Why ChatGPT Plus users think GPT-5 is a downgrade — and how OpenAI is trying to win them back
Ever since the rollout of OpenAI’s GPT-5 model last week, there has been growing disquiet among the company’s users over its performance compared to previous models. GPT-5’s tendency to answer questions briefly and in an emotionally distant manner has led many users to label it as a cost-saving exercise by the company.
What didn’t help was that, as GPT-5 started rolling out to all users, OpenAI also removed access to older models including GPT-4o, o3, o3 Pro, o4-mini, and more. While ChatGPT Pro and Team subscribers could still access these models via the legacy settings, they were no longer available to Free or Plus tier subscribers.
While OpenAI kept the rate limits for GPT-5 on ChatGPT Plus more or less the same as GPT-4o, many still felt it was a downgrade compared to the earlier situation. Let’s take a look at why — and what OpenAI is doing to address these concerns.
Why do ChatGPT Plus users feel GPT-5 is a downgrade?
With GPT-5, ChatGPT Plus users get access to 80 messages every 3 hours for the standard model and 200 messages per week for the GPT-5 Thinking model.
Prior to the new model launch, however, Plus subscribers had access to multiple models with much higher rate limits:
o3: 100 messages per week
o4-mini high: 700 messages per week
o4-mini: 2,100 messages per week
GPT-4o: 80 messages per 3 hours
Naturally, Plus subscribers felt the new launch resulted in a downgrade, given the significant reduction in the number of messages they could send. Moreover, OpenAI did not increase the context window for Plus users, which remained at 32,000 tokens (around 24,000 words) compared to the 128,000-token (around 96,000 words) context window available on higher tiers.
A longer context window allows an AI system to remember and process much longer texts in a single conversation.
The GPT-5 launch triggered a wave of criticism on social media, particularly on ChatGPT and OpenAI subreddits, where many users threatened to cancel their Plus subscriptions. This led to immediate action from OpenAI.
What is OpenAI doing to placate ChatGPT Plus users?
As an initial step, OpenAI doubled the rate limit for GPT-5 on the Plus plan to 160 messages per 3 hours and enabled access to GPT-4o for these users via the same legacy model settings available to Pro subscribers.
On Monday, Sam Altman also promised to raise the limits for the GPT-5 Thinking model, stating that the company is aiming to provide 1,000 messages per week.
