Users of the free version of ChatGPT will have access to GPT-5, but with restrictions

OpenAI has announced an important update in its strategy: with the release of GPT-5, users of the free version of ChatGPT will have unlimited access to the model. The company's CEO Sam Altman spoke about these plans in his post on X.

Here's What We Know

According to him, OpenAI aims to make ChatGPT easier to use.

"We want artificial intelligence to work for you without any extra settings. We understand that choosing between different models and features can be confusing," Altman explained.

Currently, if a user wants to choose a specific model, such as the o3-mini, they need to press the Reason button or open a special menu. In the paid versions (Plus or Pro), the list of models and intelligence levels can be quite long, which makes it difficult to choose.

Altman explained that GPT-4.5 will be the last version without the ability to reason in stages. In future models, AI will be able to break down complex tasks into smaller steps for better solutions. OpenAI also plans to combine all of its models into a single system that will automatically select the best way of thinking for each query.

GPT-5 will be an integrated system that will use o3 and the new Deep Research feature. Unlike previous plans, OpenAI will not release o3 as a standalone model.

Users of the free version will have access to GPT-5 with restrictions, while users of the Plus version will be able to use the model with more advanced features. The Pro version will have access to an even more powerful model with a high level of intelligence.

The exact release dates of GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 are not yet known, but they are expected to be released in the coming weeks or months.

Source: @sama