OpenAI’s general-purpose AI assistant for text, images, web browsing, sandboxed code execution, voice, Codex coding work, and agent mode. It is increasingly a workspace agent platform, not just a solo chatbot: the April 26 workspace-agent update pushes ChatGPT toward shared team agents where memory, permissions, and audit boundaries matter. GPT-5.5 also makes ChatGPT the strongest default choice for most users again, especially when Codex, research, data work, image generation, and general assistant breadth all matter in one subscription. Its travel and local-search mistakes still show why factual outputs need source checks before users act on them.
Key facts
| Default model | GPT-5.5 Instant on all tiers; Plus adds GPT-5.5 Thinking; Pro, Business, and Enterprise add GPT-5.5 Pro access |
| Editorial position | Best default AI assistant overall after GPT-5.5; Claude remains a specialist for long-form writing style, Claude Code, and stricter safety posture |
| Best paid tier | Plus at $20/mo for most individuals |
| Coding agent | Codex is included on Plus and scales on Pro tiers; Codex Security anchors the May 11 Daybreak initiative |
| Image generation | GPT Image 2 |
| Video generation | None; Sora shut down in March-April 2026 |
| Agent mode | Operator / Agent Mode on Plus and above; workspace agents add team-level permission and audit questions |
| Realtime voice | Realtime 2 voice models shipped May 7 with lower latency and richer emotion control |
| Cyber tier | GPT-5.5-Cyber in limited Trusted Access preview, including EU defenders as of May 11 |
| Enterprise services | OpenAI Deployment Company (May 11, $4B, ~150 engineers ex-Tomoro) for forward-deployed integration |
| Context window | ChatGPT pricing lists 256K reasoning context on Go, Plus, Business, and Enterprise; Pro reaches 400K |
| File Library | Free 500 MB · Go 4 GB · Plus/Business 20 GB · Pro 100 GB; expanded to Free and Go on May 15, 2026 |
| Score | Utility 10 · Value 8 · Moat 10 · Longevity 10 |
Every data point above was last verified against OpenAI pages, local news entries, or named sources on May 24, 2026.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Models | Codex | Ads | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited GPT-5.5 Instant + GPT-5 Thinking Mini | Limited | Not listed | Casual use |
| Go | Regional pricing | More GPT-5.5 Instant + GPT-5 Thinking Mini | Limited | May include ads | Budget users who need more than Free |
| Plus | $20/mo | GPT-5.5 Thinking, expanded GPT-5.5 Instant, legacy models | Expanded | No | Most individuals |
| Pro $100 | $100/mo | GPT-5.5 Pro + unlimited GPT-5.5 Instant | 5x Plus, 10x promo through May 31 | No | Developers using Codex weekly |
| Pro $200 | $200/mo | GPT-5.5 Pro + unlimited GPT-5.5 Instant | 20x Plus | No | Heavy agentic coding workloads |
| Business | $25/user/mo monthly; $20/user/mo annually | Flexible GPT-5.5 Thinking and GPT-5.5 Pro access | Included, with workspace controls | No | Small teams |
| Enterprise | Custom | Flexible GPT-5.5 Thinking and GPT-5.5 Pro access | High | No | SSO, audit, SOC 2, data controls |
Prices and model access were rechecked on May 24, 2026 using ChatGPT pricing, OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 in ChatGPT help article, OpenAI’s Pro tiers help article, ChatGPT release notes, and OpenAI’s File storage and Library article. The public pricing snapshot available here does not expose a fixed US dollar amount for Go, so the table lists it as regional pricing instead of repeating an unverified $8/mo figure.
Recent changes
- May 21, 2026: OpenAI’s ChatGPT release notes added Codex Appshots, Goal mode, browser improvements, and locked computer use. For ChatGPT buyers, the signal is that Codex is becoming a more persistent desktop, browser, and remote-work surface inside the broader ChatGPT account.
- May 21, 2026: OpenAI’s AdventHealth rollout showed ChatGPT moving deeper into regulated healthcare workflows. The buyer signal is that ChatGPT’s enterprise value depends on adoption design, governance, and workflow measurement, not only model quality.
- May 20, 2026: OpenAI IPO reporting, Anthropic profit forecasts, and SpaceX compute costs made frontier AI economics more visible. ChatGPT buyers should track limit stability, capacity, and public-market disclosures as part of vendor risk.
