Saying "Please" to ChatGPT? It Is Costing OpenAI Millions

Crypto News AI

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: April 21, 2025

Key Takeaways

Sam Altman said that polite ChatGPT chats are costing OpenAI tens of millions in added server usage;
A 2024 study found 67% of US users are polite to AI—mostly out of ethics or caution;
Each AI query uses power, with estimates ranging from 0.3 to 3 watt-hours per request.

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Saying "Please" to ChatGPT? It Is Costing OpenAI Millions

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Users who speak politely to ChatGPT—adding words like “please” and “thank you”—are unintentionally increasing OpenAI’s costs by millions of dollars, according to CEO Sam Altman.

When asked on X to estimate how much this behavior was costing the company, Altman replied, "Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know".

His comment led to more online conversations about why so many people choose to be polite with AI tools.

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Engineer Carl Youngblood explained in a post on X, "Treating AIs with courtesy is a moral imperative for me. I do it out of self-interest. Callousness in our daily interactions causes our interpersonal skills to atrophy".

According to a study by Future, 67% of US users act politely when talking to AI tools. Over half of them said it is because they think it is the right thing to do. About 12% admitted they are being careful just in case AI becomes powerful enough to react to how it was treated.

An X user said, "When I talk to ChatGPT, I end the convo with 'Thank you so much, I hope you have a good day! :)'. That way, when AI enslaves humanity, I won’t be turned into a slave".

In a 2023 report, researcher Alex de Vries estimated that each ChatGPT query uses about 3 watt-hours of electricity. That figure was challenged by Josh You from Epoch AI, who argued that improvements in hardware and model design had brought the number closer to 0.3 watt-hours.

Meanwhile, VideoGameBench recently revealed that even advanced AI models still struggle with older games like Doom. How? Read the full story.