Highlights:

  • With Claude Pro, subscribers can now enjoy up to five times more usage of our latest model.
  • The free Claude version remains accessible but has stricter restrictions than the paid plan.

One of OpenAI LP’s and ChatGPT’s main competitors, the generative AI startup Anthropic, recently announced the availability of a paid subscription plan that provides users with advanced chatbot features.

Users in the U.S. and U.K. are the first to have access to Claude Pro, the first paid plan for Anthropic’s Claude 2 chatbot service. Customers will gain from having longer conversations, being able to send “many more messages,” having priority access during times of high traffic and having first access to new features and updates, claims the startup.

Anthropic claimed in a recent blog post that many customers have selected Claude as their main AI assistant due to Claude’s extended context windows, quick outputs, sophisticated reasoning abilities, and other advantages. The company said, “Many also shared that they would value more file uploads and conversations over longer periods. With Claude Pro, subscribers can now gain 5x more usage of our latest model.”

Subscribers will still be subject to some restrictions on the number of characters they can use in messages and conversations, as well as the size of any files they choose to attach. According to Anthropic, users will receive a warning when they have 10 messages left. It also stated that the limits would reset every eight hours.

In contrast to the paid plan, the free version of Claude will still be available, but with much stricter limitations on the number of conversations. During busy times, free users will also have to put up with longer waits.

Anthropic claims these restrictions are necessary because Claude 2 uses extremely potent computing resources. The constraints enable power users to incorporate Claude 2 into their regular workflows while allowing more people to explore its capabilities.

Anthropic explained the restrictions, stating that users will be able to communicate with Claude 2 at least 100 times every eight hours before their message capacity resets. This contrasts with ChatGPT Plus subscribers’ 50 messages every three hours.

The justification provided by Anthropic for computing costs is credible. It was revealed earlier this year that OpenAI was shelling out USD 21 million each month for the cloud-hosted graphics processing units and other resources needed to maintain ChatGPT.

Anthropic has been looking for funding from investors to cover these expenses, and it has so far raised USD 1.45 billion. It closed a USD 100 million round from South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom Co. Ltd. in August, which was its most recent round. Prior to that, it received a sizable USD 450 million round from investors, including Google LLC, Salesforce Ventures, and Zoom Ventures, and was led by Spark Capital.

Even though that may seem like a lot of money, more is still required: Anthropic has previously estimated that in order to realize its vision for generative AI over the next two years, it will require funding in the amount of five billion dollars.

The good news is that Anthropic’s business appears to be flourishing, with the startup claiming to have “thousands of customers.” One of its biggest users is Quora Inc., which makes Claude and Claude Instant, a less capable version of Claude, available through its subscription-based generative AI app Poe. Anthropic claims to be on track to make one billion dollars in revenue annually, but it faces stiff competition from companies like OpenAI, Cohere Inc., and AI21 Labs Inc., among others.

Anthropic claims that in order to set itself apart from its competitors, it is concentrating on developing more dependable models that are unaffected by so-called “hallucinations,” which is the term used to describe models that produce false results. Additionally, Anthropic claims that its models are “safer” than other models because it has put barriers in place to stop toxic behavior like racism. It claims to have trained its models specifically to produce “helpful, polite, respectful and thoughtful” responses and refrain from offensive behavior.

According to Anthropic, the Claude Pro subscription, which costs the same USD 20 per month as ChatGPT Plus, is currently available.