OpenAI is bringing the GPT-4o artificial intelligence (AI) model back to ChatGPT, just days after retiring it. The San Francisco-based AI company had pulled the model following the launch of GPT-5, describing the newer version as its most advanced system for both reasoning and conversation. But after many users shared on social media that they preferred 4o’s style of responses, the company has decided to make it available again for all paid subscribers.
Sam Altman Shares the Update
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman outlined several updates for ChatGPT, aimed mainly at ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro members. The headline change is the return of GPT-4o, which will remain available indefinitely — though the company says it will give advance notice before removing it in the future.
Paid users are also getting access to more legacy models, including o3, GPT-4.1, and GPT-4.5. The 4.5 model, however, will stay exclusive to Pro subscribers because of its higher computational cost. These models can be enabled through the ChatGPT web settings, which also now let users activate GPT-5 Thinking Mini.
Tweaks to GPT-5 and New Limits
OpenAI is also adjusting how GPT-5 Thinking works. This advanced reasoning model, available only to paying customers, will now allow 3,000 messages per week. After that limit is reached, queries will switch automatically to the Thinking Mini version. The GPT-5 Think variant has a context window of 1,96,000 tokens, letting it handle much longer conversations.
There’s also a usability boost for GPT-5: users can now choose between three modes — Auto, Fast, and Thinking. The Auto mode will still route each request to the best-suited version automatically.
Making GPT-5 More Human-Like
Addressing feedback that GPT-5 sometimes feels too cold or robotic, Altman said the team is working on making its personality warmer. He called it a short-term fix and added that the long-term goal is to give people more per-user customisation of model personality, so each user can shape the AI’s tone and style to suit their preferences.
