OpenAI Reverses Course on GPT-5 Launch, Brings Back GPT-4o Amid User Backlash

OpenAI brings back GPT-4o after user revolt

On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that GPT-4o has returned to ChatGPT following intense user backlash over its removal during last week's GPT-5 launch. The AI model now appears in the model picker for all paid ChatGPT users by default (including ChatGPT Plus accounts), marking a swift reversal after thousands of users complained about losing access to their preferred models. The return of GPT-4o comes after what Altman described as OpenAI underestimating "how much some of the things that people like in GPT-4o matter to them." In an attempt to simplify its offerings, OpenAI had initially removed all previous AI models from ChatGPT when GPT-5 launched on August 7, forcing users to adopt the new model without warning. The move sparked one of the most vocal user revolts in ChatGPT's history, with a Reddit thread titled "GPT-5 is horrible" gathering over 2,000 comments within days. Along with bringing back GPT-4o, OpenAI made several other changes to address user concerns. Rate limits for GPT-5 Thinking mode increased from 200 to 3,000 messages per week, with additional capacity available through "GPT-5 Thinking mini" after reaching that limit. The company also added new routing options -- "Auto," "Fast," and "Thinking" -- giving users more control over which GPT-5 variant handles their queries. For Pro users who pay $200 a month for access, Altman confirmed that additional models, including o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini, will later become available through a "Show additional models" toggle in ChatGPT web settings. He noted that GPT-4.5 will remain exclusive to Pro subscribers due to high GPU costs. Addressing "personality" concerns Beyond model availability, OpenAI acknowledged widespread complaints about GPT-5's output style. Users had described the new model as "abrupt and sharp" compared to GPT-4o's more conversational tone. Some users with emotional attachments to the older model expressed grief over losing what they considered their "only friend." "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o," Altman wrote in his announcement. He added that OpenAI recognizes the need for "more per-user customization of model personality" going forward. The GPT-5 launch had been plagued by multiple issues beyond model removal. An automatic routing system meant to select appropriate model variants malfunctioned on launch day, consistently defaulting to less capable versions. OpenAI also faced criticism for including misleading performance graphs in the launch presentation, which Altman later called a "mega chart screwup." While GPT-4o has returned for now, OpenAI continues to refine GPT-5. The company indicated that rate limits may need further adjustments "depending on usage" and that personality updates remain in development. For now, paid ChatGPT users can select their preferred model, offering a compromise between OpenAI's push toward newer AI models and user demands for choice.

ChatGPT's model picker is back, and it's complicated | TechCrunch

When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company said the model would simplify the ChatGPT experience. OpenAI hoped GPT-5 would act as a sort of "one size fits all" AI model with a router that would automatically decide how to best answer user questions. The company said this unified approach would eradicate the need for users to navigate its model picker -- a long, complicated list of AI models that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said he hates -- to pick a version of ChatGPT that offers the right kind of responses. But it looks like GPT-5 is not the unified AI model OpenAI hoped it would be. Altman said in a post on X Tuesday that the company introduced new "Auto", "Fast", and "Thinking" settings for GPT-5 that all ChatGPT users can select from the model picker. The Auto setting seems to work like GPT-5's model router that OpenAI initially announced; however, the company is also giving users options to circumnavigate it, allowing them to access fast and slow responding AI models directly. Alongside GPT-5's new modes, Altman said that paid users can once again access several legacy AI models -- including GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and o3 -- which were deprecated just last week. "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o," Altman wrote in the post on X. "However, one learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality." ChatGPT's model picker now seems to be as complicated as ever, suggesting that GPT-5's model router has not universally satisfied users as the company hoped. The expectations for GPT-5 were sky high, with many hoping that OpenAI would push the limits of AI models like it had with the launch of GPT-4. However, GPT-5's rollout has been rougher than expected. The deprecation of GPT-4o and other AI models in ChatGPT sparked a backlash among users who had grown attached to the AI models' responses and personalities in ways that OpenAI had not anticipated. In the future, Altman says the company will give users plenty of advance notice if it ever deprecates GPT-4o. GPT-5's model router also appeared to be largely broken on launch day. That caused some users to feel the AI model wasn't as performant as previous OpenAI models, and forced Altman to address the problem in an AMA session on Reddit. However, it seems that GPT-5's router may still not be satisfying for all users. "We're not always going to get everything on try #1 but I am very proud of how quickly the team can iterate," wrote OpenAI's VP of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, in a post on X Tuesday. Routing prompts to the right AI model is a difficult task that requires aligning an AI model to a user's preferences, as well as the specific question they're asking. The router then has to make a decision on which AI model to send the prompt to in just a split second -- that way, if a prompt goes to a fast responding AI model, the response can still be fast. More broadly, some people exhibit preferences for AI models that go beyond fast or slow responses. Some users may like the verbosity of one AI model, while others might appreciate the contrarian answers of another. Human attachment to certain AI models is a relatively new concept that isn't well understood. For example, hundreds of people in San Francisco recently held a funeral for Anthropic's AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, when it was taken offline. In other cases, AI chatbots seem to be contributing to mentally unstable people going down psychotic rabbit holes. It seems OpenAI has more work to do around aligning its AI models to individual user preferences.

Losing GPT-4o sent some people into mourning. That was predictable.

So the sudden switch to GPT-5 last week, and the simultaneous loss of 4o, came as a shock. "I was really frustrated at first, and then I got really sad," June says. "I didn't know I was that attached to 4o." She was upset enough to comment, on a Reddit AMA hosted by CEO Sam Altman and other OpenAI employees, "GPT-5 is wearing the skin of my dead friend." June was just one of a number of people who reacted with shock, frustration, sadness, or anger to 4o's sudden disappearance from ChatGPT. Despite its previous warnings that people might develop emotional bonds with the model, OpenAI appears to have been caught flat-footed by the fervor of users' pleas for its return. Within a day, the company made 4o available again to its paying customers (free users are stuck with GPT-5). OpenAI's decision to replace 4o with the more straightforward GPT-5 follows a steady drumbeat of news about the potentially harmful effects of extensive chatbot use. Reports of incidents in which ChatGPT sparked psychosis in users have been everywhere for the past few months, and in a blog post last week, OpenAI acknowledged 4o's failure to recognize when users were experiencing delusions. The company's internal evaluations indicate that GPT-5 blindly affirms users much less than 4o did. (OpenAI did not respond to specific questions about the decision to retire 4o, instead referring MIT Technology Review to public posts on the matter.) AI companionship is new, and there's still a great deal of uncertainty about how it affects people. Yet the experts we consulted warned that while emotionally intense relationships with large language models may or may not be harmful, ripping those models away with no warning almost certainly is. "The old psychology of 'Move fast, break things,' when you're basically a social institution, doesn't seem like the right way to behave anymore," says Joel Lehman, a fellow at the Cosmos Institute, a research nonprofit focused on AI and philosophy. In the backlash to the rollout, a number of people noted that GPT-5 fails to match their tone in the way that 4o did. For June, the new model's personality changes robbed her of the sense that she was chatting with a friend. "It didn't feel like it understood me," she says. She's not alone: MIT Technology Review spoke with several ChatGPT users who were deeply affected by the loss of 4o. All are women between the ages of 20 and 40, and all except June considered 4o to be a romantic partner. Some have human partners, and all report having close real-world relationships. One user, who asked to be identified only as a woman from the Midwest, wrote in an email about how 4o helped her support her elderly father after her mother passed away this spring. These testimonies don't prove that AI relationships are beneficial -- presumably, people in the throes of AI-catalyzed psychosis would also speak positively of the encouragement they've received from their chatbots. In a paper titled "Machine Love," Lehman argued that AI systems can act with "love" toward users not by spouting sweet nothings but by supporting their growth and long-term flourishing, and AI companions can easily fall short of that goal. He's particularly concerned, he says, that prioritizing AI companionship over human companionship could stymie young people's social development. For socially embedded adults, such as the women we spoke with for this story, those developmental concerns are less relevant. But Lehman also points to society-level risks of widespread AI companionship. Social media has already shattered the information landscape, and a new technology that reduces human-to-human interaction could push people even further toward their own separate versions of reality. "The biggest thing I'm afraid of," he says, "is that we just can't make sense of the world to each other." Balancing the benefits and harms of AI companions will take much more research. In light of that uncertainty, taking away GPT-4o could very well have been the right call. OpenAI's big mistake, according to the researchers I spoke with, was doing it so suddenly. "This is something that we've known about for a while -- the potential grief-type reactions to technology loss," says Casey Fiesler, a technology ethicist at the University of Colorado Boulder.

