OpenAI Removes Chat Limits for Free ChatGPT Users, Upgrades GPT-5.6 Models

You Can Now Have Unlimited Text Chats Without Paying for ChatGPT - CNET

Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators.... Read full bio Your ChatGPT usage limits are about to get loosened if you're a free user. OpenAI said on Thursday that it is giving free users unlimited text chats, and the default model for paying users is getting upgraded. Usage limits are one of the biggest annoyances of using AI chatbots and other products. If you don't pony up for the $20 paid subscription -- or if your workplace doesn't pay for an enterprise plan -- you probably run into messages on ChatGPT telling you that you've reached your limit for the day. Now, these limits for text-only chats will be removed for free users. Limits on image generation, file uploads and voice tools will still apply. Free and paying users will have a new default model, GPT-5.6 Luna, the lightweight version in the company's newest model family. Luna has performed better than the current default, GPT-5.5 Instant, with OpenAI reporting that factual errors were 62% less common with Luna. There's also going to be a new "Think" button available for free users and subscribers on the $8 per month Go plan. This is supposed to help the AI answer harder questions by taking more time to process an answer. Plus and Pro users ($20 and $200 per month subscribers, respectively) should also see some improvements when they use GPT-5.6 Sol, the heavyweight new model. OpenAI said it tweaked Sol to be better at everyday tasks, like web research, writing, planning and making decisions. It should give honed or focused answers -- less unnecessary info and formatting. There will also be a slider tool where you can increase the amount of technical firepower you want in your prompt, like upgrading from GPT-5.6 high to extra high to pro. Luna will be the new default model starting this week, while the unlimited chats, new Think button and slider should be released next week. Don't panic if you don't see them right away; rollouts can sometimes take a few days. While unlimited chats might be nice if you use AI for school or work, it could be an issue for some vulnerable groups. We've seen more than a few cases (and subsequent lawsuits against AI companies) where people who use AI chatbots excessively develop and exacerbate some mental health issues. In one lawsuit, a mother alleges that OpenAI failed to enact necessary safeguards in order to keep her daughter engaged with ChatGPT. It's a similar concern that is underpinning several lawsuits against social media companies, saying they had deliberately addictive designs that resulted in harm for young and vulnerable users. OpenAI says it has added guardrails to the models so they "avoid romantic roleplay, age-restricted challenges, and presenting itself as a substitute for real-world relationships" for users under 18. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

OpenAI will no longer limit how many texts free accounts can send to ChatGPT - Engadget

There will still be limits on image generation, voice mode usage and other features. OpenAI is making a major change to how it operates ChatGPT free and Go accounts. Starting next week, the company will no longer enforce rate limits on users of those accounts for prompts that involve only text. In effect, that change will allow you to talk with ChatGPT as much as you want. The company will continue to enforce separate limits for other forms of usage. For instance, adding files and images to your prompts will see you eventually hit a limit as a free or Go tier user, as will making use of image generation and ChatGPT's recently updated voice mode. OpenAI is also making GPT-5.6 Luna, the smallest model in its new GPT-5.6 family, the new default for Free and Go accounts. It will replace GPT-5.5 Instant, which had been the default since this past May. That change will go through this week. Users will also see a new "Think" button that will prompt GPT-5.6 Luna to take additional time to generate an answer. For text chats, free and Go users can use that feature without limit -- unless you combine it with other features, in which case your usage will count against a separate limit. If you're feeling left out as a Plus or Pro tier user, don't be; you're also getting enhancements to your ChatGPT experience. OpenAI is updating GPT-5.6 Sol, its current flagship model, to optimize it for everyday conversations. In ChatGPT, the updated system "delivers more focused answers, adapts its level of detail to the question, avoids unnecessary formatting, and offers a helpful correction when simply agreeing wouldn't be useful," according to the company. OpenAI is also introducing a new slider (akin to Claude's effort menu) that allows Plus and Pro users to decide how much "thought" ChatGPT puts into an answer. Removing rate limits, even if it's just for text chats, is a major milestone for OpenAI. The company didn't say how it managed the feat, but given rate limits are a reflection of inference costs (the amount AI providers pay for their trained models to process data), OpenAI may have made a major advancement there. A recent report from The Information suggested the company was close to a breakthrough. "This is a concrete step toward more abundant intelligence: making our latest models more widely available, improving the usefulness and reliability of the answers people get, and letting free users keep text chats going without a rate limit," OpenAI said today. "Access shapes opportunity, and this update gives more people the ability to keep asking, develop an idea, and get help when they need it."

