ChatGPT, the AI everyone’s heard of.
The chatbot that started the modern AI gold rush — what it actually does, what it costs, and the prompts that get useful answers instead of long-winded essays.
- Made by OpenAI
- Free tier available
- Best for: writing, ideas, drafts
- Reading time · 8 min
At a glance
- What it is
- A general-purpose AI chatbot that answers questions, drafts text, summarises documents and brainstorms ideas in plain conversation.
- Cost
- Free version covers 80% of everyday use. ChatGPT Plus is £19/month for the smarter model and image generation.
- Where to find it
- chat.openai.com on any browser, or the free app on iPhone / Android.
- Privacy
- By default, OpenAI may use your conversations to train future models. You can switch this off in settings.
- Walter’s take
- The “Toyota Camry” of AI — not the most exciting, but the one most worth learning first.
Section 01What is it, really?
ChatGPT is a chat window where you type a question — in plain English, the way you’d ask a knowledgeable friend — and a few seconds later, a written answer appears. There’s nothing to install, nothing to configure, no coding required.
Behind the scenes, it’s read most of the publicly available internet and a substantial chunk of every book ever written. It uses that vast reading to predict the next likely word in whatever response it gives you. That’s a useful frame to hold onto: a remarkably skilled predictor, not a knower.
Section 02What it’s genuinely good at — and not
Genuinely useful for
- Drafting emails, letters and replies
- Explaining a complicated topic in plain English
- Summarising long documents or articles
- Brainstorming ideas, names, gift suggestions
- Translating between languages
- Rewriting your own writing to be clearer
Don’t trust it with
- Anything that needs to be factually correct without checking
- Recent news (its knowledge has a cutoff date)
- Maths beyond simple sums
- Medical, legal or financial advice you’ll act on
- Anything where confidence ≠ accuracy
- Information about specific people you’ll quote
Section 03How to get started in five minutes
- Go to chat.openai.comType the address into your browser. No app needed for the basic version.
- Click “Sign up”Use a Google, Microsoft, or Apple account, or just an email address.
- Type a question into the box at the bottomAnything — “What’s a good chicken recipe?” or “Explain inflation simply.”
- Read the response, then ask a follow-upThe magic isn’t the first answer — it’s the conversation. Ask it to be shorter, change tone, explain a bit.
- Don’t pay until you’ve used the free version for two weeksMost people never need the paid tier. Try it properly first.
Section 04A prompt to try right now
Copy this into the chat box and replace the bracketed bits:
The phrase “act as a…” is the single most useful trick in AI. “Act as a sceptical journalist” gives a different answer to “act as an enthusiastic teacher” — try both.
Section 05Things to watch out for
ChatGPT will sometimes invent facts — people, dates, citations, web addresses — with total confidence. Always check anything important against another source.
Don’t paste anything you wouldn’t be happy seeing in a future training set: passwords, bank details, medical records, confidential work documents.
The free version’s knowledge stops at a certain date. For news, always check a real source.
Section 06The honest cost breakdown
Free tier: Unlimited chats with the standard model. Slower at peak times. No image generation, limited file uploads. Enough for most people.
ChatGPT Plus (£19/month): Smarter model, faster responses, image generation, voice mode, longer memory. Worth it if you’ll use it daily.
ChatGPT Pro (£200/month): Designed for researchers and power users. Almost certainly overkill for everyday life.
Start here. It’s the AI equivalent of learning to drive in an automatic.
If you’re going to learn one AI tool, make it this one. The free tier is genuinely capable and the interface is forgiving.
Claude, the careful one
Over50TechTips
by Walter Ledger
Technology explained by someone who remembers when ‘wireless’ meant a really long cord.