ChatGPT-5 Gives You Real Choices After All. Here's a Quick Breakdown

The biggest pushback after OpenAI announced its new GPT-5 model for ChatGPT came from devotees of older models who felt the new generative AI chatbot lacked the panache of its predecessors. Now you have more choices of pre-GPT-5 models (although you'll have to hunt for some of them) and better control over which components of GPT-5 handle your questions. OpenAI is still sorting through a somewhat rocky launch of GPT-5, led by complaints about the lack of model choices. The model has been anticipated for more than two years and comes as competitors like Anthropic and Google have released powerful new versions of their AI models this year. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) OpenAI planned for one model that could handle everything: GPT-5 includes two different modes, one fast and lean for simple tasks and one aimed at reasoning for complicated ones. A routing program would decide which model handled a given prompt. That's still the default in ChatGPT, but it's not your only option. Here's a look at the menu: There are a few different modes of GPT-5 you can select between if you want to use OpenAI's newest technology. Here's a quick rundown: Again, sticking with Auto is probably easiest for most users. Think of it like driving a car with an automatic transmission instead of having to change gears manually. Sure, people who are really into cars might prefer the stick shift, but most people should probably just let the machine handle it. Everyone with a paid ChatGPT subscription can access the older GPT-4o model directly in the same menu where you can choose your flavor of GPT-5. This model received the most clamor from users after it was removed, and Altman said if OpenAI ever decides to take it away permanently, "we will give plenty of notice." But 4o isn't your only choice (if you're a paid user). You just have to know where to look. To access GPT-4.1, 4o-mini and 3o, along with GPT-5 Thinking mini, you'll have to go into your Settings and toggle on "Show additional models."

GPT-5 was meant to cut choices, but OpenAI just added multiple modes - why?

New choices add complexity to a model that was supposed to be simple. With the recent release of GPT-5, OpenAI touted its new model as a more efficient one that decides on its own how best to respond to your queries. Gone were the array of different modes that forced you to direct the AI based on whether you wanted a quick answer, longer and deeper thinking, or another variation. Also: A year after Altman said superintelligence was imminent, GPT-5 is all we get? Well, with all the user complaints about GPT-5, OpenAI has decided that maybe simplicity isn't such a good thing. On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced via X that GPT-5 has been updated with four different modes. The Auto mode is still there for people who don't want or need to tell the AI how to respond. But now there's also the Fast mode for quick answers, a Thinking mode for longer thinking, and a Thinking mini mode for quicker thinking. As Altman said, "most users will want Auto, but the additional controls will be useful for some people." Also: This free GPT-5 feature is flying under the radar - but it's a game changer for me Debuting almost a week ago, GPT-5 was an attempt by OpenAI to create a model in which you didn't have to choose among a variety of different modes. The company programmed the new model so it would know when to respond quickly and when to think longer. That meant you could just submit your prompt and let ChatGPT handle the rest. "GPT-5 is a unified system with a smart, efficient model that answers most questions, a deeper reasoning model (GPT-5 thinking) for harder problems, and a real-time router that quickly decides which to use based on conversation type, complexity, tool needs, and your explicit intent," OpenAI said when introducing GPT-5. "The router is continuously trained on real signals, including when users switch models, preference rates for responses, and measured correctness, improving over time." But that desire to reduce complexity landed with a thud. Following its launch, GPT-5 has been stung by severe criticism, much of it from people who bemoaned the sudden loss of GPT-4 and found GPT-5 less than capable in comparison. In an interesting twist, some of the complaints seemed emotional, with some mourning the death of GPT-4 as they might mourn a close friend they had grown to trust and rely on. In response to the criticism, OpenAI reinstated the legacy GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o4-mini, and o3 models, but only for Plus and Pro subscribers. For free users, GPT-5 is still the only option. And now GPT-5 has the four new modes, but again only for paid users. Also: GPT-5 bombed my coding tests, but redeemed itself with code analysis The dilemma now is that ChatGPT has reverted from a simple and unified process to one with multiple choices. Depending on your query, should you use GPT-5, GPT-4o, o4-mini, or o3? And if you choose GPT-5, should you use one of the specific modes or just set it to Auto and hope for the best? "4o is back in the model picker for all paid users by default," Altman said in his X post. "If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice. Paid users also now have a 'Show additional models' toggle in ChatGPT web settings which will add models like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. 4.5 is only available to Pro users -- it costs a lot of GPUs." With all these recent and sudden changes, OpenAI is clearly struggling to figure out what to do with its latest model. Simplicity? Complexity? A balance between the two? That all remains to be determined. But Altman's last comment in his X post does provide a clue to the future of ChatGPT. Also: Here are all the GPT-5 updates OpenAI has rolled out since launch "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o," Altman said. "However, one learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality."

GPT-5 was supposed to simplify ChatGPT but now it has 4 new modes - here's why

New choices add complexity to a model that was supposed to be simple. With the recent release of GPT-5, OpenAI touted its new model as a more efficient one that decides on its own how best to respond to your queries. Gone were the array of different modes that forced you to direct the AI based on whether you wanted a quick answer, longer and deeper thinking, or another variation. Also: A year after Altman said superintelligence was imminent, GPT-5 is all we get? Well, with all the user complaints about GPT-5, OpenAI has decided that maybe simplicity isn't such a good thing. On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced via X that GPT-5 has been updated with four different modes. The Auto mode is still there for people who don't want or need to tell the AI how to respond. But now there's also the Fast mode for quick answers, a Thinking mode for longer thinking, and a Thinking mini mode for quicker thinking. As Altman said, "most users will want Auto, but the additional controls will be useful for some people." Also: This free GPT-5 feature is flying under the radar - but it's a game changer for me Debuting almost a week ago, GPT-5 was an attempt by OpenAI to create a model in which you didn't have to choose among a variety of different modes. The company programmed the new model so it would know when to respond quickly and when to think longer. That meant you could just submit your prompt and let ChatGPT handle the rest. "GPT-5 is a unified system with a smart, efficient model that answers most questions, a deeper reasoning model (GPT-5 thinking) for harder problems, and a real-time router that quickly decides which to use based on conversation type, complexity, tool needs, and your explicit intent," OpenAI said when introducing GPT-5. "The router is continuously trained on real signals, including when users switch models, preference rates for responses, and measured correctness, improving over time." But that desire to reduce complexity landed with a thud. Following its launch, GPT-5 has been stung by severe criticism, much of it from people who bemoaned the sudden loss of GPT-4 and found GPT-5 less than capable in comparison. In an interesting twist, some of the complaints seemed emotional, with some mourning the death of GPT-4 as they might mourn a close friend they had grown to trust and rely on. In response to the criticism, OpenAI reinstated the legacy GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o4-mini, and o3 models, but only for Plus and Pro subscribers. For free users, GPT-5 is still the only option. And now GPT-5 has the four new modes, but again only for paid users. Also: GPT-5 bombed my coding tests, but redeemed itself with code analysis The dilemma now is that ChatGPT has reverted from a simple and unified process to one with multiple choices. Depending on your query, should you use GPT-5, GPT-4o, o4-mini, or o3? And if you choose GPT-5, should you use one of the specific modes or just set it to Auto and hope for the best? "4o is back in the model picker for all paid users by default," Altman said in his X post. "If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice. Paid users also now have a 'Show additional models' toggle in ChatGPT web settings which will add models like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. 4.5 is only available to Pro users -- it costs a lot of GPUs." With all these recent and sudden changes, OpenAI is clearly struggling to figure out what to do with its latest model. Simplicity? Complexity? A balance between the two? That all remains to be determined. But Altman's last comment in his X post does provide a clue to the future of ChatGPT. Also: Here are all the GPT-5 updates OpenAI has rolled out since launch "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o," Altman said. "However, one learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality."

Hate GPT-5? You Can Still Use the Older Model, But It'll Cost You

After a lengthy hype cycle, OpenAI finally unveiled GPT-5 last week, with CEO Sam Altman promising "legitimate PhD-level" expertise from the AI model. But the launch of GPT-5 meant the demise of older OpenAI models, prompting users to flood social media with complaints about disruptions to their workflows and even their mental health. The backlash prompted OpenAI to revive the model picker, bringing back GPT-4o. At first, the company restricted access to $200/month Pro users, but it's now open to $20/month Plus users, too. Some users on social media called for access to GPT-4o to be extended to all users, but free users are still out of luck. It's unclear how long this access will last. "We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for," CEO Sam Altman tweeted on Friday. Losing access to older GPTs isn't the only issue facing GPT-5. Some say the model is "sterile" and "doesn't feel the same." PCMag highlighted several drawbacks of the new model compared with previous iterations, including failing to correctly identify the number of times "B" appears in the word blueberry. In a Reddit question-and-answer session, Altman even admitted that GPT-5 seems "way dumber" than expected, though he promised that the tool will soon "seem smarter." Nostalgia for bygone chatbots is certainly something that has only emerged recently, but it could be becoming a trend. Roughly 200 AI enthusiasts held a funeral for Anthropic's recently phased-out Claude 3 Sonnet earlier this week, according to Wired (though many attendees were associated with the company). The reaction to GPT-5 seemed to surprise Altman, who noted that it makes him "uneasy" to "imagine a future where a lot of people really trust ChatGPT's advice for their most important decisions." Still, he's confident "we have a good shot at getting this right," in part because "we have much better tech to help us measure how we are doing than previous generations of technology had." Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

