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Is ChatGPT Plus still worth $20 when the free version offers so much - including GPT-5?

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET When ChatGPT first launched over two years ago, the AI chatbot was met with such high demand that OpenAI introduced a premium plan called ChatGPT Plus. This plan guaranteed access to the chatbot even during blackout periods. ChatGPT Plus perks also included access to OpenAI's most advanced models, making the $20 plan almost a no-brainer for superusers. However, as OpenAI's offerings have evolved over the past couple of years, so have its plans. Also: How ChatGPT co

Topics: chatgpt free gpt plus pro

Meet the first batch of VCs set to judge Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

From Dropbox to Cloudflare, Startup Battlefield alumni have redefined industries. Who will win $100,000 and the spotlight this year? Startup Battlefield 200 is the crown jewel of TechCrunch Disrupt — and this year’s competition promises to be unforgettable. From thousands of applicants, only the top 20 will take the Stage at Disrupt 2025 (October 27–29, San Francisco) to pitch their vision to panels of top-tier VCs in front of a live audience. Every contender is chasing game-changing impact — a

MasterClass memberships are 40 percent off right now

MasterClass promises online learning with instructors who are the very best in their fields, and an annual subscription is currently 40 percent off across all tiers. Subscribers to MasterClass will have access to over 200 classes taught by iconic authors, chefs, athletes and leaders representing a diverse collection of skill sets and backgrounds. You could watch a class on writing taught by James Patterson, or learn cooking techniques from Thomas Keller. If you're trying to impress at your next

How much RAM do you really need in 2025?

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. I used to struggle when shopping for a new computer. Over time, I learned to narrow things down to what I call the "performance trifecta" -- three main components you should be mindful of when buying a laptop or desktop: processor, storage drive, and RAM. The first two are pretty easy to figure out. A good processor ensures that a computer performs well, and a lots o

The Download: Taiwan’s silicon shield, and ChatGPT’s personality misstep

Taiwanese politics increasingly revolves around one crucial question: Will China invade? China’s ruling party has wanted to seize Taiwan for more than half a century. But in recent years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has placed greater emphasis on the idea of “taking back” the island (which the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, has never controlled). Many in Taiwan and elsewhere think one major deterrent has to do with the island’s critical role in semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan produces t

New Bitcoin Purchases by the U.S. Government Still on the Table, Bessent Says

Bitcoin recently hit an all-time high of $124,400 and is up 93% from over a year ago. But fans of the cryptocurrency think it can go even higher, and those folks experienced a rollercoaster of emotions on Thursday after Scott Bessent gave conflicting signals about what the U.S. government had planned for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. Initially, Bessent disappointed Bitcoin fans Thursday morning when he said the U.S. government’s so-called strategic Bitcoin reserve, first announced by

I talked to Sam Altman about the GPT-5 launch fiasco

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. On Thursday, I had dinner with Sam Altman, a few other OpenAI executives, and a small group of reporters in San Francisco. Altman answered our questions for hours. No topic was off limits, and everything, with the exception of what was said over dessert, was on the record. It’s uncommon to have such an extended, wide-ranging interview with a major tech CEO over a meal. But there’s nothing common about the s

GPT-5 failed the hype test

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Last week, on GPT-5 launch day, AI hype was at an all-time high. In a press briefing beforehand, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said GPT-5 is “something that I just don’t wanna ever have to go back from,” a milestone akin to the first iPhone with a Retina display. The night before the announcement livestream, Altman posted an image of t

Topics: ai gpt like model openai

US sanctions Grinex crypto-exchange, successor to Garantex

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced sanctions against Grinex, the successor to Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which was previously sanctioned for helping ransomware gangs launder their money. A TRM Labs report, released in April, revealed that Grinex has strong ties to Garantex's previous operations, but stopped short of providing evidence that it was being used for illicit transactions. Grinex was promoted on Telegram channels linked to Garantex soon after U.S. author

I tested the best laptop docking stations -- here's what I recommend for your office setup

For students heading back to school or professionals looking to upgrade, a good docking station can make all the difference. These devices, sometimes called Thunderbolt docks, consolidate your connectivity needs into one compact hub. With the right one, you can plug in all sorts of accessories like external drives, keyboards, and even monitors. The best docks are fully loaded with a wide array of ports, support multiple high-res displays, and offer fast data transfer speeds. There are many grea

