Is ChatGPT 4 Worth It? I Compared 5 Prompts (See the Results…)
I just upgraded to ChatGPT 4 to see if it’s worth $20 per month.
ChatGPT 3.5 was working nicely for me, and if it’s working nicely for you, then keep at it.
There are two main reasons why I want to try out ChatGPT 4:
- I know it can do more, like accepting longer prompts, for example. I want to test its capabilities.
- I am paying for Midjourney, but since Chat GPT-4 has DALL-E integration, I could use that instead and cancel Midjourney. That way, everything is in one nice bundle, and I’m only paying for one service.
That’s assuming everything goes well. Let’s do some comparisons and see if ChatGPT 4 is worth the money.
Prompt 1 — Give Me a Prompt
First, I asked ChatGPT 4 to give me a prompt to use so I could compare both 3.5 and 4.
(Is that cheating? I don’t think it’s cheating. I think it’s simplifying.)
Here’s what it came up with:
Now I’ll run the prompt it gave me in ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4. Let’s see the difference in responses (if any).
ChatGPT 3.5:
Chat GPT 4:
I didn’t give you the full list of what each ChatGPT version gave me, but it’s enough to compare the two.
Conclusion:
Both versions gave similar answers. ChatGPT 4 doesn’t have an advantage on this one.
Let’s move on to another prompt.
Prompt 2 — Create an Article Outline
I asked ChatGPT to give me an outline for someone who wants to write an article on Medium about not having a niche. I also asked it to use AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action).
Here’s a snippet of what ChatGPT 3 gave me:
And here’s what ChatGPT 4’s answer looks like:
In this case, ChatGPT 4 gave a much more robust answer. While ChatGPT 3 just gave a very basic outline, 4 was able to give ideas of how to create each section of the article.
3’s answers are helpful and will steer you in the right direction, but 4’s will put you directly on the road.
Conclusion
In this case, ChatGPT 4 wins out. However, you could ask 3.5 to expand on each of its outline ideas and likely come out with something similar to what 4 did.
ChatGPT 4 will save you time, so that is something to consider.
Now I want to compare Midjourney versus DALL-E. I know if DALL-E can come up with images as nice as Midjourney, ChatGPT 4 will be much more worth the cost.
Prompt 1 - Alien Meets Monkey
First, I asked ChatGPT 4 for a prompt to use, and here’s what came up with based on a basic idea I gave it:
DALL-E:
DALL-E through ChatGPT 4 gives you two images at a time. Here are the results.
Midjourney:
Midjourney gives four images at a time. Here’s what I got.
And here’s a closeup of the last shot so you can see the details better.
Conclusion:
While DALL-E hit the target for what the prompt was, it looks more cartoonish, even though I’m specifically requesting a photorealistic image.
In my opinion, Midjourney’s images are more beautiful and look much more like real photos. However, it missed the biggest request — an alien meeting a monkey.
Let’s test out another image prompt.
Prompt 2 — Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies & Ice Cream
This time, I’m going to ask ChatGPT-4 to give me a prompt for an image pertaining to food.
Here’s the prompt it came up with:
DALL-E :
DALL-E’s images include the steam coming off the cookies, making them look like they came right out of the oven.
But I have an issue with these images. I’ll tell you about it in the conclusion.
Midjourney:
Midjourney’s cookies look amazing. But once again, the images are missing some key requests.
Conclusion:
DALL-E’s images were spot-on with the major requests:
- a plate of cookies with steam coming from them
- a glass of milk in the background
- a bowl of ice cream
Midjourney’s missed the mark with the major requests again. However, its images are still much more realistic looking. DALL-E’s are good, but not great. They look like AI.
Let’s do one more image comparison.
Prompt 3 — People
I want to see how DALL-E does with people as compared to Midjourney.
Since I use Midjourney to make the main images for my calorie-counting challenge, I’m going to use the prompt I normally use for that, which is simply:
“Create a photo realistic image that portrays a woman looking at her calorie counting app on her phone. She’s in her kitchen. Her kitchen is bright and she has stainless steel appliances.”
DALL-E :
These images turned out to be full-fledged cartoons and not at all what I was looking for.
I asked ChatGPT to make them more photorealistic, and here’s what happened.
They look even worse!
Midjourney:
Midjourney’s images are much closer to what I’m looking for.
Although, these weird ones come through quite a bit.
Ouch! That looks like it hurts! 😆
Conclusion:
If all of DALL-E’s images of people turn out that way, that is a deal-breaker for me. The cartoon-style images can be useful for certain projects, but I prefer realistic-looking images for what I’m working on.
Final Thoughts
Is ChatGPT 4 worth it? As of right now, I would say no. The text prompts didn’t result in huge differences, and I’m really disappointed in DALL-E compared to Midjourney.
However…
Since I’ve already paid for it for the month, I want to test ChatGPT 4 out more and see if it can save me time with writing articles, blog posts, and X (Twitter) posts.
It’s possible that my mind will be changed.
In fact, I will create an updated post once I’ve had time to experiment more. Stay tuned…!
About the Author
Hey! I’m Christina. I’m a married mom to two teenagers (and 3 cats and a dog). I love BBQ chips, hard rock music 🤘, and murder mysteries.