You Can Now Try ChatGPT’s ‘Chat With Voice’ Feature for Free

You can pay a monthly premium to use ChatGPT, but the free version often can handle more than enough to allow you to experience what generative AI has to offer. Without paying, you can take advantage of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 model and ask ChatGPT to produce some interesting, hilarious, useful, or concerning outputs. And now, you can literally ask it out loud.

See, while the free version is useful, there are more great features locked behind the company's $20 per month ChatGPT Plus plan. Without paying, you miss out on the more powerful GPT-4 model, plug-in support, and the ability to connect ChatGPT to the internet, among others.

Thankfully, even in the midst of a company crisis, OpenAI has had time to rollout one previously Plus-only feature to all users: voice chat.

ChatGPT voice chat is here for all

OpenAI rolled out voice chat to ChatGPT Plus users back in September. The feature replaces the text-based ChatGPT interface with something more like a voice assistant: As you speak to ChatGPT, you'll see a waveform reacting in kind. The assistant will automatically recognize when you're done talking, and will switch into a "thought bubble" interface as it responds to your question or request.

The company always planned to bring voice chat to free users, and while it took a couple months, the feature is finally here:

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Voice chat doesn't actually do anything more (or anything different) than text-based ChatGPT, but it does make interacting with the chatbot feel a bit more natural. Or, at least, brings us closer to a real world Her situation.

How to use ChatGPT voice chat

Note: I'm using ChatGPT Plus to walk through voice chat, so it's possible there are some discrepancies between my experience and the one presented in the free version. That said, here's a primer on how to use it.

This feature is only available on the official ChatGPT app for iOS and Android, not the web app, so, to start, make sure to download the app to your phone. Once you open the app and set everything up, start a new chat and look for the headphones icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Voice chat is rolling out as of Tuesday, so you should see it once you upgrade the app.

Tap the headphones, and you'll see a pop-up explaining the "chat with voice" feature. To continue, hit Choose a voice. You have five different choices: Juniper, Breeze, Cove, Ember, and Sky, who sounds remarkably like Scarlett Johansson. (Someone at OpenAI really likes Her.)

Once you pick your voice and continue, you're in! By default, ChatGPT will listen for your voice right away, and wait until you're done speaking to continue. However, you can hold down on the mic to record your question or request, then let go to prompt ChatGPT to respond.

ChatGPT will save a transcript of your voice chat to the main chat, so when you exit voice chat, you'll see your conversation as you normally would. You'll be able to differentiate between voice chat transcripts and text conversations by the microphone and waveform icons next to your prompts and ChatGPT's responses, respectively.