ChatGPT curious, but don't want to pay for a subscription?
OpenAI offers a free tier for ChatGPT with plenty of features for the casual user or someone trying to decide whether to invest in a paid plan. That includes access to OpenAI's newest model GPT-5 — but there's a catch.
Users on the free ChatGPT plan get access to GPT-5, but with a capped usage rate. After that, you get bumped down to a less capable model. Here's what you get with the free version of ChatGPT.
GPT-5 with usage limits
Users with the ChatGPT free tier get GPT-5 for up to 10 messages within a five-hour window. Once you hit the limit, you have to wait another five hours for the window to reset. In the meantime, users are automatically switched to ChatGPT's fallback model GPT-5 mini, which is a faster, but more limited model.
Exactly how many messages you can send until you hit your limit depends on factors like the length and complexity of the responses, as well as overall server capacity at the time you're using ChatGPT. OpenAI prioritizes responses for paying subscribers, so free ChatGPT users might hit their limit faster or get slower responses during peak hours.
Whether you're using GPT-5 or a lesser model, free ChatGPT users can:
Get writing and editing help
Summarize/analyze text pasted into the chat or uploaded files
Customize their ChatGPT personality
Toggle on the Memory setting to remember past conversations
Discover and create custom GPTs (versions of ChatGPT tailored for various tasks)
ChatGPT Search
With Search turned on, ChatGPT is connected to the web and uses it as a major resource for answering your questions. Previously, ChatGPT could only provide responses up to its knowledge cutoff date, which is currently June 2024. But as of last year, OpenAI gave ChatGPT search engine access, making it much more accurate and useful for real-time information.
One GPT-5 thinking message per day
GPT-5 also has reasoning capabilities, which means for the first time, ChatGPT free-tier users get access to the kind of reasoning model that can answer more complex queries.
For instance, you could weigh the pros and cons of different SUVs based on your budget, or gather market research for a business you want to start. The free version of ChatGPT with GPT-5 offers one message per day with its advanced reasoning or "thinking" power.
Generate and upload images
Previously, Mashable named ChatGPT the best overall AI image generator — and that was before GPT-5 hit the scene. (Unlike Grok Imagine and some other models, it usually spells correctly, for instance.)
Free ChatGPT users can also generate images, but usage is limited. OpenAI doesn't specify what the rate limit is for generating images with GPT-5, but the previous limit with GPT-4o was three images a day, so expect something similar.
The free version of ChatGPT also supports multimodal inputs, which means you can upload text and image files, and the AI chatbot can understand and analyze them for you.
ChatGPT Voice
Previously called Advanced Voice Mode, ChatGPT Voice is OpenAI's voice assistant that can offer real-time translation, tutoring, or any other kind of conversation by speaking instead of typing. Previously, ChatGPT Voice was a premium feature, but last February, OpenAI made it available on a limited basis to users with free ChatGPT accounts.
According to OpenAI's Voice Mode FAQ page, ChatGPT Voice is powered by GPT-4o mini for free tier users, and the limit was recently expanded from minutes to hours each day.
To activate ChatGPT voice mode, look for the soundwave icon.
Customizable accent colors
This is a small one, but hey, who doesn't love personalizing their stuff? If you go into the ChatGPT settings page, you can change the accent colors of your chat interface. The different colors show up in your text bubbles, the voice mode icon, and highlighted text.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
