After Months of Speculation, OpenAI Finally Launches GPT-5

OpenAI launched GPT‑5 today, its most powerful model to date, making it available for free to all users.

After weeks of speculation, OpenAI unveiled the next generation of its flagship AI model, GPT‑5. The new model, which creates a simpler interface to the world’s most popular AI platform, arrives amid mounting pressure from rivals like Meta, Anthropic, and Google.

"GPT is a significant upgrade over GPT-4 and a significant step along the path to AGI," CEO Sam Altman said, noting that among other things, GPT-5 can "write a software program from scratch.  We think this idea of software on demand will be a defining characteristic of the GPT-5 era."

The new model will be available to all GPT users, including the free tier, starting today. Free users will be capped on use and then be rolled over to a "mimi" model.

ChatGPT currently boasts 700 million weekly active users, compared to Google Gemini’s 47 million weekly users. Despite its large user base, GPT-5 will be competing with Meta AI, whose own weekly user base stands at 700 million, thanks to its integration with Instagram and WhatsApp.

To date, OpenAI has raised $57 billion across 11 funding rounds, according to data from Tracxn, and is valued at $300 billion. According to a Reuters report, that valuation number is expected to rise to $500 billion if a proposed stock sale option goes through. The company doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year and is expected to reach $20 billion by December 31, Reuters reported.

Altman first publicly confirmed that OpenAI started working on GPT‑5 in 2023, with the actual training phase beginning one year later. On February 13, 2025, Altman outlined the company’s roadmap and said GPT‑5 was expected to launch “within months,” with the aim of unifying OpenAI’s O‑Series and GPT models.

Altman has recently spent a great deal of time opining about artificial general intelligence, fueling speculation that OpenAI could use today’s event to announce a breakthrough. Earlier this month, however, he cautioned that there could be additional delays in the rollout of GPT, asking users to "please bear with us."

In the run-up to the launch earlier this week, OpenAI released two open-weight models on Tuesday—gpt‑oss‑120b and gpt‑oss‑20b—under an open license, aimed at developers seeking to run models locally.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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