- May 20, 2026: OpenAI expanded its country-level AI deployment model with Singapore and Education for Countries. The update reinforces ChatGPT, Codex, and API access as institutional infrastructure for governments and education systems, not just individual subscriptions.
- May 19, 2026: OpenAI added C2PA conformance, SynthID watermarking, and a public verification-tool preview for images generated through ChatGPT, Codex, and the API. This improves provenance for ChatGPT image workflows, but it is not foolproof; teams still need asset logs and review workflows for high-risk commercial media.
- May 18, 2026: Musk lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft. The verdict reduces one major governance overhang for ChatGPT buyers, while appeals, restructuring risk, model availability, and vendor-concentration planning remain procurement questions.
- May 16, 2026: OpenAI put Greg Brockman over product strategy as ChatGPT and Codex converge. The reorg folds ChatGPT, Codex, and the developer API into one core product team, making Codex part of the main ChatGPT agent-platform roadmap rather than a separate developer sidecar.
- May 15, 2026: ChatGPT added a U.S. Pro personal-finance experience and expanded File Library to Free and Go users. Finances connects supported accounts through Plaid and is for planning, not payments, trading, taxes, or regulated advice. Library now spans Free, Go, Plus, Business, and Pro with storage limits from 500 MB to 100 GB.
- May 14, 2026: OpenAI put Codex inside the ChatGPT mobile app, turning ChatGPT mobile into a control surface for active coding-agent work. Users can monitor Codex threads, review outputs, approve commands, change models, and start new work from iOS or Android while Codex keeps running on a connected laptop, devbox, or remote environment.
- May 14, 2026: GPT-5.5-Cyber, Anthropic’s Mythos, and Microsoft’s MDASH drove a vulnpocalypse of AI-found vulnerabilities. Palo Alto Networks found 75 holes / 26 CVEs in its products in one month. Microsoft Patch Tuesday hit 30 critical CVEs. Mozilla shipped 423 Firefox bugs in April. For ChatGPT enterprise buyers: AI bug-finding is now production-scale on both defender and attacker sides; tighten patch cadence accordingly.
- May 13, 2026: Anthropic passed OpenAI in US business AI adoption for the first time per Ramp’s May 2026 AI Index, with 34.4% of US businesses paying for Anthropic vs. 32.3% for OpenAI. The flip is concentrated in finance, tech, and professional services where Claude has led for months. ChatGPT remains the broader consumer leader; the data point is specifically about US business adoption tracked through corporate-card spend.
- May 11, 2026: OpenAI launched Daybreak, a 22-partner cybersecurity initiative that wraps Codex Security with three GPT-5.5 access tiers (general, Trusted Access, and GPT-5.5-Cyber preview) for vulnerability detection and patch validation. Launch partners include Cloudflare, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Akamai, Fortinet, and Snyk. Daybreak is OpenAI’s productized answer to Anthropic’s Project Glasswing.
- May 11, 2026: Google said it caught the first AI-generated zero-day exploit before mass deployment. Google did not name the model used by the attacker, but the incident raises the procurement bar for ChatGPT/GPT-5.5-Cyber customers: ask for offensive-cyber uplift testing, access controls, and disclosure procedures.
- May 11, 2026: OpenAI launched a $4B Deployment Company, a majority-owned enterprise unit valued at roughly $14B that absorbed Tomoro’s ~150 deployment engineers. It puts forward-deployed engineers inside enterprise buyers, putting OpenAI directly against Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey on AI integration work.
- May 11, 2026: GPT-5.5-Cyber expanded to EU defenders in limited Trusted Access preview, reaching the EU AI Office, member-state cyber authorities, and vetted private-sector defenders. Anthropic has not granted equivalent EU preview access for Mythos.
- May 7, 2026: Codex Chrome extension shipped for in-browser repo and PR work.
- May 7, 2026: OpenAI Realtime 2 voice models launched, lowering latency and improving emotional control across speech-to-speech agents.
- May 7, 2026: ChatGPT added trusted contact support for serious safety moments on eligible adult personal accounts in supported regions. This is not a Business, Enterprise, or Edu workspace feature.
- May 7, 2026: ChatGPT Workspace Agents reached eligible Enterprise workspaces with Enterprise Key Management, making governed agents more relevant for compliance-heavy buyers.
