Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, announced on Sunday that the company is set to enhance the rate limits for reasoning models across all user tiers. The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence organization indicated that this adjustment will apply to all model categories but is expected to be a temporary measure. Moving forward, the company hinted at potential changes, suggesting that free-tier users may experience a reduction in certain features as it evaluates capacity management.
ChatGPT Users Get Increased Reasoning Usage
In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), Altman made it clear that all ChatGPT users will benefit from elevated rate limits concerning reasoning models. He further noted, “All model-class limits will shortly be higher than they were before GPT-5.”
The announcement comes on the heels of OpenAI’s decision to reintroduce the GPT-4o model, which was previously retired following the launch of GPT-5. The restoration was prompted by user feedback, with many expressing dissatisfaction over the brevity and tone of the conversational responses generated by newer large language models.
Currently, free-tier users have access only to the GPT-5 Thinking model integrated within the standard AI framework, while paying subscribers can choose from a dedicated Thinking model. The GPT-4o model, now available again, also possesses reasoning capabilities.
Increasing the rate limits for these models is expected to incur additional costs for OpenAI, which is already facing financial challenges due to high operational expenses. Altman emphasized that managing the increased demand will require careful planning, stating the company will reveal its strategy in the upcoming days.
To explain the reasoning behind the adjustments, Altman pointed to a significant uptick in daily user engagement with reasoning models. He shared statistics indicating that free-tier user engagement rose from one percent to seven percent, while Plus subscribers saw an increase from seven percent to 24 percent.
“I expect use of reasoning to increase over time greatly, so rate limit increases are important,” Altman commented.