Velocity Raptor Z95A Gaming PC Shows What Leaving It to the Pros Looks Like

Velocity Micro Raptor Z95A Buy at Velocity Micro Pros Excellent gaming performance Tidy interior Ample upgrade options Cons Considerably more expensive than DIY So-so front connections If you want an extreme gaming PC without bloatware or the tedious work of configuring and building it yourself, the Velocity Micro SX3 Raptor Z95A stands out as a compelling option. It's pricey, but the folks at custom builder Velocity Micro put together a tidy system using almost exclusively standardized part

Looking for More iPhone Battery Life? Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Should Provide a Boost

People who have installed the latest iOS 26 public beta or developer beta are discovering a simple switch that just might deliver long-term iPhone benefits -- and it's an Apple Intelligence feature of all things. Adaptive Power is an unobtrusive feature tucked a couple of layers deep into the Battery settings that uses AI to extend battery life when usage is higher than normal. See also: Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Could Save the iPhone 17 Air From This Major Pitfall Currently, the iPhone uses as

Is ChatGPT Plus still worth $20 when the free version offers so much - including GTP-5?

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET When ChatGPT first launched over two years ago, the AI chatbot was met with such high demand that OpenAI introduced a premium plan called ChatGPT Plus. This plan guaranteed access to the chatbot even during blackout periods. ChatGPT Plus perks also included access to OpenAI's most advanced models, making the $20 plan almost a no-brainer for superusers. However, as OpenAI's offerings have evolved over the past couple of years, so have its plans. Also: How ChatGPT co

Topics: chatgpt free gpt plus pro

Should we remove XSLT from the web platform?

What is the issue with the HTML Standard? XSLT v1.0, which all browsers adhere to, was standardized in 1999. In the meantime, XSLT has evolved to v2.0 and v3.0, adding features, and growing apart from the old version frozen into browsers. This lack of advancement, coupled with the rise of JavaScript libraries and frameworks that offer more flexible and powerful DOM manipulation, has led to a significant decline in the use of client-side XSLT. Its role within the web browser has been largely sup

GPT-5's rollout fell flat for consumers, but the AI model is gaining where it matters most

watch now Sam Altman turned OpenAI into a cultural phenomenon with ChatGPT. Now, three years later, he's chasing where the real money is: Enterprise. Last week's rollout of GPT-5, OpenAI's newest artificial intelligence model, was rocky. Critics bashed its less-intuitive feel, ultimately leading the company to restore its legacy GPT-4 to paying chatbot customers. But GPT-5 isn't about the consumer. It's OpenAI's effort to crack the enterprise market, where rival Anthropic has enjoyed a head sta

OpenAI relaxes GPT-5 rate limit, promises to improve the personality

OpenAI is slowly addressing all concerns around GPT-5, including rate limits and now its personality, which has been criticized for being less affirmative. In a support document, OpenAI confirmed it has restored the older models for paid customers, so you can now use GPT4o, GPT o3, and more. You just need to use the model selector and choose one of the models under legacy models. In addition, GPT-5 automatically switches between Fast and Thinking, and you can also choose additional GPT-5 opti

Gartner: GPT-5 is here, but the infrastructure to support true agentic AI isn’t (yet)

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Here’s an analogy: Freeways didn’t exist in the U.S. until after 1956, when envisioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration — yet super fast, powerful cars like Porsche, BMW, Jaguars, Ferrari and others had been around for decades. You could say AI is at that same pivot point: While models are becoming increasingly more capab

The iPhone 17 Will Be Here Soon, but When? Possible Release Dates Coming Into Focus

If you're looking at your current iPhone and pondering whether to upgrade to a new model, now is a fraught time. Do you stick with it for another year? Or do the rumors include features you're itching to try? But most important is the question: When will iPhone 17 models be released? Once the rumored iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, Pro and Pro Max are revealed, we'll be able to confirm speculation about colors, display, cameras and more. We'll also learn how much the new iPhone will cost, which is al

Gerard Butler's Movies Tend to Fly Under the Radar in Theaters, but They're Living It Up in Netflix's Top 10

