When OpenAI unveiled GPT-5 in August 2025, it promised to be faster, sharper, and more reliable than its predecessor, so naturally, GPT-5 became the new default model for ChatGPT. Those who are using the free plan felt the upgrade immediately, but it came with a catch. The free tier full access to ChatGPT-5 comes with a cap. Once you use the initial interaction with the new version, the model shifts to the GPT-5 mini-model. Casual users might not notice the transition, but those who use ChatGPT professionally will feel the difference.
This switch to GPT-5 mini raises a question: are the answers from ChatGPT Plus, the premium subscription, actually better? After all, if both free and paying users have access to GPT-5, what justifies the subscription fee? Besides going over the implemented cap, of course. The answer lies in how often you use ChatGPT and what you are using it for. So let’s see how the differences between the free and paid ChatGPT Plus shape your experience.
The differences between the free and plus version
While both free and Plus users can tap into GPT-5, the experience isn’t quite the same. Free GPT-5 users get 10 interactions every 5 hours. After they’re used up, ChatGPT switches to the GPT-5 mini model. This model still works well, but it lacks some of the features that come with full GPT-5 access. Those features include faster response times, fewer factual errors, better long-form reasoning, and improved handling of complex instructions. GPT-5 works better if you ask detailed questions and provide it with more information.
ChatGPT Plus users can do up to 160 exchanges within three hours on GPT-5. That means a more consistent experience with the model’s strengths. It will give you sharper answers, a more natural tone, and reduced hallucinations. In other words, as a Plus user, you should get fewer false, misleading, or even made-up answers that just sound correct. It’s not unheard of for earlier GPT models to hallucinate and make up a scientific study that doesn’t exist, or misquote a famous person. This still happens with GPT-5, but it’s significantly reduced. Now the question is, does this translate to better, more accurate answers? Let’s take a deeper look.
Is ChatGPT Plus more accurate?
With the launch of GPT-5, ChatGPT Plus now benefits from significantly reduced error rates compared to earlier models. OpenAI claims that for prompts representative of everyday ChatGPT usage, GPT-5 delivers about 45% fewer factual errors than GPT-4. When switched to a deeper “thinking” mode, error rates drop by around 80% compared to OpenAI 03. Thinking mode is an automatic setting where the model takes more time to reason through complex questions, resulting in more accurate answers. This improvement comes from a real-time routing system that can decide if a prompt needs a fast response or deeper reasoning. It all depends on the context behind the asked question.
Furthermore, in tests (LongFact and FActScore) designed to measure how well AI sticks to facts, GPT-5 made fewer mistakes, especially when it comes to more complex answers. It gave about six times fewer incorrect or made-up responses compared to earlier versions. GPT-5 proved to be reliable when it comes to handling more complex questions with lots of details. This means that ChatGPT Plus subscription offers more accurate responses, but only because it gives users extended access to GPT-5 and its advanced thinking mode. The free version has limited access to GPT-5 before it switches to GPT-5 mini, which cannot guarantee accurate answers to more complex questions, and it doesn’t use deep thinking mode.
