The blank in AI Untuk Rakyat is filled. The free AI tool is ILMUchat Pro from YTL AI Labs, and every outlet reported the same number: RM150 for three months, SoyaCincau included.
Read that price tag again.
RM50 is a price YTL set for itself
ILMUchat Pro lists at RM50 a month. Since 27 June 2026, Yes has bundled it free with every prepaid, postpaid and broadband plan, no age limit and no courses to pass. A Yes prepaid starter pack costs RM10.
Yes is YTL Communications. YTL AI Labs makes ILMU. Same group.
So RM50 is a list price the seller sets, gives away on its own telco, and a national programme has now adopted as the headline value of a reward. That is not a lie. It is just not RM150 of anything for a large share of the people being told they won it.
What Pro actually unlocks
Pro is not a smarter model. It is the same assistant with the meter removed.
| Basic (free) | Pro (RM50/month list) | |
|---|---|---|
| Chat, web search, memory | Yes | Yes |
| Slides and posters | Limited | Unlimited |
| Code and app building | Limited | Unlimited |
| File uploads | Limited | Unlimited |
| Conversation length | Shorter | Longer |
Most people never touch those caps. Ask an AI a few questions a day and the free tier already is your tier.
Claim steps are unchanged and sit in our AI Untuk Rakyat 2026 guide.
The benchmark ILMU wins is YTL's own benchmark
MalayMMLU holds over 24,000 questions across 22 subjects from the Malaysian school curriculum, accepted at EMNLP 2024. Independent reviewers checked the method.
| Model | MalayMMLU score |
|---|---|
| ILMU | 87.20 |
| GPT-4o | 84.97 |
| Llama 3.1 | 78.44 |
YTL says ILMU also beats GPT-5 there, that the model passed PT3 and SPM in Malay at grade A, and that its NVIDIA-tuned Ilmu-Nemo-30B lifted MalayMMLU another 23%.
Now the awkward part, out loud. YTL AI Labs built MalayMMLU. YTL AI Labs makes the model that tops it. Peer review makes the exam sound, it does not make the exam neutral. A second Malay benchmark, written by someone with nothing riding on the result, would tell you more than another run of this one.
And nobody has published ILMU against GPT-5.6. OpenAI's July 2026 release posts 88.8% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 and 72.7% on DeepSWE. Those are coding and agent tests. MalayMMLU is a Malay school exam. No overlap, so no overall winner exists.
| ILMUchat Pro | ChatGPT (GPT-5.6) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price in Malaysia | RM50/mo list, free on Yes | RM24 Go, RM99.90 Plus, RM420 Pro |
| Strongest published result | MalayMMLU 87.20, own benchmark | Terminal-Bench 2.1 88.8%, coding and agents |
| Bahasa Melayu and Manglish | Built for it | Competent, not native |
| Data location | Malaysia, under PDPA | Overseas |
| Coding and deep reasoning | Untested in public | Benchmarked and strong |
What each side got
YTL got 100,000 users verified by MyDigital ID, three months of real usage data, and a funnel that ends at RM50 a month.
The government got a reason for people to finish the courses. The 2024 version handed out badges and could not produce one.
You got three months of a tier you may not need, on a product that comes free with a RM10 prepaid SIM.
None of that is a scandal. It is a normal commercial deal. It is just not a gift, and the coverage is reading it as one.
Split the work by the job, not by where the model was built.
Do not cancel ChatGPT. Offload to ILMU instead.
Keep paying for what already works. Add ILMUchat on top for free, and move the work it is genuinely better at across to it.
Offload to ILMUchat:
- Malay and Manglish drafting. Customer replies, captions, WhatsApp broadcasts, staff notices.
- Anything a Malaysian reader will judge on tone. It moves between BM, English and Manglish mid-sentence without going stiff.
- Government-facing writing. Forms, applications, letters to an agency.
- Documents you would rather keep onshore. Hosting in Malaysia under PDPA is the best thing about the product, and it has nothing to do with the RM150.
Keep on ChatGPT:
- Code, and anything multi-step.
- Long research and analysis.
- English work where you already trust the output.
Two notes. Open MyYes first, because Yes subscribers already have Pro and should not burn a one-time benefit on it. And do the courses regardless if you are 18 to 30. They are free, short, and separate from the vendor question.
Judge it in month three, on your own work, not on anyone's benchmark. If ILMUchat has quietly taken over the Malay half of your week, it earned RM50. If not, drop it and go back to one tool.
At Gotchaa Lab we help Malaysian businesses work out which parts of the AI wave are worth acting on. Talk to us, or see how we approach AI solutions.
This article is for general information only. Programme details, pricing and eligibility may change. Verify with the Ministry of Digital, YTL AI Labs and your telco before making decisions.
References
- AI Untuk Rakyat: ILMUchat Pro free for 3 months for young Malaysians, SoyaCincau
- ILMUchat Pro is now free if you're on any Yes plan, Price Shop Malaysia
- Yes offers ILMUchat Pro free to all subscribers, TechNave
- ILMUchat official site and pricing
- YTL AI Labs, ILMU model and benchmarks
- MalayMMLU benchmark, YTL AI Labs and Universiti Malaya
- YTL AI Labs Releases the First MalayMMLU, YTL Power International
- GPT-5.6 benchmarks across intelligence, speed and cost, Artificial Analysis
- ChatGPT Plus price in Malaysia
- Rakyat Digital, Ministry of Digital
