ChatGPT’s Studio Ghibli art now free for all: OpenAI unlocks free access; demand goes through the roof

OpenAI has unlocked its AI image generation feature for all users, making the feature free for all, the company's CEO Sam Altman said today in a tweet. Altman confirmed the full rollout following an overwhelming response to the tool, which had previously been available only to select users.

The feature, which allows ChatGPT users to generate images from text prompts, initially gained traction through viral trends, particularly for its Studio Ghibli-inspired artwork. Until now, only paid ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers had unrestricted access, while free-tier users were limited to generating just three images per day. However, the soaring demand led OpenAI to broaden availability, making the tool accessible to everyone.

Announcing the expansion on X, Altman stated simply, “ChatGPT image gen now rolled out to all free users.”

His move aligns with OpenAI’s broader vision of fostering open AI accessibility. Earlier, he had hinted at this approach, rejecting arbitrary usage restrictions, saying, “We will not do anything silly like saying that you can't use our open model if your service has more than 700 million monthly active users. We want everyone to use it.”

The rollout, which began on March 26, was completed by April 1, enabling all ChatGPT users—regardless of subscription status—to leverage the tool, powered by OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4o model.

The impact was immediate. Altman revealed that allowing free users to generate images sparked an unprecedented surge in new accounts. Recalling the explosive launch of ChatGPT, he remarked, “The ChatGPT launch 26 months ago was one of the craziest viral moments I’d ever seen—we hit one million users in five days. We just added one million users in the last hour.”

But the surge came at a cost.

OpenAI’s infrastructure has been overwhelmed, forcing the company to implement temporary rate limits as GPUs struggled to keep up. At one point, Altman humorously pleaded with users, “Can y’all please chill on generating images? This is insane, our team needs sleep.”

Despite the challenges, the rollout represents a major step in OpenAI’s push to democratise AI-powered creativity. The tool allows users to enter a text prompt, generate an image, make modifications, and refine results iteratively—bringing high-quality image generation to a broader audience than ever before.