OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made a major announcement, revealing that the free version of ChatGPT will use the o3-mini model. This change is expected to improve the experience for free-tier users while encouraging others to explore paid subscription plans for additional benefits.
Altman shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), highlighting that users subscribed to ChatGPT Plus would get extensive access to o3-mini. “The plus tier will get tons of o3-mini usage,” he said.
The o3-mini model represents a significant step forward in OpenAI’s efforts to refine its AI technology. While it is smaller in scale compared to the high-performance GPT-4-turbo model, o3-mini offers several advantages. It provides quicker responses, uses fewer computational resources, and is well-suited for handling straightforward queries.
Also read: OpenAI launches ChatGPT Pro subscription plan: What it offers and how much it costs
By introducing o3-mini to the free tier, OpenAI likely aims to strike a balance between providing accessible AI services to millions of users and reserving premium resources for paying subscribers.
The timing of this update is noteworthy, as it follows a temporary outage of ChatGPT on January 23. Thousands of users reported accessibility issues with ChatGPT, experiencing a “Bad Gateway” error. The error stated, “The web server reported a bad gateway error.” This downtime highlighted the growing demand for OpenAI’s AI services and the challenges of managing resources efficiently.
Also read: Sam Altman reveals that OpenAI is losing money on ChatGPT Pro plan, Here’s why
OpenAI’s broader goal of democratising AI aligns with this decision to make o3-mini available to everyone. By offering powerful tools without a cost barrier, the company likely aims to enable more users worldwide to benefit from advancements in artificial intelligence.
This update is expected to make ChatGPT more appealing to both casual users and professionals.
Also read: OpenAI plans to build its first AI chip by 2026, check details