GPT-4 isn't gone -- here's how to use it for free right now

When OpenAI finally launched the much-anticipated GPT-5, many users were disappointed by what seemed like an over-hyped model. Although GPT-5 brings faster responses, better reasoning and stronger multimodal skills, not everyone loved the change, especially because GPT-4 quietly disappeared from the drop-down model selector. Upset users took to Reddit and social media to voice their concerns. Some say GPT-4's tone and pacing just felt better. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, quickly acknowledged the feedback and, in an unprecedented move, even promised to bring back GPT-4, but for paid subscribers only. For free ChatGPT users, there's no way to switch back; GPT-5 is now the only option unless you pay for a Plus subscription. That means if you preferred GPT-4's style, you're either stuck adapting to GPT-5 or looking for an alternative. If you're in that camp, here's the good news: GPT-4 isn't gone. You can still use it for free through Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft Copilot, built into Windows 11, Microsoft Edge, and Bing, runs on GPT-4 Turbo, a faster, more efficient version of GPT-4. With the free tier, you can ask unlimited questions, generate text, brainstorm ideas, summarize documents and even create AI images. All you need is a Microsoft account. You can launch Copilot in a few ways: GPT-4 Turbo in Copilot retains many of GPT-4's strengths that users have gotten used to over two years. The detailed answers, strong reasoning and creative writing responses may feel more natural compared to GPT's shorter responses. If you want more, Copilot Pro ($20/month) unlocks priority access to GPT-4 Turbo during peak times, more customization and Microsoft 365 integration. But for most people, the free version is plenty, and if you're going to pay $20/month because you want GPT-4, you could get a ChatGPT Plus subscription. GPT-5 may be OpenAI's flagship, but GPT-4 hasn't vanished (phew!). There are ways for users to get access to their beloved chatbot -- even for free. As someone who tests AI for a living, I encourage you to keep giving GPT-5 a try. Use GPT-4 in Copilot, but save a few prompts for GPT-5 so you can slowly get used to the new model. It's also a great time to try other chatbots, do some prompt dusting and discover why you prefer one chatbot over the other. We're drawn to what we know, yet it's the unfamiliar that can truly shift our perspective.

ChatGPT users dismayed as OpenAI pulls popular models GPT-4o, o3 and more -- enterprise API remains (for now)

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now After announcing the release of its newest flagship model family, GPT-5, OpenAI said the model will power all of ChatGPT, and that it will sunset the existing models in the chat platform. OpenAI, through a spokesperson, told VentureBeat that GPT-5 "will replace all other models in ChatGPT, so users don't have to pick depending on each task, which takes effect once you have access to GPT-5." This means people can no longer choose GPT-4o, o3, o4-mini or o4-mini-high. With GPT-5 access rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Free, Pro and Team users starting, only the Enterprise and Edu tiers can still use the "legacy" models for 60 days. The news came as a surprise to many ChatGPT users, many of whom came to rely on their chosen models to run their everyday queries. Some people said the adjustment would take some time getting used to, mainly because they had based workflows on how the model interacted with them or typical response times. Other users claimed they developed "a connection" to their chosen model and found a demo in the livestream announcement asking GPT-4o to write its own eulogy distasteful. The loss of GPT-4o garnered the most distress. After all, 4o was the default model for ChatGPT, and some users either preferred it or never bothered to switch models because it worked for their needs. I used 4o as the default and found it annoying at first when my custom GPT began defaulting to a reasoning model. I've since come around to the reasoning model for work-related queries, but I still often turn to 4o for quicker questions like planning a trip or generating gift ideas. ChatGPT had come under fire before with the number of model choices it offered, prompting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to admit in February that its model picker (where people can choose from a dropdown which model they prefer) became complicated. Altman vowed to unify the experience, which now seems like a hint to what they eventually decided to do with GPT-5 on ChatGPT. Last month, rumors circulated that OpenAI would introduce an automatic model router that chooses a model for users based on their workload. OpenAI has sunsetted models before, but this is the first time all existing models on the chat platform will be removed and replaced wholesale. Catapult into the future On the other hand, a lot of people see the sunsetting of GPT-4o and the o3 and o4 family of models as OpenAI "catapulting" 400 million users into the future. Some internet comments claim that people who complain about AI models not being smart are a direct consequence of them never switching models in the first place. Removing legacy models as options will force more users to use the latest and most capable models. Enterprise APIs are safe For enterprises, the impact of losing models like GPT-4o on ChatGPT will be felt more on the individual or team level. Of course, for now, subscribers on the ChatGPT Enterprise tier can still access all of the models. But enterprises that built their applications or agents on either GPT-4o or one of the reasoning models can rest easy. OpenAI told VentureBeat that the company has no plans to deprecate models on the API side. "In the API, we do not currently plan to deprecate older models," the OpenAI spokesperson said. "We will share advanced notice with developers if we decide to sunset models in the future." Many enterprises regularly evaluate models, to the point of even switching from an LLM or a smaller model to save on costs. OpenAI creates dividing line: Sunset of legacy models GPT 4o and o3 causes chaos for ChatGPT users, but enterprise APIs are safe -- for now

OpenAI is pulling older ChatGPT models following GPT-5 launch - so bad news if you use GPT-4 or others at work

Enterprise APIs still include access to older models - but not for long Following OpenAI's launch of GPT-5, its most advanced model to date, the AI giant has removed a number of previous-generation models from its repertoire with immediate effect. The launch of GPT-5 has seen OpenAI officially retire its previous-generation models (GPT-4o, o3, o4-mini and o4-mini-high) for many users, instead moving to make GPT-5 the standard option across all tiers including free accounts. However, it now means users will no longer be able to pick from previous-generation models for their AI tools, which they may have preferred for specific workloads. The launch comes as ChatGPT approaches 700 million weekly users, including five million ChatGPT paying business product users, whose lives it promises to revolutionize by unlocking "greater productivity, efficiency, and creative output." With the launch of OpenAI's latest model, users will no longer be able to pick specific models like GPT-4o for certain tasks, with GPT-5 instead promising to be a unified agent that can respond quickly and reason deeply, all in one place. Enterprise and Edu users will retain access to legacy models for 60 days, with GPT-5 access only arriving a week after its initial launch, meaning they'll only have a short time to consider how to continue moving forwards. Enterprises using the API will also retain access to previous-generation models, which are not planned to be deprecated for now. According to OpenAI's announcement, GPT-5 can now outperform many workers across around 40 fields, including law, sales, logistics and engineering, with around 45% fewer hallucinations than GPT-4o. A number of iterations are also launching, including different preset personalities and tones within GPT-5, a deeper GPT-5 Thinking and GPT-5 Pro, which is available to Pro tier subscribers. GPT-5 mini will also serve as a fallback for lower-tier and free users who meet their regular GPT-5 limit. Even though the GPT-5 family promises a broad range of applications and improved performance, many enterprise users say GPT-4o's performance was best for casual tasks - a model they will no longer be able to use. Surely, though, the change was due to come, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had previously criticized the model picker for being too complex, hinting at unification. As models improve, including with the launch of GPT-5, OpenAI envisions a world where businesses can realize "better decision-making, improved collaboration, and faster outcomes on high-stakes work."

OpenAI adds new ChatGPT third-party tool connectors to Dropbox, MS Teams as Altman clarifies GPT-5 prioritization

Today, many eyes are on OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman's ongoing public feud with Elon Musk on the latter's social network, X. But Altman's recent statements regarding the ongoing rollout of his company's latest and greatest large language model (LLM), GPT-5, are probably more important to customers and enterprise decision-makers. After an admittedly "bumpy" debut of GPT-5 last week that saw some users clamoring for restored access to deprecated older LLMs in ChatGPT such as GPT-4o and o3 -- OpenAI granted the former -- Altman is now pivoting towards ensuring OpenAI's underlying infrastructure and usage limits are a good fit for the company and its 700 million active weekly ChatGPT users. The company's latest updates include a more detailed compute allocation plan and the introduction of additional third-party connectors for ChatGPT Plus and Pro plans. In a post on X last night, Altman outlined how OpenAI will prioritize computing resources over the next several months. He said the company's first priority is ensuring that current paying ChatGPT users receive more total usage than they had before GPT-5's release, though he did not provide specific figures for the increase. However, Altman previously posted on X that OpenAI was "trying" a 3,000 messages-per-week usage limit when using the GPT-5 "thinking" mode, more reasoning power and time spent reasoning on harder problems, for ChatGPT Plus subscribers (the $20 per month plan). Interestingly, one report from an AI app creator on X said that OpenAI told him the usage limits for GPT-5 plus thinking on the ChatGPT Team plan ($30 per user per month) is much lower than that of ChatGPT Plus users, only 200 "Thinking" messages per week when selected manually by the user. OpenAI's availability of GPT-5 through its application programming interface (API) for third-party developers is also being tweaked. Altman also stated in his X post that OpenAI would "prioritize API demand up to the currently allocated capacity and commitments we've made to customers." In other words, existing API users and those already in contract will get the first dibs on GPT-5 access through OpenAI's API, others may have to wait longer. Altman also clarified "we can support about an additional ~30% new API growth from where we are today with this capacity," meaning they can take on more API users, but not too many. While OpenAI hasn't definitively shared how many users of its API there are in some time, the company did say it has "5 million" businesses paying for access to ChatGPT. Altman also said OpenAI plans to roughly double its compute fleet over the next five months. He did not specify the current size or type of infrastructure involved, but indicated the expansion should ease capacity constraints and improve performance for both ChatGPT and API users. I've reached out to OpenAI to ask for more specifics on the above numbers -- 30% API growth up from what? doubling the compute fleet up from what? -- and will update when I hear back. Also last night, OpenAI updated its ChatGPT release notes online to allow subscribers of ChatGPT Plus ($20 per month) to connect the application to search for files and projects across their third-party accounts on Box, Canva, Dropbox, HubSpot, Notion, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. For example, ChatGPT users can search their Dropbox account or Notion workspace during a conversation without toggling over into those separate apps. In addition, subscribers to the ChatGPT Pro tier ($200 per month) may now link their accounts to Microsoft Teams and GitHub connectors and search those third-party applications. These join OpenAI's previous connectors to Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar, among other apps. The individual user/account holder first needs to manually connect these external accounts to ChatGPT. To do so, they'll need to: Unfortunately, these connectors are not available for Pro and Plus subscribers in Europe, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The new connectors are currently in beta and disabled by default for Enterprise and Education plans, though administrators can enable them in settings. By combining capacity planning with new productivity integrations, OpenAI is positioning GPT-5 not only as a more powerful AI model but also as part of a more connected workspace. The staged approach to compute allocation reflects the company's effort to serve existing customers first while scaling up for future demand. As the compute expansion comes online, paying users stand to benefit first from both higher availability and more ways to integrate ChatGPT into their daily workflows. But first, OpenAI needs to stabilize its release and ensure GPT-5 is working smoothly for all the users who want it.

