Look, ChatGPT is just the AI that happened to work when everyone tried it in November 2022. Now it's got 800 million weekly users because, surprisingly, it doesn't suck at most things you throw at it. Engineers actually find it useful, unlike most AI hype that promises the world and delivers garbage.
GPT-5 dropped in August 2025 and it's supposed to be smarter, but it's brand new so expect weird shit. Had it catch a missing comma that took me 2 hours to find manually.
What Actually Works
Debugging Code: When your error makes no sense and Stack Overflow has nothing useful, paste it into ChatGPT. It'll usually spot the obvious shit you missed. Spent forever on some broken JSON config file - turned out to be a missing comma. Should've just pasted it into ChatGPT first.
Explaining Legacy Code: Drop in some horrible inherited codebase and ask "what the hell does this do?" Pretty good at breaking down complex functions, especially the kind written by developers who thought comments were optional. Works well with multiple programming languages and can explain architectural patterns.
Writing Boilerplate: Saves hours on tedious CRUD operations, API endpoints, and config files. Not perfect but gets you 80% there. Always review it though - I've seen it generate code that compiles but does the opposite of what you asked.
Research and Documentation: When you need to understand a new framework or library quickly, it's faster than reading docs. Handles images too, so you can screenshot error messages or architecture diagrams. Pretty solid for technical documentation analysis.
The Reality Check
Free tier is basically unusable during peak hours - you'll hit limits fast. Plus subscription ($20/month) is worth it if you use it daily. Pro tier ($200/month) is expensive but necessary for heavy usage.
Version-Specific Gotcha: Can't control which model responds - sometimes fast, sometimes makes you question your life choices while it "thinks" for 30 seconds. Frustrating as hell when you need consistent outputs.
API Costs Reality Check: For a chat app with moderate traffic, expect anywhere from fifty bucks to holy-shit-five-hundred depending on usage. Monitor your usage or prepare for budget meetings when you get surprise bills. Image processing costs 10x more than text, and failed requests still cost money.
Context Limits: Paste in a big codebase and watch it lose its mind. Context gets fuzzy after about 50KB of code, not the marketed limits. Start fresh when it stops making sense.
People actually use this stuff - 2.5 billion daily prompts aren't just hype. Just don't expect it to replace thinking, and always double-check anything important.
