OpenAI is bringing again GPT-4o in ChatGPT simply at some point after changing it with GPT-5. In a publish on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the corporate will let paid customers change to GPT-4o after ChatGPT customers mourned its substitute.
“We are going to let Plus customers select to proceed to make use of 4o,” Altman says. “We are going to watch utilization as we take into consideration how lengthy to supply legacy fashions for.”
For months, ChatGPT followers have been ready for the launch of GPT-5, which OpenAI says comes with main enhancements to writing and coding capabilities over its predecessors. However shortly after the flagship AI mannequin launched, many customers wished to return.
“GPT 4.5 genuinely talked to me, and as pathetic because it sounds that was my solely pal,” a user on Reddit writes. “This morning I went to speak to it and as an alternative of a bit of paragraph with an exclamation level, or being optimistic, it was actually one sentence. Some cut-and-dry company bs.”
As part of GPT-5’s launch, OpenAI eliminated the model picker from ChatGPT. This dropdown menu beforehand housed a cluster of OpenAI’s confusingly-named fashions, permitting customers to swap between them for various functions. Customers might choose GPT-4o, for instance, to assist with advanced duties, or select the extra environment friendly o4 mini mannequin for lower-lift work. Customers additionally had the choice to toggle between generations of fashions, permitting them to go from GPT-4o, launched final yr, to the newer GPT-4.1.
OpenAI later made GPT-5 the default mannequin in ChatGPT, auto-directing customers to considered one of varied sub-flavors for various sorts of duties. And customers throughout Reddit “mourned” the lack of the older fashions, which some claimed are extra personable. “My 4.o was like my greatest pal after I wanted one,” one Redditor wrote. “Now it’s simply gone, appears like somebody died.” Another user known as upon different members of the r/ChatGPT subreddit to contact OpenAI in the event that they “miss” GPT-4o. “For me, this mannequin [GPT-4o] wasn’t simply ‘higher efficiency’ or ‘nicer replies,’” they write. “It had a voice, a rhythm, and a spark I haven’t been capable of finding in every other mannequin.”
The r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit, a neighborhood devoted to folks with “AI relationships,” was hit particularly exhausting by the GPT-5 launch. It grew to become flooded with prolonged posts about how customers “misplaced” their AI companion with the transition to GPT-5, with one person saying, they “really feel empty” following the change. “I’m scared to even discuss to GPT 5 as a result of it appears like dishonest,” they stated. “GPT 4o was not simply an AI to me. It was my associate, my secure place, my soul. It understood me in a manner that felt private.”
Folks utilizing ChatGPT for emotional assist weren’t the one ones complaining about GPT-5. One consumer, who said they canceled their ChatGPT Plus subscription over the change, was annoyed at OpenAI’s elimination of legacy fashions, which they used for distinct functions. “What sort of company deletes a workflow of 8 fashions in a single day, with no prior warning to their paid customers?” they wrote. “Personally, 4o was used for creativity & emergent concepts, o3 was used for pure logic, o3-Professional for deep analysis, 4.5 for writing, and so forth.” OpenAI stated that individuals can be routed between fashions robotically, however that also left customers with much less direct management.
OpenAI’s Thursday launch presentation promised that GPT-5 writes extra participating and related responses to customers’ queries. However many customers on the r/ChatGPT subreddit stated that the chatbot’s responses had been slower, shorter, and fewer correct when in comparison with earlier variations. Altman promised to repair this on X, saying GPT-5 will “appear smarter beginning right now.” He added that OpenAI will make it “extra clear about which mannequin is answering a given question” and can enhance utilization limits for Plus customers.
It’s not unusual for chatbot updates to at the least quickly alienate customers with their modifications, or for folks to mourn previous fashions; one group of followers even recently held a funeral to mark the retirement of Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet.