Saying "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT has cost OpenAI "tens of millions of dollars," the company's CEO said on social media last week.

Essentially, I’m a big 'please' and 'thank you' sayer in real life, but I don’t see ChatGPT as a person, in the same way that I don’t see Alexa as a person, or my car as a person.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that saying 'please' and 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs his company 'millions of dollars' in electricity bills in a recent response to a question posed on X. This is ...

The Post also estimates that ChatGPT roughly one bottle of water to write a 100-word email, which means that even polite phrases like “please” and “thank you” contribute to water loss.

Users might not think that "please" and "thank you" could add much to the processing costs of ChatGPT. After all, they're only three words. But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said differently.

Saying ‘Thank You’ to ChatGPT Is Costly. But Maybe It’s Worth the Price. Adding words to our chatbot can apparently cost tens of millions of dollars.

AI Here's what really happens when you don't say 'thank you' to ChatGPT — and why I always do Features By Amanda Caswell published April 23, 2025 ...

Business Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT costs tens of millions of dollars, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits By Ariel Zilber Published April 21, 2025, 10:46 a.m. ET ...

You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Saying 'please,' 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs millions: Altman ...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says saying “please" and “thank you" to ChatGPT costs the company “tens of millions" due to energy demands, but he believes the cost is worth it.