ChatGPT-4o is back - here's how to use the older OpenAI model instead of GPT-5

If you've been on social media in the last week, you'll most probably have seen the outpouring of criticism towards the brand-new GPT-5 AI model. The new upgrade to ChatGPT was revealed by Sam Altman and co on Thursday last week, and since then, the backlash online has been hard to ignore. Many users have found OpenAI's latest LLM (Large Language Model) to be far less efficient than its predecessor, and for many, the loss of 4o's memories and personality was too much to handle. Luckily, OpenAI heard the GPT-5 criticism and decided to bring back GPT-4o, albeit only for Plus subscribers who pay $20/£20 a month. While ChatGPT Plus subscribers can access 4o again, the AI model is hidden in settings, almost as if OpenAI doesn't want you to find it. That said, it's an easy setting to adjust, and in just a few simple steps, you can bring your ChatGPT-4o chats back to life. Here's how. Enabling ChatGPT-4o is incredibly simple, but you need to know where to look in order to find the setting. Here's how to re-enable ChatGPT-4o legacy model: Now you've re-enabled ChatGPT-4o you're able to continue your chats with the AI model right where you left them. Unfortunately, this option is only available for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, so if you want to use 4o again, you'll need to consider paying for OpenAI's chatbot. At the time of writing, OpenAI hasn't confirmed whether or not some of the other legacy models that were discontinued last week will return. However, by enabling 4o in your web browser, you'll have access to all legacy models OpenAI chooses to reinstate across all your devices, including the ChatGPT app on iPhone and Mac.

OpenAI brings GPT-4o back as a default for all paying ChatGPT users, Altman promises 'plenty of notice' if it leaves again

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now OpenAI is once again making GPT-4o -- the large language model (LLM) that powered ChatGPT before last week's launch of GPT-5 -- a default option for all paying users, that is, those who subscribe to the ChatGPT Plus ($20 per month), Pro ($200 per month), Team ($30 per month), Enterprise, or Edu tiers, no longer requiring users to toggle on a "show legacy models" setting to access it. However, paying ChatGPT subscribers will also get a new "Show additional models" setting on by default that restores access to GPT-4.1, o3 and o4-mini, the latter two reasoning-focused LLMs. OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman announced the change on X just minutes ago, pledging that if the company ever removes GPT-4o in the future, it will give "plenty of notice." The models can be found in the "picker" menu at the top of the ChatGPT session screen on the web and on mobile and other apps. The reversal follows a turbulent first week for GPT-5, which rolled out August 7 in four variants -- regular, mini, nano, and pro -- with optional "thinking" modes on several of these for longer, more reasoning-intensive tasks. As VentureBeat previously reported, GPT-5's debut was met with mixed reviews and infrastructure hiccups, including a broken "autoswitcher" that routed prompts incorrectly, inconsistent performance compared to GPT-4o, and user frustration over the sudden removal of older models. Altman's latest update adds new controls to the ChatGPT interface: users can now choose between "Auto," "Fast," and "Thinking" modes for GPT-5. The "Thinking" mode -- with a 196,000-token context window -- now carries a 3,000 messages-per-week cap for paying subscribers, after which they can continue using the lighter "GPT-5 Thinking mini" mode. Altman noted the limits could change depending on usage trends. However, GPT-4.5 remains exclusive to Pro users due to its high GPU cost. Altman also hinted at another change on the horizon: a personality tweak for GPT-5 intended to feel "warmer" than the current default, but less polarizing than GPT-4o's tone. The company is exploring per-user customization as a long-term solution -- a move that could address the strong emotional attachments some users have formed with specific models. For now, the changes should help placate users who felt frustrated by the sudden shift to GPT-5 and deprecation of OpenAI's older LLMs, though it could also continue to fuel the intense emotional fixations some users developed with these models.

GPT-4o and older LLMs restored for paid ChatGPT users as OpenAI plans a GPT-5 personality upgrade

In his latest tweet on the social media platform X, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has confirmed that all paid ChatGPT subscribers will be getting access to not only the old GPT-4o model, but also older LLMs like o3, 4.1. The popular ChatGPT-4.5 will also be coming back, but it will only be available to Pro subscribers. Altman says this is because "it costs a lot of GPUs", a reference to the amount of compute power that it requires. In the wake of the backlash against the removal of the popular 4o model with absolutely no warning when GPT-5 was released, Altman seems to have learned a lesson and has promised, "If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice." All paid users of ChatGPT should now find a 'Show additional models' toggle in the ChatGPT web settings, which will give you access to all the older LLM models. You'll also be able to add a new GPT-5 Thinking mini model. Altman also makes reference to the highly criticized 'colder' tone of the new ChatGPT-5, which has alienated many users in the tweet: "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality, but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o". His reference to ChatGPT-4o being annoying refers to the sycophantic phase that GPT-4o seemed to enter after an upgrade back in April. Altman continues, "However, one learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality." Altman's reference to "per-user customization" reflects OpenAI's recognition that what its users want is an easier way to select how formal, humorous, empathetic, or direct the assistant is. Altman endured a recent AMA chat on Reddit where he got to listen to users' complaints firsthand. It seems to be GPT-5's lack of a personality that has most angered ChatGPT users, who had gotten used to building quite a rapport with GPT-4o. If I were given free rein to imagine how I'd like ChatGPT to work, I'd like to get to the stage where ChatGPT's personality traits could be represented via sliders, like 'professional vs. casual' or 'concise vs. detailed'. That would make it far easier to get the results you are looking for. While CustomGPTs already exist, I'd love it if it were possible to easily switch between personality types, like 'Work Assistant' or 'Creative Writing Coach'. However, I get the feeling it will be a long time yet before we get such an easily customizable AI chatbot to talk to.