- May 7, 2026: OpenAI put GPT-5.5-Cyber into limited preview through Trusted Access for Cyber. This is gated security access, not a normal ChatGPT tier.
- May 6, 2026: OpenAI published a ChatGPT privacy and training-data controls explainer, clarifying consumer data controls, Temporary Chat, memory review, Privacy Filter, export, deletion, and privacy requests.
- May 5, 2026: OpenAI opened ChatGPT ads to beta self-serve buying and CPC bidding. Ads are now a clearer part of the ChatGPT business model, even if formats and global availability remain early.
- May 5, 2026: GPT-5.5 Instant replaced GPT-5.3 Instant as the default ChatGPT model. Update any guidance that still names GPT-5.3 Instant as the default assistant.
- May 1, 2026: The Pentagon expanded classified-network AI access to eight major vendors, including OpenAI. This does not change consumer ChatGPT tiers, but it makes regulated deployment, auditability, and government-access boundaries more important parts of the ChatGPT Enterprise story.
- April 30, 2026: ChatGPT Images 2.0 found its strongest early demand in India, with OpenAI telling TechCrunch that India is the largest user base while third-party data showed a more uneven global engagement lift. Treat image generation as a core ChatGPT feature, but test local-language workflows before assuming the same adoption pattern everywhere.
- April 30, 2026: OpenAI added Advanced Account Security for ChatGPT and Codex, with passkey and hardware-key protection for high-risk accounts. Stronger phishing resistance comes with stricter recovery, so users should set up backup keys before enrolling.
- April 30, 2026: OpenAI began rolling GPT-5.5 Cyber to critical defenders through Trusted Access. This is a gated security-program rollout, not a normal ChatGPT tier feature.
- April 30, 2026: Musk testimony said xAI partly used OpenAI models to train Grok. The public record does not quantify the scope, but it keeps model-output provenance central to OpenAI’s competitive and legal posture.
- April 30, 2026: OpenAI and Microsoft gut exclusivity in the most consequential partnership restructuring in AI. OpenAI can now serve products across cloud providers, while Azure remains the primary cloud and first-ship path. That gives ChatGPT Enterprise buyers more negotiating room, but concrete non-Azure availability still depends on product rollouts.
- April 30, 2026: OpenAI’s DevDay 2026 is set for September 29. Last year’s event launched ChatGPT Apps; this year will set product direction for the next development cycle.
- April 28, 2026: OpenAI brings GPT-5.5, Codex, and managed agents to Amazon Bedrock. ChatGPT remains the consumer surface, but OpenAI’s enterprise model distribution now reaches AWS through limited previews.
- April 27, 2026: OpenAI and Microsoft made their model partnership non-exclusive. ChatGPT still ships through the Microsoft relationship, but OpenAI can now serve products across any cloud provider.
- April 27, 2026: Musk v. OpenAI trial opens with fraud claims dismissed. No immediate product change, but governance risk remains relevant for enterprise buyers building on ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.
- April 27, 2026: OpenAI is reportedly exploring a 2028 AI agent phone. Treat it as a supply-chain report, not a confirmed product, but it points to ChatGPT becoming a deeper device-level agent layer.
- April 27, 2026: OpenAI publishes new principles for the next AGI phase. The principles matter because future ChatGPT access rules, safety behavior, and enterprise controls will be judged against them.
- April 26, 2026: OpenAI introduces workspace agents in ChatGPT, shifting the product further toward shared team-level agents with permission, memory, and audit-boundary questions.
- April 26, 2026: OpenAI apologizes for Tumbler Ridge travel hallucinations, a reminder that itinerary and local-search outputs still need source checks before users act on them.
- April 25, 2026: AI News Desk, April 25 tracked GPT-5.5 API access, Copilot distribution, Anthropic Project Deal, and the Google-Anthropic financing report around the broader ChatGPT competitive map.
- April 24, 2026: AI Industry Roundup, April 24 covered DeepSeek V4, GPT-5.5 in Copilot, Anthropic funding pressure, and Cohere-Aleph Alpha; GitHub Copilot added GPT-5.5 for Pro+, Business, and Enterprise users.
- April 24, 2026: A retrieval-poisoning demo showed how a fake niche claim could be repeated by AI search systems. ChatGPT browsing and agent workflows should treat single-source retrieved claims as untrusted until corroborated.
