After a long wait, OpenAI is finally releasing GPT-5, which is designed to offer ChatGPT users access to an AI as smart as a team of PhD experts. “We think you will love using GPT-5 much more than any previous AI,” says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In a live stream today, OpenAI described GPT-5 as a major upgrade to the intelligence of ChatGPT across a wide range of concentrations, including computer coding, math, language, writing, and even health advice. “With GPT-5, now it’s like talking to an expert, a legitimate PhD-level expert in anything, in any area you need,” Altman said.
The company’s tests show that GPT-5 exhibits a much lower risk of hallucinating inaccurate information compared with OpenAI’s early models. This includes a lower potential to deceive users by claiming it’s completed a task when it actually hasn’t.
(Credit: OpenAI)
“GPT‑5 not only outperforms previous models on benchmarks and answers questions more quickly, but—most importantly—is more useful for real-world queries,” the company added in a blog post full of various benchmarks.
Our main takeaway from the live stream is that GPT-5 is supposed to be smarter and less error-prone, but we didn’t come away wowed. There was also no boast of GPT-5 being AGI. Instead, Altman described GPT-5 as an “especially important moment for businesses and developers,” suggesting he sees it as a major tool for enterprises.
You can test it out yourself. GPT-5 launches today, even for free users on ChatGPT. They’ll have access to the GPT-5 model before being downgraded to the GPT-5 mini model once they hit a certain chat limit.
“For ChatGPT free-tier users, full reasoning capabilities may take a few days to fully roll out,” the company says. “Once free users reach their GPT‑5 usage limits, they will transition to GPT‑5 mini, a smaller, faster, and highly capable model.”
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In addition, free users can expect to receive “hours” of access to ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode, rather than only 15 minutes per day.
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As for paying subscribers, OpenAI says subscribers of ChatGPT Pro — the $200-per-month plan— will receive “unlimited access to GPT‑5 and access to GPT‑5 Pro,” the smartest and highest performing model. Meanwhile, customers on the $20-per-month Plus plan can expect “significantly” higher access to GPT-5 compared with free users.
Paying customers will be able to customize their ChatGPT’s personality, which can tweak how the AI responds to questions. “These personalities, available initially for text chat and coming later to Voice, let you set how ChatGPT interacts—whether concise and professional, thoughtful and supportive, or a bit sarcastic—without writing custom prompts,” the company says. “The four initial options, Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd, are opt-in, adjustable anytime in settings, and designed to match your communication style.”
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Pro, Plus, and Enterprise users will also be able to sync ChatGPT to their Google Calendar, enabling it to learn and coordinate around a customer’s schedule.
The other important announcement is that GPT‑5 is the “new default in ChatGPT,” replacing the company’s older models, including GPT‑4o, o3, o4-mini, GPT‑4.1, and GPT‑4.5.
GPT-5 itself spans six different models, including four that excel at more complex “thinking,” according to OpenAI. But the company says: “In the near future, we plan to integrate these capabilities into a single model.”
(Credit: OpenAI)
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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.
About Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
