CHAI responds to rate limit complaints via email, says 'Unlimited' label for free users is actually limited

CHAI has responded to user complaints about rate limits via email. Many people on Reddit claim to have received the same response in their email. The company has specified that the free version will continue to stay limited, and that the rate limits may not go away for everyone.

In the email, CHAI “sincerely apologizes” for the inconvenience. Texts from bots or pop-up notifications asking users to subscribe to continue chatting are here to stay. While the rate limits might reset in a few hours or a day for some people, others are still stuck. Unlimited texting is only available for subscribers.

Citing high GPU compute costs as the reason, the company says it cannot unblock specific users on request either, suggesting that a user’s rate limits being lifted is pure luck. It may not even happen.

CHAI gave out some important information under “Please note” at the end of the email. The ‘Unlimited’ label on the app does not reflect what users are getting. Messages for free users are limited, and the label has not yet been properly updated. They claim that the label will eventually be modified, but free users may still see the unlimited label even when the messages are actually limited.

Other information in the email is fairly similar to the generic copy-paste that we’ve covered in our previous article about Message Limit prompts on the CHAI app. They’re “closely monitoring” the impact; they’re aware of the issues the community has faced. While there may be further adjustments, no timeline was provided.

The person who posted screenshots of this email on Reddit also claimed that it took two days to get this response. They speculate about an update in a few months, where free users might regain the ability to chat.

The geological position of this issue is still confusing. Under the same thread, users from the US make both claims: one saying it works perfectly fine, and others running into the rate limit. People living in the EU are facing this issue as well.

User reaction was mixed to negative, with people disappointed that it’s a generic corporate response. A lot of users have already left the app. Some alarming claims of CHAI deleting all posts and comments that call them out were also made. Interestingly, a few comments also claim that it’s an email that they’ve copied and pasted to many people.

I’m hoping they speed up the process of removing the ‘Unlimited’ label on the free version at least, since seeing an unlimited label and then not getting unlimited messages is fairly misleading and annoying.

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