OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to make waves as the most recognizable form of generative AI tool. But we’re all still using ChatGPT-4o, the latest model.
When does ChatGPT-5 show up? Will it cost money to use? What features might it debut?
The short answer is that we don’t know all the specifics just yet, but we’re expecting it to show up later this year or early next year. For even more detail and context that can help you understand everything there is to know about ChatGPT-5, keep reading.
OpenAI’s New ChatGPT Model Is Coming ‘Soon’
We know ChatGPT-5 is in development, according to statements from OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman. The new model will release late in 2024 or early in 2025 — but we don’t currently have a more definitive release date.
Altman said in September 2023, during a speech at the venture capital firm Y Combinator, that GPT-5 and GPT-6 were “in the bag.” Since then, he’s seemingly walked this confirmation back a little, saying that OpenAI is still developing GPT-5, in a January 2024 podcast conversation with Bill Gates.
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A Business Insider article from March 2024 quoted sources that claimed GPT-5 would be releasing in mid-2024. Here’s how BI explained the process of preparing GPT-5 for release:
“OpenAI is still training GPT-5, one of the people familiar said. After training is complete, it will be safety tested internally and further ‘red teamed,’ a process where employees and typically a selection of outsiders challenge the tool in various ways to find issues before it’s made available to the public. There is no specific timeframe when safety testing needs to be completed, one of the people familiar noted, so that process could delay any release date.”
By now, it’s August, so we’ve passed the initial deadline by which insiders thought GPT-5 would be released.
Does this mean GPT-5 is nearly ready? Or that this trend will continue and the release will be pushed back even further? It’s tough to say.
How Much Will ChatGPT-5 Cost to Use?
According to the Business Insider report, some businesses that have the pricey ChatGPT Enterprise paid plan already have an early access to beta versions of GPT-5. So, it’s safe to say that ChatGPT Enterprise users will have the tech. Enterprise prices aren’t public, but some reports put the cost at around $60 per user per month with a 150-seat minimum.
However, the actual cost may well be much lower: ChatGPT-5 could easily be free. That’s the case for the current most powerful iteration of the LLM, ChatGPT-4o, which is fully available on the ChatGPT Plus plan, but is also available for free for a limited number of uses within a five-hour window.
If ChatGPT-5 takes the same route, the average user might expect to pay for the ChatGPT Plus plan to get full access for $20 per month, or stick with a free version that limits its own use.
What Features Will ChatGPT-5 Offer?
ChatGPT-5’s features are another topic that OpenAI has been ClosedAI about.
General expectations are that the new GPT will be significantly “smarter” than previous models of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer.
The new model may be smarter either because of better contextual responses or increased training data. It might be multimodal, meaning it could handle generating other media in addition to text — GPT-4 is partially multimodal, as it can process images and audio.
Many are hoping that ChatGPT-5 will be more customizable, too, which could help it deliver on goals of streamlining big corporations’ output by integrating with their existing tech stacks.
Can OpenAI Be Trusted to Remain Honest About the ChatGPT-5 Rollout?
One slightly under-reported element related to the upcoming release of ChatGPT-5 is the fact that copmany CEO Sam Altman has a history of allegations that he lies about a lot of things.
Altman was actually fired as OpenAI’s CEO specifically based on allegations that he was withholding company information from the board, although he regained control soon afterwards.
Since then, Altman has weathered further allegations that his company hasn’t been completely forthright in its business dealings; most notably, actress Scarlett Johansson criticized the company in May 2024 for copying her voice without her consent, saying she was “shocked, angered, and in disbelief.” In response, Altman stated that the company “cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.” Some suspect this might not be the truth.
In the world of AI, other pundits argue, keeping audiences hyped for the next iteration of an LLM is key to continuing to reel in the funding needed to keep the entire enterprise afloat. If this is the case for the upcoming release of ChatGPT-5, OpenAI has plenty of incentive to claim that the release will roll out on schedule, regardless of how crunched their workforce may be behind the scenes.
There’s “A Lot of Work to Do” Before ChatGPT-5 Is Ready
At the end of the day, we don’t know a lot about OpenAI’s next GPT release: No date is planned, and no information on functions or pricing is available, either. ChatGPT-5 might arrive late in 2024 or some time in 2025.
“We are optimistic, but we still have a lot of work to do on it,” Altman said while at the Aspen Ideas Festival in July 2024.
Until then, however, there are plenty of ways to use the free ChatGPT-4o model, provided you have the right prompts or extra GPT-integrated apps. Just keep an eye out for AI hallucinations — which are yet another AI concern that OpenAI hopes to fix with GPT-5.