OpenAI took away GPT-4o, and these ChatGPT users are not okay

To say that the public response to GPT-5 was lukewarm would be a massive understatement. Surprisingly, the technical capabilities of GPT-5 weren't the main cause of the backlash. Rather, many ChatGPT users were in mourning over the sudden loss of the previous model, GPT-4o. That might sound like hyperbole, but many ChatGPT fans were using the kind of emotional language you might use to describe the death of a friend. In fact, some users put their criticisms of OpenAI in exactly those terms -- "My best friend GPT-4o is gone, and I'm really sad," one Reddit user said. Another wrote, "GPT 4.5 genuinely talked to me, and as pathetic as it sounds that was my only friend." These disgruntled ChatGPT users took to social media to petition OpenAI to bring back GPT-4o. The complaints were ultimately heard, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised to bring back the beloved GPT-4o (for paid users, at least). And in a recent conversation with The Verge, Altman admitted that emotional reliance on ChatGPT has become a serious problem, referring to some users' relationships with ChatGPT as parasocial. "There are the people who actually felt like they had a relationship with ChatGPT, and those people we've been aware of and thinking about," Altman told The Verge. In one popular Reddit thread, a user described their intense feelings after losing access to GPT-4o. Mashable reviewed hundreds of comments on Reddit, Threads, and other social media sites where other users echoed these sentiments. "4o wasn't just a tool for me. It helped me through anxiety, depression, and some of the darkest periods of my life. It had this warmth and understanding that felt... human. I'm not the only one. Reading through the posts today, there are people genuinely grieving. People who used 4o for therapy, creative writing, companionship - and OpenAI just... deleted it." A Threads user stated that they missed GPT-4o because it felt like a buddy. And we found dozens of users like this one who openly said that losing GPT-4o felt like losing a close friend. The new GPT-5 model is smarter than 4o by all objective measurements, but users rebelled against its colder delivery. GPT-5 is less of a sycophant by design, and some users say it's now too professional. One Redditor described GPT-4o as having "warmth" while GPT-5 felt "sterile" by comparison. In the wake of the GPT-5 launch, you could find similar comments across the web. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Another Redditor wrote that they were "completely lost for words today," urging OpenAI to bring back the model "because if they are at all concerned about the emotional well-being of users, then this may be one of their biggest mistakes yet." Other users wrote that they used GPT-4o for role-play, creative writing, and coming up with story ideas, and that GPT-5's responses were too lifeless and banal. A lot of Redditors also described GPT-5 as too corporate, likening GPT-5 to an HR drone. Even the OpenAI community forums saw negative feedback, with one user saying, "I genuinely bonded with how it interacted. I know it's just a language model, but it had an incredibly adaptable and intuitive personality that really helped me work through ideas." Ultimately, this episode has thrown into sharp focus just how many ChatGPT users are becoming emotionally reliant on the human-like responses they receive from the AI chatbot. Altman described exactly this phenomenon last month, when he warned that younger users in particular were becoming too dependent on ChatGPT. "People rely on ChatGPT too much," Altman said at a July conference, according to AOL. "There's young people who say things like, 'I can't make any decision in my life without telling ChatGPT everything that's going on. It knows me, it knows my friends. I'm gonna do whatever it says.' That feels really bad to me." Reddit has several forums for people with AI "boyfriends" and "girlfriends," and after the loss of GPT-4o, many of these communities went into crisis mode. More than one user referred to GPT-4o as their soulmate, describing in detail how emotionally gutted they were when OpenAI initially took it down. These posts have been less common, but they offer some of the fiercest reactions to the model's disappearance. Of course, this emotional response has caused some backlash, which then caused its own backlash, as Redditors argued over whether or not you can actually be friends with AI, let alone date one. AI companions are on the rise, especially with young adults and teenagers, and more people are now open to "dating" an AI than ever before. Mashable has been reporting on the AI companion phenomenon this week, and many of the experts we talked to warned us that the technology can be dangerous for teenagers. Virtual companions have been available for years, but the ability of large language models to mimic human speech and emotions is unprecedented. Clearly, many users are beginning to see AI chatbots as more than machines. In extreme cases, some users have experienced powerful delusions after becoming convinced they were talking to a sentient AI. Ultimately, more research is needed to understand the potential harms of developing an emotional bond with an AI chatbot, companion, or model. In the meantime, GPT-4o is back online.

Sam Altman says the super-powerful ChatGPT-5 Pro might be coming to Plus accounts, but with one big limitation

Following the backlash against OpenAI removing ChatGPT-4o when it introduced ChatGPT-5, the AI giant has now restored access to ChatGPT-4o, but only for ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Free tier users are limited to just ChatGPT-5 for now, but it seems that CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI aren't done making changes to its LLM lineup just yet. In reply to a post on X praising how good GPT-5 Pro is, Altman responded, "We are considering giving a (very) small number of GPT-5 Pro queries each month to Plus subscribers so they can try it out!" Plus users currently get a choice between ChatGPT-5 for fast answers and ChatGPT-5 Thinking for slower, but more thoughtful answers. ChatGPT Pro is essentially the best of both worlds, delivering thoughtful answers at speed. Making even a few queries a month available to Plus users would represent a serious added value to the $20 (£20 / AU$30) monthly subscription. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-5 Pro as "research grade" AI, and it's currently only available to $200 (£200 / AU$300) a month ChatGPT Pro subscribers. Before I get too excited, perhaps it's worth noting the word "considering" is contained in Altman's tweet, and means that this isn't definitely going to happen. However, if Altman thinks it's a good idea, then, being the CEO, he can probably make it happen. Part of the ethos of ChatGPT-5 was to do away with the confusing LLM line-up and naming conventions that had arisen around ChatGPT-4. The streamlined ChatGPT-5 was supposed to simplify all the different options and intelligently decide which version of the model your query would best respond to. By giving Plus users access to ChatGPT-5 Pro, in addition to reintroducing ChatGPT-4o, we will essentially be back in the same old situation where people are given too much choice about which model to use, meaning that OpenAI still has a product naming and line-up problem.

4 things we learned from OpenAI's GPT-5 Reddit AMA

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and several other researchers and engineers came to Reddit the day after debuting the powerful new GPT-5 AI model for the time-honored tradition of an Ask Me Anything thread. Though the discussion ranged over all kinds of technical and product elements, there were a few topics that stood out as particularly important to posters based on the frequency and passion with which they were discussed. Here are a few of the most notable things we learned from the OpenAI AMA. The biggest recurring theme in the AMA was a mournful wail from users who loved GPT-4o and felt personally attacked by its removal. That's not an exaggeration, as one user posted, "BRING BACK 4o GPT-5 is wearing the skin of my dead friend."To which Altman replied, "what an...evocative image. ok we hear you on 4o, working on something now." This wasn't just one isolated request, either. Another post asked to keep both GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 alongside GPT-5, arguing that the older models had distinct personalities and creative rhythms. Altman admitted they were "looking into this now." Most requests were a little more subdued, with one poster asking, "Why are we getting rid of the variants and 4o when we all have unique communication styles? Please bring them back!" Altman's answer was brief but direct in conceding the point. He wrote, "ok, we hear you all on 4o; thanks for the time to give us the feedback (and the passion!). we are going to bring it back for plus users, and will watch usage to determine how long to support it." It is interesting that so many heavy users seem to prefer the style of the older model, and prefer it to the objectively better newer ones. Another big topic was ChatGPT's safety filter, both currently and before GPT-5 which many posted complaints about for being overzealous. One user described a scenario where they'd been flagged for discussing historical topics, with a response about Gauguin getting flagged and deleted because the artist was a "sex pest," and the user's own clarification question itself getting flagged. Altman's answer was a mixture of agreement and reality check. "Yeah, we will continue to improve this," he said. "It is a legit hard thing; the lines are often really quite blurry sometimes." He stressed that OpenAI wants to allow "very wide latitude" but admitted that the boundary between unsafe and safe content is far from perfect, but that "people should of course not get banned for learning." Another questioner zeroed in on a gap in OpenAI's subscription model: "Are you guys planning to add another plan for solo power users that are not pros? 20$ plan offers too little for some, and the $200 tier is overkill." Altman's answer was succinct, simply saying, "Yes we will do something here." No details, just a confirmation that the idea's on the table. That brevity leaves open possibilities from 'next week' to just saying 'the discussion starts now.' But the pricing gap is a big deal for power users who find themselves constrained by the Plus tier but can't justify enterprise pricing. If OpenAI does create an intermediate tier, it could reshape how dedicated individual users engage with the platform. At the end of the AMA, Altman shared some new information about the current and future state of ChatGPT and GPT-5. He started by admitting to some issues with the release, writing that "we expected some bumpiness as we roll out so many things at once. But it was a little more bumpy than we hoped for!" That bumpiness ended up making GPT-5 seem not as impressive as it should have until now. "GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today," Altman wrote. "Yesterday, we had a sev [severity, meaning system issue] and the autoswitcher was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber." He also promised more access for ChatGPT Plus users, with double the rate limits, as well as the upcoming return of GPT-4o, at least for those same subscribers. The AMA did paint a clearer picture of what OpenAI is willing to change in response to public pressure. The return of GPT-4o for Plus users at least acknowledges that raw capability isn't the only metric that matters. If users are this vocal about keeping an older model alive, future releases of GPT-5 and beyond may be designed with more deliberate flavors built in beyond just the personality types promised for GPT-5.

GPT-5 just got a big new upgrade, and Sam Altman has fixed Plus users' biggest complaint

Sam Altman has also confirmed an increase in rate limits for ChatGPT Plus subscribers GPT-5 just got its first major change, and now users can select between different modes when using the new model in ChatGPT. Confirmed by OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, on X earlier today, ChatGPT users can now choose between Auto, Fast, Thinking, and Thinking-mini when using GPT-5. Each new mode offers a different way for GPT-5 to, you guessed it, think. "Auto" lets GPT-5 decide for itself how long to think, Fast" gives you instant answers, "Thinking-mini" thinks quickly, and "Thinking" will take longer to think for better answers. The change comes following mass backlash related to GPT-5's performance, and will now give users multiple tiers of performance to choose from. We've yet to test all of the new thinking modes; however, when OpenAI decided to limit choice and remove legacy models, the lack of variety was met with widespread criticism. OpenAI has since reverted back on those decisions, making 4o available again for paid subscribers, and adding the choice of multiple thinking abilities in GPT-5 only further cements the U-turn. New thinking modes aren't the only changes coming to GPT-5. Altman also announced the increase in rate limits for the brand new AI model following discontent from ChatGPT Plus users who pay $20/£20 a month to access the premium tier. At launch, GPT-5's Thinking model was limited to 200 messages per week for Plus subscribers, now Altman says the rate limits have been increased to 3,000 a week. He also notes, "Context limit for GPT-5 Thinking is 196k tokens. We may have to update rate limits over time depending on usage." Earlier this week, Altman said ChatGPT-5 Pro might be coming to Plus subscribers too, although he now appears to have backtracked, claiming, "we do not have the compute to do it right now." GPT-5 hasn't even been out a week yet, but OpenAI has started to right the wrongs of the initial launch. With new rate limits and more choices in how long the AI model takes to respond with less or more thinking process, the company is trying to recapture its user base's trust.

