Open AI’s ChatGPT available free on iPhone: everything you need to know

Since being released in November 2022, Open AI’s ChatGPT chatbot has had a major impact thanks to its detailed responses and often articulate answers in a wide range of fields of knowledge.

And now OpenAI has made it available natively as an app on Apple’s iOS, meaning anyone with an iPhone can have ChatGPT right there on their mobile device. It even includes speech-to-text so you can dictate your questions and prompts.

The official OpenAI app is available on the App Store in the U.S. right now. (At present it is only available in the U.S., but OpenAI say it will be released in other countries soon).

Is ChatGPT free on iPhone?

The official ChatGPT app for iOS is free and offers the ChatGPT-3.5 model for standard users. You can also upgrade in-app to become a ChatGPT Plus user, which allows you to use ChatGPT-4, which offers greater creativity and advanced reasoning. Chat GPT Plus is $19.99 a month.

If you are already a ChatGPT user you can log in on the app, and if you are a Plus subscriber the ChatGPT-4 option should be available.

The ChatGPT app also syncs your conversations, so you can start a chat on your computer and finish it on the go on your iPhone.

Are there any ads on the OpenAI app?

There are no ads on the iOS app for ChatGPT, just like on the web version of the Chatbot.

What can I use ChatGPT for?

ChatGPT is extremely versatile and can be used (with caution! see below) for a huge variety of tasks. It can provide guidance on cooking, travel, and writing thoughtful, appropriate messages.

It can also come up with ideas for gifts, crunch numbers, give advice on making a presentation or summarise lots of information into notes. It can also translate, give advice and also feedback. Basically if it involves text ChatGPT will offer up an answer or an opinion. Just note that at present the training data it was built on has a cut off date of September 2021 so it has no information about events after that.

As Open AI notes, it can even write poetry - we’re particular fans of asking it for a haiku, a stylised Japanese poetic form, on a subject. Here’s what it had to say about the new app:

ChatGPT in hand

Wisdom flows like spring’s soft rain

In an Apple’s light.

Which iPhones can run the ChatGPT app?

To use the ChatGPT app you need to have an iPhone running iOS 16. The oldest models that run iOS 16 are the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, as well as the iPhone SE 2nd generation. If you have any phone newer than that and have operating system up to date it should be able to run ChatGPT.

Is there an Android app for ChatGPT?

Right now there is no official Android ChatGPT app, but OpenAI says one is coming soon.

Be wary of incorrect answers from ChatGPT

While ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful tool, it is important to remember that it is not truly intelligent and has no awareness of the real world. As OpenAI note: “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places or facts.”

There are a number of reasons chatbots like ChatGPT produce incorrect answers, including:

- Training data: the AI is trained on huge amounts of data, often taken from a number of sources. Any inaccuracies in the training data can lead to the AI repeating those.

- Lack of fact-checking: There is no way for GPT to verify or fact-check information in real time. They don’t have an understanding of the world or access to real-time data, so they can’t confirm whether the details they’re providing are currently accurate.

- Absence of a ground truth: Chat GPT doesn’t have a fixed database of facts - it generates answers in response to patterns learned from its training data.

- Abstracting and generalisation: AI models learn by identifying patterns and trends in the data they’ve been trained on. When they encounter a new input, they generate an output based on the patterns they’ve learned, which can sometimes lead to the creation of details that aren’t accurate.

- Confusing prompts: Confusing inputs can lead to the model losing its reference points and coherence and creating “hallucinated” answers.

- Lack of context: Chat GPT doesn’t have persistent memory or personal experience as a reference point and cannot actually understand the world, leading to erroneous answers.

It is important to remember that ChatGPT is not conscious, nor does it understand the world the way we do. The process for generating an answer, while incredibly impressive, is entirely based on patterns and probabilities it has identified in the training process.

What did ChatGPT say about being released on iPhone?

We asked our ChatGPT what it thought of being released on iPhone and here’s what it had to say:

“As an artificial intelligence, I don’t have personal feelings, so I don’t experience excitement. However, it’s accurate to say that my availability on various platforms, including iPhone, enhances the access and convenience for users to engage with me. This accessibility is part of OpenAI’s goal of ensuring AI benefits are broadly distributed.”