Need smarter insights in your inbox? Join our weekly newsletters to get solely what issues to enterprise AI, information, and safety leaders. Subscribe Now
OpenAI is as soon as once more making GPT-4o — the big language mannequin (LLM) that powered ChatGPT earlier than final week’s launch of GPT-5 — a default choice for all paying customers, that’s, those that subscribe to the ChatGPT Plus ($20 per thirty days), Professional ($200 per thirty days), Staff ($30 per thirty days), Enterprise, or Edu tiers, not requiring customers to toggle on a “present legacy fashions” setting to entry it.
Nevertheless, paying ChatGPT subscribers may even get a brand new “Present further fashions” setting on by default that restores entry to GPT-4.1, o3 and o4-mini, the latter two reasoning-focused LLMs.
OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman introduced the change on X simply minutes in the past, pledging that if the corporate ever removes GPT-4o sooner or later, it can give “loads of discover.”
The fashions will be discovered within the “picker” menu on the prime of the ChatGPT session display screen on the net and on cell and different apps.
AI Scaling Hits Its Limits
Energy caps, rising token prices, and inference delays are reshaping enterprise AI. Be part of our unique salon to find how prime groups are:
- Turning power right into a strategic benefit
- Architecting environment friendly inference for actual throughput features
- Unlocking aggressive ROI with sustainable AI methods
Safe your spot to remain forward: https://bit.ly/4mwGngO
The reversal follows a turbulent first week for GPT-5, which rolled out August 7 in 4 variants — common, mini, nano, and professional — with elective “pondering” modes on a number of of those for longer, extra reasoning-intensive duties.
As VentureBeat beforehand reported, GPT-5’s debut was met with blended critiques and infrastructure hiccups, together with a damaged “autoswitcher” that routed prompts incorrectly, inconsistent efficiency in comparison with GPT-4o, and person frustration over the sudden removing of older fashions.
Altman’s newest replace provides new controls to the ChatGPT interface: customers can now select between “Auto,” “Quick,” and “Pondering” modes for GPT-5.
The “Pondering” mode — with a 196,000-token context window — now carries a 3,000 messages-per-week cap for paying subscribers, after which they’ll proceed utilizing the lighter “GPT-5 Pondering mini” mode. Altman famous the bounds may change relying on utilization developments.
Nevertheless, GPT-4.5 stays unique to Professional customers as a result of its excessive GPU value.
Altman additionally hinted at one other change on the horizon: a persona tweak for GPT-5 meant to really feel “hotter” than the present default, however much less polarizing than GPT-4o’s tone.
The corporate is exploring per-user customization as a long-term answer — a transfer that might handle the sturdy emotional attachments some customers have fashioned with particular fashions.
For now, the adjustments ought to assist placate customers who felt annoyed by the sudden shift to GPT-5 and deprecation of OpenAI’s older LLMs, although it may additionally proceed to gas the extreme emotional fixations some customers developed with these fashions.
