Saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT is costing OpenAI money

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Politeness costs nothing, but with AI chatbots like ChatGPT becoming more common, that might no longer be true, at least when it comes to energy use and costs.

Recently, someone on the social media platform X (Twitter) asked how much energy OpenAI wastes processing polite words like “please” and “thank you.” 

Surprisingly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded, saying it costs tens of millions of dollars, and added that it’s money well spent.

tens of millions of dollars well spent–you never know

— Sam Altman (@sama) April 16, 2025

Why does politeness cost anything at all? Well, every extra word a chatbot has to understand and respond to means more computer power is needed. 

Since most of the energy used by data centers still comes from fossil fuels, this also means more environmental impact. 

According to Goldman Sachs research, each ChatGPT-4 inquiry consumes about 2.9 watt-hours of electricity, which is roughly ten times more than a regular Google search. 

With OpenAI answering over one billion requests each day, the daily energy consumption is around 2.9 million kilowatt-hours.

Multiply those little polite phrases across billions of interactions, and it adds up fast. In a US survey, about 67% of people said they try to be polite when talking to chatbots. 

That means most people are adding these extra words without realizing they’re increasing the energy usage involved.

But here’s the twist: being polite might actually help the chatbot give better answers. 

Researchers found that when people used impolite or blunt language, the chatbot’s responses were often worse, sometimes containing errors, biases, or missing details. 

Folks over at TechRadar even tested this out and found that rude prompts led to less helpful replies.

So, should we stop being polite to save energy and money? Or keep the niceties for the sake of better chatbot conversations?

Politeness in the age of AI might not be free anymore, but it still might be worth it.

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