OpenAI lifts ChatGPT text limits for free users

OpenAI is making GPT-5.6 Luna the default model for ChatGPT's Free and Go tiers and removing limits on text-based chats for those users. The unlimited access covers text conversations only; file uploads, image generation and other tools keep their separate caps. Unlimited chats and a new Think button, which gives Luna more time to work through harder questions, roll out during the week of August 10.

Paid tiers get their own update: Plus and Pro subscribers receive a refreshed GPT-5.6 Sol, retuned for everyday conversation, alongside a slider that sets how much reasoning effort the model applies to a given answer, from quick replies to extended work on planning, research, writing and coding. OpenAI says ChatGPT now serves roughly 1 billion people every week.

Extending unlimited access to the free tier raises the compute OpenAI absorbs per non-paying user, a cost the company is evidently willing to carry to keep casual users inside ChatGPT rather than switching to a rival's free plan.