OpenAI Hooks Up Over 70 ChatGPT Plugins To Plus Users

The iPhone app era for ChatGPT is here. OpenAI has unleashed over 70 extensions to paid ChatGPT Plus users as part of a beta rollout.

These plugins, developed to be the “eyes and ears” for ChatGPT, were first made available to limited “alpha” users back in March. As of Friday, though, OpenAI has expanded usage of the third-party apps, along with web-browsing compatibility, to members of the US$20/month Plus tier, which grants customers access to the more advanced and accurate ChatGPT-4.

We’re rolling out web browsing and Plugins to all ChatGPT Plus users over the next week! Moving from alpha to beta, they allow ChatGPT to access the internet and to use 70+ third-party plugins. https://t.co/t4syFUj0fL pic.twitter.com/Mw9FMpKq91

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 12, 2023

Since launching, ChatGPT has been prized by many for speeding up their work process. The plugins aim to get users there faster with specialized tools built for shopping, entertainment, home improvement, travel, investing, prompt generation, job searches, sports, weather, language-learning, real estate, and much more. Working with them is akin to consulting a well-informed personal assistant who can give you real-time advice at the drop of a hat.

With that said, while you’ll have over 70 extensions at your disposal, you can only activate up to three of them at once, though that should be more than enough for most. The screenshots below demonstrate how a person might smartly integrate three tools altogether: OpenTable for a meal reservation on Saturday, WolframAlpha to calculate the calories of a recipe that ChatGPT has written for Sunday, and Instacart to purchase the ingredients to prepare that meal.

Other tools include ‘AskYourPDF’, which transcribes lengthy PDF documents and lets you chat with them like conversational partners. There’s also ‘Speechki’, which transforms texts into ready-to-use audio to be downloaded as a link, uploaded to an audio player, or embedded.

The ‘Shop’ app enables decisive shoppers to ask ChatGPT for recommendations across millions of products from reputed brands, while ‘GetYourGuide’ lets people skip the arduous process of trip-planning and have the chatbot generate a travel itinerary for them right away. Another useful tool is the Zillow plugin, which matches you with a listing that meets your housing needs.

To enable third-party plugins, subscribers should select ‘Plugins’ from the model switcher on ChatGPT, then click on ‘Plugin Store’. Meanwhile, all beta features can be toggled on under Profile & Settings > Beta features.

OpenAI says the new add-ons should be made available to all Plus users by next week.

[via Mashable and Search Engine Journal, images via various sources]