OpenAI just made ChatGPT's latest model more accessible to non-paying users

Free users are moving from GPT-5.5 Instant to GPT-5.6 Luna with unlimited text chats and a new Think button for deeper reasoning. ChatGPT's latest 5.6 model lineup made its official debut early in July. Less than a month later, the AI giant is already giving the state-of-the-art models a brain and accessibility boost. As you may recall, the 5.6 series consists of three models: Sol, Terra, and Luna. There's no update to Terra, but GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-5.6 Luna are getting meaningful upgrades. These range from making the models more reliable, accurate, and focused, to expanding access for users who don't want to pay for top-tier AI. The biggest change is that GPT-5.6 Luna will soon be the default ChatGPT model for all non-paying users. This change is set to kick in sometime this week, making the speed-focused lightweight model more accessible globally. Elsewhere, starting next week, non-paying users will also gain access to unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna, complete with a new "Think" button for more mentally demanding queries. This will prompt the model to take more time to work through your query and generate an answer. Essentially, free users will go from GPT-5.5 Instant to the more capable GPT-5.6 Luna with unlimited chats and an option for deeper thinking and reasoning as an added bonus. Within the same update, OpenAI also gives GPT‑5.6 Sol, the heavy hitter of the 5.6 lineup, a series of refinements. Limited to Plus and Pro users, the model now "delivers more focused answers, adapts its level of detail to the question, avoids unnecessary formatting, and offers a helpful correction when simply agreeing wouldn't be useful." For reference, a prompt like "Can I bike from the Mission to Ocean Beach after work today without getting soaked?" will attempt to address the main answer first, followed by key details that actually matter. The model provides a direct answer while avoiding extra detail when it does not help. Beyond that, the model is trained to make fewer mistakes, especially when it comes to dates, numbers, sources, rules, or assumptions. The AI giant says that factual errors with GPT‑5.6 Sol are 68% less common than they are with GPT-5.5 Instant. Regardless, users should still avoid blindly accepting AI-generated information as fact. Although today's update makes ChatGPT overall more reliable, hallucination concerns are still very real. This makes cross-checking important information imperative. Lastly, within the same update, OpenAI is also giving Plus and Pro users a seamless way to specify how much reasoning effort ChatGPT should put into an answer. The slider, as seen in the short GIF above, is accessible through a new speedometer icon within the app's toolbar. From there, you drag to toggle between Instant, Medium, High, Extra High, and Pro level thinking. The slider and the updated version of GPT-5.6 Sol are available to Plus and Pro users starting today. Free access to GPT-5.6 Luna can be expected this week, while the new Think button will land next week.

OpenAI makes major upgrades for free and paid ChatGPT users. Here's what they are

Why it matters: Free AI plans from frontier labs now offer more intelligence than most people will use, while enterprises are still figuring out how to budget for advanced capabilities. Driving the news: OpenAI said it will shift the default model for all users to GPT-5.6 Luna this week. * OpenAI says that responses featuring at least one factual error were 62% less common with Luna opposed to the previous default model, GPT‑5.5 Instant. Luna, which debuted in early July, was built for speed. * Unlimited text chats will be given to free users and those who subscribe to the low-cost Go plan. Both free and go users will also see a new "Think" button, which lets users "select higher reasoning for harder questions," the company says. Plus and Pro users will see GPT-5.6 Sol improved to handle "everyday conversations and tasks, like quick questions, web research, advice, planning, writing, and decisions," OpenAI says. * "This version of GPT-5.6 Sol delivers more focused answers," the company said, with less unnecessary formatting, a consistent tone and fewer mistakes. * It will also feature a new "slider" tool "for choosing how much thought ChatGPT puts into an answer," OpenAI says. The big picture: Cheaper Chinese open-weight models have increased pressure on OpenAI and Anthropic to prove their models justify the higher costs. * OpenAI recently cut the prices for two of its GPT-5.6 models -- GPT-5.6 Luna and GPT-5.6 Terra -- last week. * Price cuts have previously come months after a model launches, not weeks. Go deeper: Finding your goldilocks GPT-5.6 model

