OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has suggested that users' politeness toward AI may be having a tangible financial impact, revealing that simple expressions such as "please" and "thank you" could be contributing to electricity costs amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

On April 17, Altman made the remark in response to a post on social media platform X, where user @tomieinlove speculated about the energy implications of users including polite phrases while interacting with ChatGPT. "I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their models," the user wrote.

Altman responded saying, "Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know." While the comment was made in a light-hearted tone, it shows the broader resource implications of generative AI systems, where even minor inputs can cumulatively demand significant computational power.

According to a study conducted in December 2024 by Future, a majority of users are indeed inclined to use courteous language when speaking to AI. The study found that 71% of UK respondents and 67% of US respondents reported being polite in their interactions with chatbots.

While there is no indication that OpenAI intends to discourage such behaviour, Altman's comment has opened a wider conversation among netizens about sustainability in the use of AI and the cumulative impact of seemingly harmless digital habits.

The comment has drawn attention to a relatively overlooked aspect of AI interaction which is the efficiency cost of unnecessary tokens. Every word a user types into models like ChatGPT is processed by servers that consume considerable amounts of electricity. Though polite phrases may appear harmless, their volume across millions of queries globally can lead to a notable increase in energy usage.