You Can Now Use ChatGPT Without An Account: Here's How
OpenAI has officially removed the final barrier to entry for its famous chatbot tool. You can now use ChatGPT without creating an account or logging in. The company announced in a blog post that the goal is "to make AI accessible to anyone curious about its capabilities." All other premium OpenAI offerings, like GPT-4 and DALL-E, will continue to require an account and a subscription to work.
With this credential-free access, you'll get ChatGPT 3.5 and its basic function — you can type in a query and get responses — but you'll still need to create an account or log in to save and review chat history, share chats, or have voiced conversations. If you're already worried about what kind of safety loopholes free access will create, OpenAI assures that it has introduced additional content safeguards for the experience, including blocking certain kinds of prompts, although it's not clear what exactly those restrictions entail.
As of the time of writing, free login access is only available on the web version. You'll still need an account to use the bot via the app on Android or iOS devices. To get started, head on over to chat.openai.com and get to querying. Keep in mind if you've used ChatGPT previously with an account, you may need to clear your cookies or open the chatbot in an Incognito window. OpenAI states that it's rolling out the feature gradually.
Using ChatGPT without a login
You should know that OpenAI can still collect data from your chat for model training, but there's an option to disable that if you want. You'll find a toggle option in Settings for Improve the model for everyone when you click the question mark icon at the bottom right of the screen.
The company's statement suggests that the bottom line for adding login-free access is to make the chatbot more available to more people, and it is a viable strategy. Allowing users to skip the process of creating an account makes ChatGPT available to a wider demographic who either didn't want to give their personal information to OpenAI or just didn't want the hassle of memorizing yet another account's password.
Data from SimilarWeb shows that ChatGPT received 1.6 billion visits in February 2024 alone, but they aren't the only AI chatbot that exists. With other competitors gaining ground, ChatGPT must continue to evolve if it will remain ahead in the race for AI domination. Competitors like Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot (which also allows login-free access) are waiting to take away even more market share from OpenAI.
Still, users must engage with caution. OpenAI's data privacy policy contains some gray areas, and there have been a few incidents of security breaches since ChatGPT's inception. All things considered, we advise opting out of data collection for training at this time so that you can enjoy a great tool without trading your personal data.