OpenAI continues to expand the options available to free ChatGPT users. The company started by making its latest model, GPT-4o, generally free to all users – although there are restrictions unless you pay – and now it has developed availability of core 4o features by removing paywalls on file transfers, vision (which can employ the camera for data entry) and GPT (or custom chatbots). Browsing, data analysis and storage, also previously paid features, were already available to free users in similarly narrow capacity.
OpenAI has made clear its plans to expand the offerings that free users can take advantage of since it first revealed GPT-4o a few weeks ago, and so far it’s delivering on those promises. These changes make paying for ChatGPT Plus even less significant for many, which is a surprisingly good thing for OpenAI. More users means more usage testing – something that will only aid improve ChatGPT-enabled models.
Of course, usage limits for the free version of ChatGPT will still apply. Once these limits are reached, you will be moved back to GPT 3.5 as OpenAI has not made GPT 4 or GPT 4 Turbo available in the free tier. Still, some paid users aren’t entirely ecstatic with the change, and many are wondering what the point of ChatGPT Plus is now.
Paying users still receive up to five times more messages using GPT-4o than free users, but that doesn’t stop some from taking to social media and asking questions like “what about paid users?” AND “what do paid users get? False hopes for GPT5.”
ChatGPT Plus subscribers still have access to the ability to create their own GPTs, and from what we know so far, only Plus users will receive the upcoming 4o voice activation mode, though this could certainly change in the future.
Giving more people access to ChatGPT’s best features brings the chatbot closer to one of its biggest competitors, Claude, which allows users to access the latest version of the AI model for free (albeit via a weaker version of that model).
