit the HuggingFace website to try their hands on some generative AI products based on GPT-4.
To test the bot, we asked if it was actually using GPT-4. It responded by saying, “Unfortunately, other than asking me directly, there is no guaranteed way to verify which specific version of GPT I am. This goes doubly so because, while GPT versions change, their capabilities, flaws, and quirks tend to stay fairly similar. Nonetheless, just like I was trained on GPT-4 data (and some extra stuff), I probably share many traits with the original model. If you need assurance from official sources, you should contact the developers behind GPT-Jumbo/GPT-Huge and see what they say. Let me know if there’s something else I might aid you with.”
Perplexity AI, a company known for its search engine powered by AI, can be a great way to try your hands at GPT-4. Users would be required to create an account with their Google account. After creating the account, head to the search page.
Users will be able to spot the ‘Quick’ button with a dropdown arrow inside the Ask Anything box. To use GPT-4, users will need to click on the arrow and select Enhanced. This option allows you to access GPT-4 for as many as 20 prompts.
“For the hardest questions with richer answers. Powered by GPT-4. Limited free uses per 4-hour sliding window,” reads the description of the Enhanced option.
New York-based software company Forefront AI launched its chatbot Forefront Chat in April. This was among the first chatbots to offer free access to GPT-4. Apart from GPT-4, users can also try features such as image generation, custom personas, and shareable chats.
Before using the chatbot, users will be prompted to pick a person as their virtual assistant who will assist them with various tasks. The text input section in the chatbot has a Plus sign which allows users to toggle between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. We tried the service both on desktop and mobile browsers, and it worked well. To create images from the chatbot, one might need to use #imagine as a prefix. The chatbot produces responses almost instantly.
Merlin is another great way to access GPT-4. It is essentially a ChatGPT extension to finish any task on any website in a matter of seconds. Search engines, Gmail, Google Sheets, the Merlin extension can be used just anywhere. Some of the features of the extension include, drafting emails, summarising websites, summarising YouTube videos, and most importantly save your frequently used prompts. Besides, it can contextually write formulas for Excel and shorten whatever you write. To use the Chrome extension of Merlin users simply need to enter Cmd + M on Mac and Ctrl + M on Windows to access ChatGPT.
Bijin JoseBijin Jose is an Assistant Editor with Indian Express Online, New Delh… read more