Complete beginnerLesson 5 of 55 min read
What "free" means here
A course from the Academy: The words you hear everywhere, finally clear
Go to the quiz ↓Last word, and not the least misleading one.
Free, but limited
Free versions offer real access, with caps: a number of messages per time window, the most powerful model reserved for subscribers, missing features. When you hit the limit, the service doesn't shut down: it switches to a more modest model or makes you wait.
What you pay without money
Depending on the services and your settings, your conversations may be used to train future models. This is usually toggleable in the settings, and the service keeps working exactly the same.
Should you subscribe?
Not at first, and that's a frank opinion. The free version is more than enough for everything you've learned here. You subscribe when you hit the limit regularly, not before: that's the only signal that matters.
And the real cost, behind it
Each response consumes compute, and therefore electricity and hardware. That's why caps exist, and why prices move. It isn't free for whoever provides it; it is for you, within certain limits.
You've completed this level
You know how to open an AI, ask it something useful, adjust when things go wrong, verify what it says, and read an article without zoning out by the third word. That's exactly what was needed to move on to the next step.
Complete the lesson
A 4-question quiz: 3 correct answers are enough, plus an exercise to practise. It opens in the Academy, on this same lesson.
Take the quiz and complete the lesson Free. With an account, your progress is saved and leads to the course certificate.