If you find yourself saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT, you’re not alone—and you might be costing OpenAI more than you think. A recent comment by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that user politeness contributes to “tens of millions of dollars” in electricity costs, due to the computational effort involved in generating those extra conversational responses.
Responding to a query on X (formerly Twitter) by user @tomieinlove, who mused about how much the company might be spending on polite exchanges, Altman replied: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent.”
He added playfully: “You never know.”
The human touch in AI chats
Altman’s remark underscores a unique aspect of AI-human interaction. Despite AI being non-sentient, many users instinctively extend social courtesies like “please” and “thank you” during chats with ChatGPT. The phenomenon illustrates how deeply AI tools have integrated into our daily lives.
These responses might seem insignificant but they make using AI a touch more humane.
Running ChatGPT isn’t cheap
Behind every polite response lies a high-performance AI model powered by energy-hungry data centers. These facilities consume vast amounts of electricity—not only for computing but also for the cooling systems required to prevent hardware from overheating.
As AI tools grow in popularity, Altman’s remarks raise awareness of their environmental footprint. Every message, meme, or friendly back-and-forth with ChatGPT contributes to a global network of servers constantly working to keep up with demand.
Premium users and paid politeness
Premium users, who pay for access to faster or more capable versions of ChatGPT, might be wondering if their “thank you” carries more weight. Since these users are billed based on tokens—essentially, word count—every extra phrase adds to their cost.
While the energy cost of politeness may raise eyebrows, Altman’s response signals that OpenAI sees value beyond just efficiency. The CEO seems to accept the financial and environmental toll as part of the company’s mission to build AI that feels intuitive and natural to interact with.
So if you’re feeling polite next time you use ChatGPT, don’t hold back. As Altman said: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent.”