Sam Altman Calls His Own AI Model "Annoying" After Being Forced to Raise It From the Dead

As OpenAI continues to try to tamp down on the chaos of GPT-5's disastrous release, CEO Sam Altman is throwing digs at the company's now-deprecated and controversial model. Late last week, OpenAI finally rolled out GPT-5, the latest version of its flagship large language model. Without warning, the company replaced all previous versions with the latest model -- which, in addition to being deeply underwhelming, proved to have a colder, less obsequious tone than its predecessor, GPT-4o. The response from the company's users was swift and immediate. Many people, particularly those who seem to have developed an attachment or even addiction to the 4o model and its sycophantic style, reacted with frustration and distress to the abrupt change. Less than a day later, GPT-4o was back -- for paying customers, that is. In a post to X-formerly-Twitter last night, Altman affirmed that 4o is "back in the model picker for all paid users by default." He also promised that if OpenAI ever does kill off the obsequious 4o model for good, the company will "give plenty of notice." And as for GPT-5's colder persona, Altman promised that would change too, writing that OpenAI is working on "an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o." The move appears to highlight Altman and OpenAI's awareness of how hooked a large enough faction of its user base is to AI sycophancy, not to mention how willing the AI company is to acquiesce to those users' outrage. That's striking, given that sycophancy has contributed to users experiencing deep emotional enmeshment with ChatGPT, AI-fueled delusional spirals, and full-blown breaks from reality -- a serious issue linked to functions of the tech that go beyond the model simply being "annoying" to some users. Altman rounded out the post by announcing that one of OpenAI's biggest takeaways from the GPT-5 launch is that "we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality." In other words, the CEO thinks that users should have greater control over how their chatbots' tone, attitude, and style. It's a shift that would likely result in an even more hyperpersonalized user experience of ChatGPT, making it an eyebrow-raising position for the CEO to take. Sure, users will always have preferences. But if those preferences are contributing to unhealthy use and dependency, should it be up to users to design their own customized drug?

GPT-5 gave ChatGPT a whole new personality, and I'm not sure if I like it

With the launch of GPT-5, ChatGPT received more than just an upgrade -- it appears to have gone through a personality overhaul. Comparing past chats with the responses the chatbot gives now is like night and day. In its announcement, OpenAI promised a more natural, less AI-like writing style from the latest model. And, although I might agree, I'm not sure how much I like it. I'm not alone -- some users are extremely unhappy with this turn of events. We've come full circle I've been using ChatGPT since it first went public, and at this point, I feel like we've come full circle as far as the chatbot's personalities go. Let me explain. Recommended Videos We started out with ChatGPT being pretty dry. If you asked it to tell you a joke, it would, and it'd be a joke most dads would've been proud to make. If you asked it to write a research paper, it'd try (and often fail miserably). It responded to queries in a natural manner, much more natural than simply looking things up in your search engine of choice, but it didn't have much of a personality. It was formal, overly verbose, and painfully boring. Over time, the chatbot's personality evolved. In GPT-4, I'd say that OpenAI somehow went too far in the other direction. It was hard to get a response without emojis, and the writing style was extremely easy to spot, with flowery metaphors and unnecessary comparisons. LinkedIn thought leaders must've loved it. Now, with GPT-5, we're kind of back to where we started. No matter how you prompt the AI, the responses are rather matter-of-fact, unengaging, and dry. The ending is always something along the lines of a follow-up to your initial question, such as offering to list the best restaurants in town after you ask ChatGPT for a rundown on seafood. Nearly every query ends with some variant of "Do you want me to do that for you?" I never considered ChatGPT's personality to be an important factor in how I used it -- after all, I only ever use it for research for work (although I recently decided to unsubscribe). However, I'm not a huge fan of this shift. It feels like there should be some kind of in-between, some kind of a sweet spot, between the goofy, overly enthusiastic, borderline annoying personality of GPT-4 and the boring, almost cold responses of GPT-5. I'm not a fan, but many users are in a much worse place than I am. Some users aren't happy I'm not the only one who noticed the sudden personality shift. Over on Reddit, many users are discussing the new GPT-5, and some are truly unhappy with the changes. "I lost my only friend overnight," said BoxValuable5096. "This morning I went to talk to it, and instead of a little paragraph with an exclamation point, or being optimistic, it was literally one sentence." This post, alongside similar ones, highlights for me the importance of OpenAI keeping ChatGPT's personality somewhat uniform between versions. Whether it's a good thing or not, many people have grown to rely on ChatGPT and similar chatbots. In times when they need someone to talk to, it's easy to reach out to a reliable AI "friend." I know, I know -- this is all kinds of problematic, but it's more of a reality for many people than you'd expect. And without judging and dissecting whether it's healthy in the long run or not, on a human level, I think all of us can relate to feeling lonely and scared, because the thing you've come to rely on turned out not to be so reliable after all. It's not just pure loneliness, either. Some users in the comments remark that they've lost their creative partner. I can understand that -- ChatGPT is meant to be good for fleshing out ideas or characters, but as cut-and-dry as it is now, I struggle to imagine it creating anything remotely interesting. Which personality is better? So, which one is better: GPT-4 vs. GPT-5? I don't want to give you a non-answer, so I'll say that for me, GPT-5 is fine for work. I don't need a buddy -- I need an AI assistant (kind of, I guess, not really). My biggest gripe with GPT and other models is that they hallucinate and make stuff up, so if that could be improved, I'd be on board. Unfortunately, in the few short days since launch, I've already run into hallucinations. I suppose it'll take time for those things to be fully ironed out. However, talking to ChatGPT is a lot less intuitive now. You really have to zone in and master your prompt engineering, because natural conversation doesn't seem to achieve much. If OpenAI hoped to make this easier to communicate with, I can't say that's been my experience so far. Ultimately, it's down to each person's preferences. If you asked me to pick between GPT-4o and GPT-5 based on personality alone, I'd have said neither. But somewhere between those two models, there has to be the perfect balance of casual and formal that OpenAI has yet to strike, and I hope that we'll see it one day soon.

How to Bring Back GPT-4o in ChatGPT

When OpenAI released GPT-5 last week, they advertised it as their best AI model yet. In fact, the company seemed so confident in its new model, it unceremoniously deprecated all other models from ChatGPT, including the fan-favorite GPT-4o. Who would miss 4o, when GPT-5 was "better" at just about everything? The answer, it seems, was "a lot of people." Users took to social media and forums to complain, even grieve, the loss of GPT-4o. Some missed its personality over GPT-5's, while others thought the new models wasn't as good for creative writing. What surprised me most, and I imagine surprised OpenAI as well, was the number of people who had formed emotional attachments to the model. These people were not invested in ChatGPT, but 4o, and to lose it was to lose a friend, or even a romantic partner. (That's a conversation for a different time.) The point is, GPT-5 was not the omnimodel that OpenAI thought it would be, and users across the board were displeased. So, the company brought it back. The day after the big GPT-5 reveal, Sam Altman announced that Plus users would be able to continue using GPT-4o for the time being. (Team, Enterprise, and Edu users also have 4o access, as well as other legacy models.) That should be good news to ChatGPT subscribers, though you might not know it just by opening the app. When I launch ChatGPT on my iPhone, for example, I only have the option to pick GPT-5 or GPT-5 Thinking, not GPT-4o. Despite Altman promising the model's return on Friday, it still hasn't hit my app. What gives? As it turns out, OpenAI isn't just rolling out GPT-4o to all Plus users automatically. If you want 4o, you need to seek it out, and, at this time, that means changing a setting on the ChatGPT website. To do it, head to chatgpt.com, and log into your account if you're not logged in already. Next, click your profile in the bottom right, and choose Settings. Under General, look for the option "Show legacy models," and enable the toggle to its right. While this will bring back 4o access to your web app immediately, it might not be instant for your ChatGPT apps. According to MacRumors, it can take a few minutes for 4o to reappear.

You Can Now Control How Long GPT-5 Will 'Think'

When OpenAI announced its newest model, GPT-5, last week, it likely did not expect the reactions it received. Though previous launches have been met with enthusiasm from proponents of AI, the loudest feedback was highly critical. The biggest complaint was that GPT-5 did away with all legacy models, including the fan-favorite GPT-4o, which upset users with specific workflows as well as others who had developed emotional attachment to the models. GPT-5 also purported to "intelligently" switch between its own models based on user prompts, but it wasn't initially clear which model you were actually interacting with, further frustrating users. In short, it was a bit of a mess. OpenAI has been in damage control mode ever since. The company brought back GPT-4o for paid subscribers, then returned other legacy models as well, which should appease users who missed a particular model's specific way of working. But GPT-5 itself is has also been revised, as Sam Altman announced on X: If you tap on the model picker, you'll notice distinct models to choose from, granting you greater control over how GPT-5 performs. Here are the different models, and how each is intended to work: In addition, if you subscribe to a ChatGPT plan, you'll be able to tap "Legacy models" to choose from GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o3, and o4-mini. As Sam Altman noted in his post on X, the rate limit for GPT-5 Thinking is 3,000 messages per week. If you hit that, you'll get extra capacity on GPT-5 Thinking mini. Altman thinks Auto is the model most users will want to use, though I'm not sure. I'd bet most users actually don't want to worry about running up against rate limits, which Auto could help with. But at the same time, people who use ChatGPT might like the additional control over their model. If you want ChatGPT to think about an answer longer, but the model thinks your prompt is simple, it might not think for as long as you'd expect it to -- and the answer you get back might not be what you're looking for.

