So i came across some Instagram post several months ago with the headline, "use Chat GPT4 for free..."
took a while to actually return to it and read the whopping caption with description that took all of 10 seconds. but turned out: IT'S LEGIT.
tl:dr = all you need is a free microsoft account, then head to
copilot.microsoft.com
their platform is built on a few models - including GPT4. so while the front-end interface is difference, you've essentially got access to the same version people are paying $20/month for direct from OpenAI.
That's it.
i really haven't gone crazy with it yet, but it's been pretty dope so far.
only used the free version of GPT3.5 a little bit and was somewhat unimpressed. had heard that version 4 was ALOT better, but couldn't see where it'd be worth paying $20USD/month for in my case, so just sat by the sidelines as everyone raved.
compared to what some people are doing with it, i've surely barely even scratched the surface. yet there are instances where it's actually pretty damn impressive. like a question will pop into head, that'd normally be a matter of going to do a search, scanning through a whole bunch of different websites trying to find bits of the answer, then maybe finally putting them together for the actual answer 10-15 minutes later - where here, it might take a few seconds longer to word the question well, and BAM. like a virtual assistant that goes and does all that work and just brings back the clear, well-summarized & structured answer in seconds. booyakasha.
and sure, there'll probably be cynics like, "oh, well if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." ok. but y'all really think your data using the paid version of ChatGPT4 ain't being collected and then sold off too? ha. Whatever.
Note: this does seem to work better on desktop web browser, as the iOS app on iPad seemed kinda glitchy and i ditched it right away. also, using the image-generation section had some limitations in the iOS Brave browser - that weren't an issue with Safari, although the page alignments there seemed catered to landscape, not portrait mode. but very minor issues, not that big of a deal.
So yeah, if you've ever been keen to check out what GPT4 can do but didn't feel like shelling out the cash, here ya go... 🍻