Each week, Netflix drops a list of the top 10 films and TV shows dominating the platform, and for the week of Aug. 4, two Gerard Butler films appear in the US Top 10 list: 2016's Gods of Egypt and 2023's Kandahar. Butler is a reliable movie star whose career is filled with action and adventure films (and the kid-friendly How to Train Your Dragon franchise), but I didn't realize that his name carried so much weight -- and that he was this prolific -- until I noticed he stars in six films currentl

Read the Script to One of the Best Episodes of ‘Andor’ and Experience Greatness

One of the few rare issues with Andor being as good as it is is that we’re not getting more of it, in any format—but one that especially stings is that we came so close to being able to look at the scripts behind the smash-hit Star Wars series. We were on the verge of greatness, as a certain Imperial director would’ve put it, in 2023 when Tony Gilroy and Lucasfilm announced that season one’s scripts would be published online, only for them to never arrive. Gilroy gave us an incredibly valid reas

Watch Our Livestream Replay: What GPT-5 Means for ChatGPT Users

Is the new GPT-5 model as big of an upgrade as OpenAI claims? Why are users complaining? And what do the changes actually mean for ChatGPT users? WIRED reporters have been testing how GPT-5’s ability to code, write, and perform other tasks compares to past releases. At the livestream on August 14, our expert panel answered your questions about GPT-5 and the future of generative AI. Watch the replay of the subscriber-only livestream below. On the panel: You can check out past livestreams on all

GPT-5 brings big improvements to Mac vibe coding

My former colleague Parker Ortolani has been experimenting with “vibe coding” for months, building native and web apps by steering large language models with carefully crafted prompts. GPT-4o and Claude helped him get functional prototypes running, but GPT-5 is the first model that delivers the complete experience he’s been waiting for. Here’s how GPT-5 improves on earlier models: What makes GPT-5 better for vibe coding Parker says it plainly in his blog post: “The good news is that GPT-5 is

Bluesky rolls out massive revamp to policies and Community Guidelines

Two years after launching, social network Bluesky is revising its Community Guidelines and other policies, and asking for feedback from its users on some of the changes. The startup, a competitor to X, Threads, and open networks like Mastodon, says its new policies are meant to offer improved clarity and more detail around its user safety procedures and the appeals process. Many of the changes are being driven by new global regulations, including the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), the EU Digital S

The wait is almost over: The 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 list drops August 27

Set your alarms. Bookmark this page. Refresh like your future depends on it. After reviewing thousands of groundbreaking applications from around the globe, TechCrunch is just days away from announcing the 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 — our handpicked cohort of the most promising early-stage startups set to take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt this October 27-29. The 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 list will go live, right here, on Wednesday, August 27, at 9:00 a.m. PT. Whether you applied, refe

Sam Altman and the whale

But where is the transition from the BlackBerry keyboard to the touch-screen iPhone? Where is the assisted GPS and the API for location services that enables real-time directions and gives rise to companies like Uber and Grindr and lets me order a taxi for my burrito? Where are the real breakthroughs? In fact, following the release of GPT-5, OpenAI found itself with something of a user revolt on its hands. Customers who missed GPT-4o's personality successfully lobbied the company to bring it ba

iPhone 17 event news is coming but beware of fake invites

The most likely iPhone 17 event date is now the rumored iPhone 17 event date. No surprises there. But when should we expect Apple to actually confirm the date of its next big product reveal, and what should you make of that event invite leak on social media? iPhone 17 event right on schedule Save for a few exceptions, Apple typically announces new flagship iPhone models in the second week of September each year. This year appears to be following the pattern with an event rumored for Tuesday, S

Crypto24 ransomware hits large orgs with custom EDR evasion tool

The Crypto24 ransomware group has been using custom utilities to evade security solutions on breached networks, exfiltrate data, and encrypt files. The threat group's earliest activity was reported on BleepingComputer forums in September 2024, though it never reached notable levels of notoriety. According to Trend Micro researchers tracking Crypto24's operations, the hackers have hit several large organizations in the United States, Europe, and Asia, focusing on high-value targets in the finan

One of the best work laptops I've tested has MacBook written all over it (but it's even better)

Razer Blade 14 ZDNET's key takeaways The Razer Blade 14 (2025) is on sale now starting at $2,000. It's a gorgeous laptop that redefines portability for gaming machines. However, the ultraportable form factor results in trade-offs when it comes to performance and upgradability. View now at Razer Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. The Blade 16 has been Razer's flagship gaming laptop for years, but the thinner, sleeker des