ChatGPT code interpreter: what is it and how does it work?

OpenAI has finally added a code interpreter to ChatGPT. This is the most anticipated feature that opens the door to so many possibilities. After the ChatGPT plugin, people were waiting for a code interpreter. The code interpreter is currently not in alpha and is being released to ChatGPT Plus users as a beta version. But what exactly is the ChatGPT code interpreter and how does it work? Keep reading to find out more.

What is ChatGPT’s code interpreter?

Code Interpreter is the latest feature in OpenAI ChatGPT (specifically the GPT-4 model) that allows you to run Python code in a live working environment. This is essentially a sandboxed Python environment where you can run Python code to perform any task you want. Although it may sound like a feature built for programmers, it can also be useful for many tasks for regular users.

For example, you can ask ChatGPT’s code interpreter to convert PDF files using OCR, crop or reformat video files, solve mathematical problems, perform data analysis and visualization , create graphs and charts, and more. . As a result, the code interpreter allows you to upload local files directly to ChatGPT in multiple formats.

The code interpreter also provides temporary disk space for uploading files. A wide variety of files including popular file formats such as TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, PNG, MP4, AVI, CSV, JSON, XML, XLS, XLSX, CPP, PY, HTML, PDF, DB, SQLite, etc. formats supported. And so on. This is not a complete list, but a general representation of file formats across different categories. You can see the full list in the tweet below.

Simply put, ChatGPT’s code interpreter gives you direct access to computers within your chatbot with computing resources and disk space. You can do almost anything you want through natural language. However, please note that you cannot install the Python libraries yourself. It is a sandboxed firewall environment with over 300 libraries and packages preinstalled .

How does code interpreter work with ChatGPT?

As mentioned above, the code interpreter runs Python code to perform tasks on the ChatGPT interface. So, for example, when you request to make an image-based PDF searchable using OCR, a custom Python script is created and executed on the fly. Just upload your PDF file and the backend will do all the processing for you. You can see all the libraries you’re using, where they’re stuck, etc.

OpenAI does not mention file size limits for its code interpreter. Many people suggest that it can handle files smaller than 100MB, but we uploaded a 170MB PDF file and it worked fine. Try it yourself and see how well it handles large files. However, uploaded files are discarded when you end your chat session.

Who has access to ChatGPT’s code interpreter?

Code interpreter is not available in the free version of ChatGPT. To use ChatGPT Plus , you must subscribe to ChatGPT Plus ( $20 per month ) and switch to the GPT-4 model. Starting this week, OpenAI will make the code interpreter available to all paying users, so expect it to be available within the next few days. For detailed instructions, follow our tutorial on how to use the code interpreter with ChatGPT.