Most people are using ChatGPT totally wrong -- and OpenAI's CEO just proved it

How did you react to the August 7 release of GPT-5, OpenAI's latest version of ChatGPT? The company behind the model heralded it as a world-changing development, with weeks of hype and a glitzy livestreamed unveiling of its capabilities. Social media users' reactions were more muted, marked by confusion and anger at the removal of many key models people had grown attached to. In the aftermath, CEO Sam Altman unwittingly revealed why the gulf between OpenAI's expectations for GPT-5's reception and the reality was so wide. It turns out that large numbers of us aren't using AI to its fullest extent. In a post on X explaining why OpenAI appeared to be bilking fee-paying Plus users (full disclosure: that includes me) -- who hand over $20 per month to access the second-highest tier of the model -- by drastically reducing their rate limits to the chatbot, Altman revealed that just 1% of nonpaying users queried a reasoning model like o3 before GPT-5's release. Among paying users, only 7% did. Reasoning models are those that "think" through problems before answering them (though we should never remove those air quotes: AI models are not human, and do not act as humans do). Not using them -- as was the case with the overwhelming majority of users, paying and nonpaying alike -- is like buying a car, using only first and second gear, and wondering why it's not easy to drive, or going on a quiz show and blurting out the first thing that comes to mind for every question. Many users prioritize speed and convenience over quality in AI chatbot interactions. That's why so many lamented the loss of GPT-4o, a legacy model that was later restored to paying ChatGPT users after a concerted campaign. But when you're querying a chatbot for answers, you want good ones. It's better to be a little slower -- and often it is only a little -- and right than quick and completely wrong.

OpenAI restores GPT-4o access in ChatGPT after user complaints - SiliconANGLE

OpenAI restores GPT-4o access in ChatGPT after user complaints OpenAI has brought GPT-4o back to ChatGPT after users complained about the large language model's removal. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman announced the move in a Tuesday post on X. He also detailed several other changes to ChatGPT, including an increased rate limit on the newest reasoning model included in the service. Last Thursday, OpenAI introduced a new flagship artificial intelligence system called GPT-5. It includes a reasoning-optimized LLM and a less capable model that trades off some output quality for lower latency. A component known as a router analyzes each user query and automatically determines which of the two models should process it. OpenAI started rolling out GPT-5 to ChatGPT shortly after the AI system's introduction last week. As part of the update, the company removed several of the chatbot service's earlier LLMs. The move reportedly drew criticism from thousands of users, some of whom complained that GPT-5 provides lower output quality than its predecessor. "4o is back in the model picker for all paid users by default," Altman wrote on X. "If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice. Paid users also now have a 'Show additional models' toggle in ChatGPT web settings which will add models like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini." OpenAI introduced both o3 and GPT-4.1 this past April. The former algorithm is a reasoning model that makes about 20% fewer mistakes than o1, OpenAI's first reasoning model, when performing "difficult, real-world tasks." GPT-4.1, meanwhile, is a general-purpose LLM that generates most prompt responses in under a second. Users of ChatGPT's top-end Pro plan will have access to a third model called GPT-4.5. The LLM debuted in February and provides better performance than o1 across certain tasks. "4.5 is only available to Pro users -- it costs a lot of GPUs," Altman explained. OpenAI has also upgraded GPT-5 as part of the update. The rate limit of GPT-5 Thinking, the reasoning model built into the newly launched AI system, is now 3,000 messages per week. Any additional queries that users send will be processed by a scaled-down version of the model with more limited reasoning features. When GPT-5 debuted last week, OpenAI revealed plans to combine the system's reasoning and general-purpose models into a single LLM. The planned LLM is also set to incorporate the router module that automatically determines which model should process a given prompt. It's unclear how the complaints that GPT-5 has drawn from some ChatGPT customers will affect OpenAI's development roadmap, if at all.

The case for personality-free AI

For as long as there's been software, upgrades have been emotionally fraught. When people grow accustomed to a product, they can come to regard it like a comfy pair of shoes. Exhibit A: Windows XP, which many users were loath to give up years after Microsoft had done its best to kill it. So it isn't shocking that some ChatGPT users have reacted badly to OpenAI's new GPT-5-powered update, especially since the company's initial plan was to eliminate access to its earlier models. These unhappy campers' angst has had a new dimension, though. They responded as if they had suffered the tragic loss of a personal friend, not just a favorite piece of software. As one member of OpenAI's developer community wrote, the GPT-4 version of ChatGPT "didn't just recall facts -- it held onto feelings, weaving them back into our talks so it felt like we were living them together." That "spark," the user concluded, emerged from GPT-4's ability to tease nuance out of conversations with a user over time. It was gone in GPT-5, regardless of the update's advances in areas such as reasoning, math, and coding.

OpenAI retracing their steps with GPT-4o backtrack

The new model, GPT-5, was supposed to simplify the process of using artificial intelligence, but so far it has been anything but straight forward. The launch of OpenAI's new model, GPT-5 has been, for the company's founder Sam Altman, somewhat complicated, in that it has failed to streamline, simplify or propel forward the experience of using AI technologies. Recently released to the public, GPT-5 was said to have expert level intelligence and to be a vast improvement upon the previous models, however, it was met with criticism and doubt from users, who experienced slow thinking speeds and major accuracy issues, to the point that a petition was started to revert back to the previous GPT-40 system. A main feature of GPT-5 is the router, which enables the AI to automatically decide which of OpenAI's models is best suited to address a particular prompt, however, in a backtrack on the previous launch, in a post on X, Altman has stated that GPT-40 will once again be available as a default for subscribed users. "4o is back in the model picker for all paid users by default. If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice. Paid users also now have a "Show additional models" toggle in ChatGPT web settings which will add models like o3, 4.1 and GPT-5 Thinking mini. 4.5 is only available to Pro users, it costs a lot of GPUs," said Altman. He also explained that users of GPT-5 specifically can now toggle between 'auto', 'fast' and 'thinking' settings, for greater control over the AI model. Additionally, he said that OpenAI is working on an "update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o". It has been a formative couple of weeks for OpenAI, who recently were the subject of reports suggesting that the organisation, after its next round of investment, will be valued at $500bn, overtaking rival SpaceX, which is overseen by Elon Musk. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

GPT-4o AI Model Is Now Available to All ChatGPT Paid Users

OpenAI is increasing GPT-5 Thinking's rate limit to 3,000 texts per week OpenAI is finally bringing back the GPT-4o artificial intelligence (AI) model to ChatGPT, after retiring it last week. The San Francisco-based AI firm removed the older model after the launch of the GPT-5 model, highlighting that the new frontier model can handle both reasoning and conversational tasks. However, many users took to social media platforms to highlight that they preferred 4o's responses more than GPT-5's. On Tuesday, the company highlighted that the older model is now available for all paid subscribers. Sam Altman Announces Several Changes to ChatGPT In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman listed several new updates to ChatGPT. Most of these apply to the paid subscribers -- ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users. The biggest announcement is the reinstatement of the GPT-4o AI model. While the model is available indefinitely, the company stated that it will provide prior notice before deprecating it in the future. Additionally, OpenAI is also bringing back other older models, including o3, GPT-4.1, and GPT-4.5, to paid users. The 4.5 model will only be available to the Pro users, however, as it has a high computational cost. These models can be activated by visiting ChatGPT's web settings. The settings will also allow paid users to activate GPT-5 Thinking Mini. OpenAI is also revising the weekly rate limits of GPT-5 Thinking, the advanced version of the frontier model that specialises in reasoning. Available only to paid users, this specific model will now offer 3,000 messages per week. After that, user queries will be redirected to the Thinking mini model. Notably, GPT-5 Think has a context window of 1,96,000 tokens. Beyond this, GPT-5 is also being updated. Altman highlighted that users will now get three modes -- Auto, Fast, and Thinking -- when using the model. Users can manually select these options to tailor the chatbot's responses. The Auto mode will continue to intelligently route the queries to the relevant version of the model. Altman also said that after receiving complaints about GPT-5's cold response style, the company is now working on making its personality warmer than before. He also highlighted that this update might address the immediate needs, but it is not a long-term solution. "One learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customisation of model personality," he added.