Free ChatGPT Users Will Get a Huge Upgrade Next Week

Plus and Pro users are also getting updates, as OpenAI is rolling out upgrades to its GPT-5.6 Sol model. There are 8.3 billion people on this planet, and roughly an eighth of them use ChatGPT. OpenAI confirmed that its infamous AI chatbot now has over one billion weekly active users, a staggering number given that ChatGPT is only three and a half years old. (For reference, that's on par with global Windows users.) Love it or hate it, there's no denying that ChatGPT -- and generative AI as a whole -- is firmly a part of modern life. While there are surely many paying ChatGPT customers, the vast majority are using it for free. Though it may be exciting for paid users to try out the company's latest and greatest models, the biggest impact happens whenever OpenAI makes features available free of charge. As it happens, next week, free users are getting perhaps the biggest ChatGPT update in years. Free ChatGPT users are getting unlimited text chats Starting next week, you'll no longer hit a wall when simply texting with ChatGPT. OpenAI says that both free and Go users now have unlimited text chats, which should mean you can send as many text-based messages as you want without running into cooldown periods. Of course, the emphasis here is on "texts." There are absolutely still limits on other ChatGPT features, including messages with files and images, as well as Voice mode and image generation. But for users who primarily use ChatGPT with text-based messages, this update should be more than welcome. In addition, OpenAI is switching free and Go users to the company's new GPT-5.6 Luna model, which is designed for "cost-sensitive, high-volume workloads." As such, this model likely won't be as capable as OpenAI's more powerful models available to Pro users, but free users aren't totally left in the lurch: OpenAI says there's a new "Think" button that lets you push Luna further for more complex requests. The experience is much changed from the days when users could jump between different models for free, but perhaps the unlimited text chats will make up for it for most users. ChatGPT Pro users are getting some new perks too OpenAI says that Plus and Pro users are also getting some updates. The company says that its GPT-5.6 Sol model now delivers "more focused" responses, and may issue corrections instead of simply agreeing with the user when they're wrong. It also does away with some of the formatting we've come to expect from AI: Your answer may be more succinct in paragraph form, rather than expansive with bullet points. OpenAI says that Sol makes "fewer mistakes" too, but remember: all AI models hallucinate. There's also a new slider to push the model from "Instant" to higher effort. The idea is to give users a sliding scale of power, rather than have them switch from distinct models. The more intense you push the model, the longer the responses may take, so OpenAI positions the slider as an option for users to tailor the model to their needs: If you need a quick answer, keep the slider towards the less intense side.

ChatGPT's Latest Upgrade Isn't Just a New Model. It's What Free Users Can Do Without Limits

In its blog post announcing the changes, OpenAI pointed out that there are still a few constraints in place for free unlimited access. While you can query the chatbot using text-based questions as much as you like, and receive the resulting text-based answers, if you're asking the chatbot to analyze a file, or input an image or voice as a query, there are still limits for free users. Similarly, limits remain if you're asking the AI to generate an image, and a few other higher-power features. It's worth keeping in mind that the complex computer power needed to process a user's chatbot query burns through resources that cost OpenAI money. Giving users free unlimited access to the core AI features is thus a risk for the AI maker, because it will consume a variable percentage of the available resources. It's a smart move to control this risk by limiting how free users can use the models. Meanwhile, the unlimited access may encourage people to use the AI in more meaningful ways, and more frequently, which will certainly tempt a share of users on the free tier to pay to upgrade their membership so they can access the AI's full capabilities. Unlimited queries alone would be a great perk for free tier users, but OpenAI is also upgrading the default AI model to its GPT-5.6 Luna system, which it promises is a major improvement because responses containing factual errors are rarer for this system. In fact, the AI maker says that responses with errors are about 62 percent less common than the previous model (GPT-5.5 Instant).

OpenAI Expands GPT-5.6 Access as ChatGPT Gets New Reasoning Features

OpenAI is expanding access to its latest artificial intelligence models as the company looks to push ChatGPT further into everyday use, rolling out improvements designed to make responses more accurate, focused and reliable. The company said it has updated GPT-5.6 Sol, its model for Plus and Pro subscribers, with improvements aimed at reducing factual errors, improving response quality and creating a more consistent experience between quick answers and deeper reasoning tasks. At the same time, OpenAI is making GPT-5.6 Luna the default model for free users, expanding access to unlimited text chats and adding a new "Think" feature that allows users to trigger deeper reasoning for more complex questions. The rollout comes as AI companies compete not only to develop more powerful models but also to attract a broader base of users. OpenAI said more than 1 billion people use ChatGPT each week for tasks ranging from research and planning to writing and decision-making. For paid users, GPT-5.6 Sol will now power both faster responses and higher-effort reasoning experiences, with a new slider allowing users to adjust how much processing power ChatGPT applies to a response. OpenAI said the goal is to create a smoother transition between simple questions and more complex tasks. The company also highlighted improvements in factual reliability. According to OpenAI, internal evaluations across financial, medical and legal prompts found responses containing at least one factual error were about 68% less common with GPT-5.6 Sol and 62% less common with GPT-5.6 Luna compared with GPT-5.5 Instant. The broader access push reflects a growing focus among AI companies on distribution and adoption as the industry moves beyond the initial race to build larger models. Making advanced AI tools available to free users could help OpenAI gather more usage data, increase engagement and strengthen ChatGPT's position against rivals. OpenAI said GPT-5.6 Luna will become the default model for Free and Go users this week, with unlimited text chats and the Think button rolling out next week. Limits will remain in place for features including file uploads, images and other tools. The company is also continuing to emphasize safety measures, saying the latest updates include additional protections for users under 18, including safeguards around sensitive topics and age-restricted content. The update follows a series of recent moves by OpenAI aimed at improving the economics and accessibility of its AI products. The company has been lowering model costs while expanding ChatGPT's reach, a strategy that could accelerate adoption as competition with rivals including Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Access with Unlimited Text Chats and New GPT-5.6 Models

