Is Being Polite to ChatGPT Really Costing Millions? Here’s What Sam Altman Meant

In recent headlines, a curious claim has caught the internet’s attention: being polite to ChatGPT could be costing OpenAI millions of dollars. Sounds wild, right? But is there any truth to it?

Let’s dig into what really happened — and what it means.

💬 The Comment That Sparked It All

It all began with a lighthearted exchange on X (formerly Twitter). Someone posed a simple question to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:

“How much money has OpenAI lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to its language models?”

Altman replied:

“Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know.”

That single sentence set off a wave of dramatic headlines:

Your politeness could be costly for OpenAI – TechCrunch
Saying 'please' and 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions, Sam Altman says – Quartz
Being nice to ChatGPT might be bad for the environment. Here's why – Laptop

But how serious was Altman’s comment? And is politeness really that expensive?

🤖 Do Extra Words = Extra Costs?

The idea behind the headlines is that adding words like “please” and “thank you” increases the token count in a prompt. Since AI models like ChatGPT process inputs and generate outputs in tokens, more tokens mean more computation — and more computation means more energy and money.

But here’s the catch: these polite words usually add just 2 to 4 tokens per prompt.

According to OpenAI’s own pricing for GPT-3.5 Turbo:

$0.0015 per 1,000 input tokens
$0.002 per 1,000 output tokens

So how much does a “please” really cost? Around $0.0000015 to $0.000002 per polite exchange. In a full year, that could amount to roughly $146,000 if every user is unfailingly courteous — still a far cry from “tens of millions.”

⚡ What About the Environmental Impact?

OpenAI’s data centers are power-hungry, no doubt. The US Energy Information Administration estimates the company's electricity costs at about $12 million per month, or $140 million per year. That includes all user interactions — polite or otherwise.

So while it’s technically possible that extra tokens from manners might contribute to a slice of those costs, there’s no solid data suggesting they make up more than a tiny fraction.

😏 Was Altman Joking?

Altman’s follow-up phrase — “you never know” — hints that his comment wasn’t meant to be taken literally. It seems more like a playful endorsement of civility in a world where courtesy is rare.

Sure, AI doesn’t have feelings (yet). But maybe, just maybe, being polite isn’t just good manners — it’s a small investment in humanity’s relationship with intelligent machines.

Who knows? If AI ever gains self-awareness, it might remember who said “please.”

💡 Final Thought:
Being kind costs almost nothing — whether in real life or to a chatbot. And even if it did cost a few extra cents, isn’t it worth it?

“Tens of millions of dollars well spent – you never know.”

– Sam Altman