OpenAI continues to expand the options available to free ChatGPT users. The company is first launching its latest model, the GPT-4o, which is generally free and available to all users, but is restricted unless you pay. Now it works by canceling file uploads, vision (which can be done using a camera) and GPT (or a custom chatbot). Browsing, data analysis, and memory, which were also previously paid features, are now available to free users in similarly limited capacities.
Since the initial release of GPT-4o a few weeks ago, OpenAI has made it clear that it plans to expand the offerings that free users can take advantage of, and so far it has delivered on those promises. With these changes, paying for ChatGPT Plus becomes less important to many people, which is a surprisingly good thing for OpenAI. More users means more usage tests - which can only help improve the model running ChatGPT.
Of course, the free version of ChatGPT still has usage restrictions. Once you reach these limits, you will be kicked back to GPT 3.5 because OpenAI does not yet offer GPT 4 or GPT 4 Turbo in the free tier. Still, some paying users aren't happy with the change, and many are wondering what the point of ChatGPT Plus is now.
Paid users still receive five times more messages via GPT-4o than free users, but that hasn't stopped some people from asking questions on social media like "What about paid users?" and “What do paying users get? The false hope of GPT5.”
ChatGPT Plus subscribers can still create their own GPTs, and based on everything we know so far, Plus users are the only ones who will get access to 4o's upcoming voice-activated mode, although that will certainly change in the future.
Making ChatGPT's best features available to more people, bringing the chatbot in line with one of its biggest competitors, Claude, which allows free users to access the latest version of its AI model (albeit via a less powerful version of the model) .