The latest changes are aimed at making advanced conversational AI more accessible while giving users greater control over how the system handles complex tasks. OpenAI has announced a major update to ChatGPT, expanding access to advanced AI capabilities for users across its Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. The update introduces unlimited text-based conversations for Free and Go users, along with new GPT-5.6 models designed to deliver stronger reasoning, improved accuracy, and more reliable responses. The announcement comes as ChatGPT continues to scale its global user base, with the AI platform now surpassing one billion weekly active users. The latest changes are aimed at making advanced conversational AI more accessible while giving users greater control over how the system handles complex tasks. However, unlimited access applies specifically to text conversations. Separate usage limits will continue to apply to features including file uploads, image uploads, voice interactions, and image generation. The feature is intended to give users greater control over performance depending on the nature of their task. Users can opt for quicker responses when working on straightforward requests or increase reasoning effort when tackling more complicated problems. For Free and Go users, unlimited text conversations and access to the new Think mode represent a significant expansion of functionality. Meanwhile, Plus and Pro subscribers gain more advanced reasoning capabilities through GPT-5.6 Sol and additional controls for adjusting reasoning effort. With ChatGPT's user base continuing to expand, the latest changes underline the growing emphasis on balancing accessibility, model performance, reasoning capabilities, and reliability as AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday and professional workflows.

OpenAI Drops ChatGPT Limits for Free Users and Upgrades Paid Tiers | PYMNTS.com

Free users will be able to access GPT-5.6 Luna as the default model and to have unlimited text chats using the model. In addition, OpenAI will add a Think button that Free users will be able to tap to give the model more time to work through the answers to harder questions, according to the post. OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.6 as the default model for Free and Go users this week, and the company will add access to unlimited text chats and the Think button next week, per the post. Plus and Pro users now have access to an updated GPT-5.6 Sol that provides more reliable information and more focused answers. This version will only be available in Chat on ChatGPT; the version of GPT-5.6 Sol that powers Work and Codex is unchanged, according to the post. For Plus and Pro users, OpenAI has also added a new slider in ChatGPT on web, mobile and desktop that lets users determine how much time ChatGPT spends thinking about a response, the post said. OpenAI made the updated version of GPT-5.6 Sol and the slider available in ChatGPT on Thursday, per the post. "This is a concrete step toward more abundant intelligence: making our latest models more widely available, improving the usefulness and reliability of the answers people get, and letting free users keep text chats going without a rate limit," OpenAI said in the post. "Access shapes opportunity, and this update gives more people the ability to keep asking, develop an idea, and get help when they need it." OpenAI's models now reach more than 1 billion active users and more than 2 million businesses, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said in a Friday (July 31) blog post. OpenAI has found that these users deploy AI more often and more deeply as they gain confidence in it. Among individuals, after six months of using the technology, people send 50% more messages each day and use ChatGPT for twice as many kinds of work, Friar said.

ChatGPT Free users to get unlimited text chats as OpenAI rolls out GPT-5.6 Luna

OpenAI claims GPT-5.6 Luna and GPT-5.6 Sol reduce factual errors by 62% and 68%, respectively, compared to previous models. OpenAI has also announced a massive update for ChatGPT that removes one of the biggest limitations for Free users. The company is lifting message restrictions for text only conversations, allowing users to continue chatting without running into text chat limits. The announcement comes shortly after OpenAI said ChatGPT crossed 1 billion weekly users. Along with the unlimited text conversations, the company is also bringing new AI models and additional features across its Free, Go, Plus and Pro subscription tiers. Free users get unlimited text chats, new AI model OpenAI said Free users will no longer get limits on text based conversations, making ChatGPT more practical for everyday tasks such as writing, learning, brainstorming and general queries. ChatGPT Go subscribers will get the same benefit. The company clarified that only text conversations are becoming unlimited. Existing usage caps for image generation, voice conversations, file uploads and image uploads will continue to remain in place. OpenAI is also replacing GPT-5.5 with GPT-5.6 Luna as the default model for Free and Go users. According to the company, the updated model delivers more consistent responses, improved factual accuracy and smoother conversations. A new "Think" button is also being introduced, allowing users to ask ChatGPT to spend more time reasoning through complex questions before generating a response. Plus and Pro users receive upgraded GPT-5.6 Sol If you are a paid subscriber, OpenAI is rolling out an enhanced version of GPT-5.6 Sol. The company said that the model is better suited for productivity-focused tasks including research, planning, writing, decision-making and web searches while producing shorter and more reliable responses. Plus and Pro users will also receive a new thinking slider, giving them control over how much reasoning the AI applies before answering. Users can prioritise faster replies for simple questions or increase reasoning time for more complex tasks.