Thursday marked a significant milestone in the evolution of OpenAI and generative AI at large, as the company unveiled GPT-5, its most advanced and powerful AI reasoning model to date, a major step towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

CEO Sam Altman described GPT-5 as a significant step along the path towards AGI and likened it to having “a team of PhD-level experts” available on demand. While not yet AGI, he said the model’s impact on education, healthcare, economic growth, and productivity is expected to be quite special.

What changes with GPT-5?

GPT-5 is an integrated model, removing the need for manual model switching. It decides autonomously when to perform more complex reasoning. Described as significantly faster, more intuitive, and safer, the model delivers better accuracy and lower hallucination rates than its predecessors.

In a live demo, OpenAI showcased the model's ability to produce interactive explanations of complex topics, like the Bernoulli effect, and generate hundreds of lines of code in minutes. Improvements extend across use cases, including writing, coding, software development, healthcare queries, and personalised study help.

Additional features include better voice interaction with customisable speaking styles, and integration with Gmail and Google Calendar for Team users, with broader rollout planned for mid-August. This will pave way for future OpenAI partnerships with smartphone makers like Apple and Nothing.

Is GPT-5 free?

The new model is being rolled out to all ChatGPT users, including those on the free tier, a first and rather shocking move for OpenAI’s reasoning models. It will be available today for Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users, with Enterprise and Education users gaining access from August 14.

Free users will only see GPT-5 on the platform, while paying users will retain access to earlier models as well. Its Plus-tier users benefit from higher usage limits, and Pro subscribers get access to a specialised “GPT-5 Pro” version with enhanced capabilities.

The decision to offer GPT-5 for free follows rising competition and internal challenges at OpenAI. The company has faced employee departures to Meta over the last few months.

Additionally, unlike the popular speculation on tensions with Microsoft, the tech ginat has announced that GPT-5 will also be available immediately in Microsoft 365 Copilot, aligning with OpenAI’s promise to integrate new models into Microsoft products within 30 days.

Just a day before the GPT-5 launch, OpenAI announced near-free ChatGPT access for the U.S. federal workforce, a move seen as bolstering its position for government support—particularly for its multibillion-dollar Stargate project.

But for me, the question is—it is free now, will it be so, forever?