Earlier this week, we saw the roll-out of GPT-5, the latest and supposedly greatest edition of OpenAI’s flagship tool, with CEO Sam Altman claiming it offered “legitimate PhD-level” expertise in every field.
But one gripe that has been impacting users is that, since the worldwide roll-out, the vast majority of users initially lost access to previous OpenAI models they have grown familiar with, including GPT-4o, o3, o4-mini, GPT-4.1, and GPT-4.5. Many users have taken to social media this week to complain about how these developments have disrupted their workflows, and in one case even their mental health.
But if you miss ChatGPT’s older models, you can still use them—if you have a spare $20 a month for the Plus subscription, that is.
OpenAI hasn’t confirmed if access could be extended in case of high demand, but in a recent post on X, the CEO said “We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for.”
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However, the option to access older models is not available for Free users. OpenAI had initially restricted access to $200/month Pro users, but seems to have backtracked following the backlash.
(Credit: Reddit)
Some users on social media called for access to GPT-4o to be extended to all users. Losing access to older GPTs isn’t the only issue which has come to light since the tool launched. Other users on social media have accused the tool of being “sterile,” saying it just “doesn’t feel the same.”
Meanwhile, PCMag highlighted several drawbacks of the new model compared to previous iterations, including failing to get the number of times “B” appeared in the word blueberry right. 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.”
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(Credit: PCMag)
Nostalgia for bygone chatbots is certainly something that has only emerged recently, but it could be becoming a trend. Roughly 200 AI enthusiasts actually 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.)
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.
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About Will McCurdy
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