Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#11

Post by f0e4c2f7 » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:18 AM UTC

You could charge for heavy use. At that many users and only $50/day you might be able to cover costs with premium users.

Alternatively you could try swapping out an open source model like llama on the back end (possible licensing issues here).

Another option would be to seek out ads for local companies directly since it is an explicitly local product. Cold calling would probably be the best place to start. You could also pay attention to who is paying for billboards in your area and try contacting them.

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#12

Post by furyofantares » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:19 AM UTC

Contact local businesses and sell ads injected into your prompt

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#13

Post by ugh123 » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:20 AM UTC

f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #11

You could charge for heavy use. At that many users and only $50/day you might be able to cover costs with premium users. Alternatively you could try swapping out an open source model like llama on the back end (possible licensing issues here). Another option would be to seek out ads for local companies directly since it is an explicitly local product. Cold calling would probably be the best place to start. You could…

To add to that, OP should really be tracking usage a bit to see if there are abusers taking up a large amount of queries

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#14

Post by PaywallBuster » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:20 AM UTC

Find the most popular queries, built content pages around it and add ads there

And you could try some alternatives to AdSense like:

Ezoic, MediaVine, or Adthrive

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#15

Post by lagniappe » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:24 AM UTC

Put a meter on the site, when the meter runs out, put up a timer that a user can bypass for everyone by chipping in N more $ to hit the goal

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#16

Post by jamestimmins » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:30 AM UTC

Odds are high that this will go through a hype cycle and usage will taper off naturally in a week or two.

But the donations route could also be a fun way to lean into the local element of it if the cost remains high. Could have a simple line of text when the page loads that thanks one of the donors for that day.

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#17

Post by silasdavis » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:31 AM UTC

bag_boy wrote: post #3

That’s enough traffic to attract local sponsorships. I bet you could find local sponsors who can pay you on a monthly basis

Perhaps local events, extra charge for being integrated into the prompt

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#18

Post by colinnordin » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:32 AM UTC

If you haven’t already: Start to store question and answer pairs and reuse the answer if the same question is asked multiple times.

You could also compute embeddings for the questions (don’t have to be OpenAI embeddings), and reuse the answer if the question is sufficiently similar to a prevously asked question.

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#19

Post by kyleyeats » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:46 AM UTC

Ask it to be more concise in its answers if possible. This saves a ton of tokens. You can also include instructions to flatly refuse tasks like writing short stories, but this might also make it less fun for your users.

Re: Ask HN: My GPT project has become a local hit but I can't afford the bill

#20

Post by bombcar » Sun, May 28, 2023, 4:46 AM UTC

furyofantares wrote: post #12

Contact local businesses and sell ads injected into your prompt

Or just contact some of the businesses and offer a classic banner ad on the site.

If done right, it won't even be adblocked (because you can do it with no tracking at all).

Depending on the size of the city, and the queries, you should have a good idea where to look. If not, check the local church bulletins, the local softball/school fields, and anywhere else you find local business advertisements.