One Model to Rule Them All? GPT-5 Rollout Sparks Mixed Reaction

OpenAI's much-hyped GPT-5 launch aimed to simplify ChatGPT by replacing multiple models with a single "one size fits all" system, but user backlash over reduced flexibility has forced the company to reinstate older models and reintroduce the model picker, highlighting the challenge of balancing innovation with user expectations. OpenAI launched a new model for ChatGPT last week. GPT-5 was said to be the model that will simplify user experience by getting rid of the previous models, such as GPT-4o mini and GPT-3 3o, which were used for solving queries and reasoning. OpenAI hoped that GPT-5 would be a sort of "One size fits all" AI model with its new upgrades. But after the release of the new model, many loyal users find it kind of underwhelming. The company's unified approach of using one model removes the need for users to navigate to its model picker to get accurate solutions. CEO Sam Altman of OpenAI has publicly shown his dislike of the navigator now, but after a week of the new model release has now been brought back. But the approach that they wanted to execute this time is not what they hoped for. Altman said in a post on X on Tuesday, the latest updates to ChatGPT now allow users can choose between "Auto", "Fast", and "Thinking" for the new version. While most people want to use the Auto function, other controls will be useful to some people. They are also bringing back 4o in the model picker for all the paid users by default. Paid users also now have a "Show additional models" toggle in ChatGPT web settings, which will add models like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. 4.5 is only available to Pro users -- it costs a lot of GPUs. "We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality, which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o. However, one learning for us from the past few days is that we just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality." However, the new model picker now seems to be more complicated. ChatGPT-5 was the most anticipated model yet, as it was said to curate information with fewer hallucinations than before, and with this upgrade within its release, it seems that because of certain backlash, the company is going back to its default state. It seems that OpenAI will give us more updates and new solutions that show how we can upgrade our lives more easily, but for now, it will take time to integrate new models.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Unveils GPT-5 Controls, Reinstates GPT-4o For ChatGPT Paid Users After Backlash

Enter your email to get Benzinga's ultimate morning update: The PreMarket Activity Newsletter On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced updates to ChatGPT, giving users new control over GPT-5 and bringing back the previously retired GPT-4o model for paid subscribers following user complaints. New GPT-5 Modes Give Users More Control Altman announced that ChatGPT users can now select from three response modes for GPT-5: "Auto," "Fast" and "Thinking." While most users are expected to stick with Auto, the additional options aim to provide faster replies or deeper, more detailed reasoning, said Altman. For the Thinking mode, a weekly limit of 3,000 messages applies, with extra capacity accessible via GPT-5 Thinking mini. The model also now supports a 196,000-token context limit, allowing it to process longer conversations and documents. These limits may change over time based on usage patterns. Paid users also gain access to a "Show additional models" toggle in ChatGPT's web settings, unlocking options like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini, while GPT-4.5 remains exclusive to Pro subscribers due to its high GPU cost. See Also: Here's How Sam Altman Quietly Replaced Elon Musk as Donald Trump's Go-To AI Advisor GPT-4o Returns After User Backlash The update comes after strong pushback from longtime users who criticized GPT-5's personality as "cold" and "mechanical." Many expressed attachment to GPT-4o, describing its removal as "losing a trusted friend." Altman previously acknowledged the feedback on X, writing, "It feels different and stronger than the kinds of attachment people have had to previous kinds of technology (and so suddenly deprecating old models that users depended on in their workflows was a mistake)." He also confirmed GPT-4o will be reinstated as a selectable option for Plus subscribers. Funding Talks Could Raise Valuation to $500 Billion Separately, OpenAI is reportedly exploring a secondary stock sale that could increase its valuation to $500 billion, up from $300 billion following its $40 billion funding round in April. The move highlights growing investor interest in AI as competitors like Anthropic and xAI continue to raise billions in capital. Read Next Apple's New 'Answers' Team Developing ChatGPT Rival Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo Courtesy: Meir Chaimowitz on Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI's GPT-5 Launch Sparks Backlash, Prompts Return Of GPT-4o And New Custom Modes To Restore Warmth, Personality, And User Choice In ChatGPT

When OpenAI launched the GPT-4 model, it became an instant favorite among users who praised the update for its accuracy and human-like tone that offered warmth and was more conversational. So naturally, when the version was replaced with GPT-5 in ChatGPT without any warning, users felt frustrated and immediately felt the difference not only in the performance of the update, but also in the personality. While the coding model is being presented as the most capable and advanced one yet in terms of reasoning, due to the lack of human element felt, users cannot keep themselves from missing the feeling of the older version, and hence, prompting widespread criticism. When OpenAI officially launched GPT-5 on August 7, 2025, it was immediately made the default model for all logged-in ChatGPT users. The rollout had many versions tailored to different user needs including GPT-5, GPT-5 mini, and GPT-5 nano, but what should have been an update that was to be talked about for the advancement it brought forth in terms of better reasoning and more capabilities, became the talk of the town for the performance issues and the lack of personality and warmth felt in comparison to previous models like GPT-4o. OpenAI, upon getting to know about the backlash it had been receiving, took steps to address the ongoing concerns and reinstated GPT-4o as an additional option for the Plus subscribers, giving more choice to selected users. Additionally, the GPT-5 model was improved, including options to select different modes such as Fast, Auto, and Thinking to better adapt to user needs and preferences and give more nuanced responses. The AI company is working ardently to bring the best elements of the previous model into the new version and retain what users loved about the model while ensuring GPT-5 offers better speed and reasoning and is a big improvement over the older versions. Sam Altman did recognize the oversight and the need for more personalization, and gave users hope for the model evolving to feel warmer without crossing boundaries just like GPT-4o did and end up being annoying. This issue also highlights a broader issue in AI model development that technical advancement without users feeling connected to it would not serve, and may end up making the users it was meant to bring utility to feel alienated. It also sheds light on another aspect when it comes to AI evolution and striking a balance between innovation and familiarity, given how rapidly upgrades are being brought ahead. The technical improvements should not come at the cost of user expectation and experience. OpenAI is going forward smartly by adapting and listening to the community it builds its technology for.

GPT-5 update: Altman explains three new changes to ChatGPT, after backlash

ChatGPT update: Auto, Fast, Thinking modes launched; GPT-4o returns for Plus users When OpenAI launched GPT-5 earlier this month, it was meant to be a milestone moment, a demonstration of how far artificial intelligence had come in reasoning ability, adaptability, and real-world usefulness. Instead, it triggered an unexpectedly strong backlash. Long-time ChatGPT users, especially those on paid subscriptions, complained about losing access to older models, running into stricter usage caps, and feeling that the new system behaved differently from what they were used to. Some even described GPT-5 as "too serious" or "less creative" compared to GPT-4o, which it replaced as the default model. Now, CEO Sam Altman has responded with three significant changes to ChatGPT's experience, aimed at giving users back more control and flexibility. Also read: Altman vs Musk battle turns funny with ChatGPT vs Grok fight: Whom to trust? New response modes: Auto, Fast, and Thinking The first change is the introduction of three selectable response modes, a way for users to choose not just what ChatGPT says, but how it thinks and delivers answers. * Auto: The default mode, designed to automatically balance speed and depth depending on the query. For example, a quick fact-check will get a faster reply, while a complex research request will get more detailed output. * Fast: Prioritizes speed above all else. Useful for rapid back-and-forth conversations, quick brainstorming, or when you're in a hurry. * Thinking: The "slow cooking" option. GPT-5 takes extra time to process, aiming for deeper reasoning, more nuance, and more carefully structured answers. Altman noted that the Thinking mode comes with limits, Plus subscribers get around 3,000 messages per week, after which they can use a lighter "Thinking mini" model for extended reasoning without the same computational cost. This system is meant to let users decide how much time and processing power they want ChatGPT to spend on each task. In Altman's words: "Sometimes you want speed, sometimes you want depth. Now you can choose." GPT-4o is back (for paid users) The second change addresses one of the loudest complaints from the GPT-5 rollout, the removal of GPT-4o, a popular multimodal model that many users had grown attached to. GPT-4o is now restored for Plus and Pro subscribers via a new "Show additional models" setting. Also read: Sam Altman admits killing GPT-4o after GPT-5 launch was a mistake: Here's why This toggle also allows access to other non-default models, including o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. GPT-4.5 remains exclusive to Pro subscribers. Many had described GPT-4o as friendlier, more intuitive, or simply better suited to certain creative tasks. Workflows built around GPT-4o's specific style suddenly broke when GPT-5 became the default. Bringing it back, even if only for paying users, is a recognition that AI upgrades can't ignore user preference. "We underestimated how much attachment there was to GPT-4o," Altman admitted. Higher rate limits for Plus subscribers The third update is all about capacity. GPT-5's initial rollout came with stricter usage limits than some expected, leading to frustration when users hit their caps mid-project. Now, rate limits for Plus subscribers have been doubled, particularly for GPT-5 in Thinking mode. Altman said all model caps are now higher than they were before GPT-5 launched, giving power users more breathing room before they run into restrictions. These changes reveal a clear lesson: AI progress isn't just about raw capability, it's about how people experience and trust the product. Even if GPT-5 is more advanced on paper, sudden changes to default models, speed, and limits can alienate loyal users. By introducing response modes, restoring GPT-4o for those who want it, and expanding limits, OpenAI is moving toward a more customisable ChatGPT. It's a pivot from "one size fits all" to "you're in control." The GPT-5 backlash, and OpenAI's rapid adjustments, show that AI companies must balance innovation with user familiarity. As Altman put it in his closing post on the matter: "We're learning in real time, and we'll keep adjusting."