- April 23, 2026: GPT-5.5 rolls out to ChatGPT and Codex. Paid ChatGPT users get the new long-running work model; GPT-5.5 Pro is rolling to Pro, Business, and Enterprise.
- April 23, 2026: AI Industry Roundup, April 23 put GPT-5.5 next to Cloud Next, Grok Voice, Grok outages, and the EU AI fund for cross-market context.
- April 23, 2026: GPT-5.5 system card and bio bug bounty published. OpenAI marked biological/chemical and cybersecurity capability as High under its Preparedness Framework.
- April 22, 2026: OpenAI added WebSockets to the Responses API, improving the lower-latency path for agent loops around ChatGPT and Codex-style workflows.
- April 22, 2026: OpenAI releases Privacy Filter, an open-weight PII-redaction model for stripping sensitive data before model calls.
- April 22, 2026: ChatGPT for Clinicians launches in the US, alongside HealthBench Professional for clinician-grade evals.
- April 21, 2026: ChatGPT Images 2.0 and gpt-image-2 launch. Image generation moved closer to a first-class ChatGPT feature.
- April 21, 2026: AI Industry Roundup, April 21 covered OpenAI Agent SDK improvements and Google ecosystem moves; recursive-superintelligence safety analysis tracked governance questions around self-improving AI systems.
- April 20, 2026: OpenAI’s Hiro and TBPN acquisition strategy signaled a stronger push toward consumer revenue and public-image repair.
- April 19, 2026: US courts split on AI chatbot privilege. Treat consumer chats as discoverable unless your workspace, API, or enterprise settings say otherwise.
- April 16, 2026: Codex Desktop ships as OpenAI “super app”. Computer use, memory, gpt-image-2, in-app browser, plugins, and multi-agent workflows widened the Codex surface.
- April 16, 2026: Systemic MCP vulnerability coverage, Agents SDK sandbox updates, and GPT-Rosalind widened the OpenAI platform-risk and specialist-model picture.
- April 14, 2026: OpenAI acquired Hiro Finance as a fintech acqui-hire.
- April 9, 2026: $100/mo Pro tier launched. The real question is whether Codex usage justifies the jump above Plus.
- April 1, 2026: Sora 2 model retired. ChatGPT has no native video generation path in this review.
- March 31, 2026: OpenAI closed a $122B round at an $852B valuation, one of the largest private financings in the category.
Fit & tradeoffs
| Use ChatGPT for | Watch out for |
|---|---|
| One subscription for text, images, browsing, code execution, voice, and agent workflows | Free and Go have tighter limits; Go may include ads; Plus users can still hit advanced-feature caps |
| Codex inside the OpenAI / ChatGPT ecosystem | Pro pricing only makes sense if agentic coding is real weekly work |
| The largest mainstream assistant ecosystem and custom-GPT surface | Context windows vary by plan and model family, so compare the specific tier before heavy document work |
| A default assistant for users who do not know which specialist they need yet | Niche research, travel planning, and local recommendations still need source verification; citations reduce but do not remove hallucination risk |
| Fast everyday writing, planning, analysis, and image generation | Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Midjourney, and video tools each win on narrower jobs |
The score is highest overall because GPT-5.5, Codex, image generation, workspace agents, custom GPTs, and product velocity compound into the strongest default assistant. Value is lower than utility because lower-tier caps, possible ads on Go, factuality risk, and Pro pricing make the lower and upper tiers less clean than Plus. Claude can still win narrower long-form writing, Claude Code, and conservative enterprise-safety comparisons, but ChatGPT is no longer accurately described as second-best overall.
Alternatives
| Need | Better first comparison |
|---|---|
| Long-form reasoning and writing | ChatGPT vs Claude |
| Google Workspace workflows | ChatGPT vs Gemini |
| Citation-first research | ChatGPT vs Perplexity |
| Coding workflow choice | ChatGPT vs Cursor |
| Video generation | Veo, Runway, Kling, Luma, or Pika |
FAQ
Is ChatGPT free? Yes. The free tier provides limited GPT-5.5 Instant access at no cost. Plus at $20/mo adds GPT-5.5 Thinking and is the best landing spot for most individuals.
Is DALL-E still available in ChatGPT? No. DALL-E 3 was retired in March 2025 and replaced by GPT Image 2.
Is Sora available in ChatGPT? No. OpenAI’s Sora line was discontinued between March 24 and April 1, 2026. ChatGPT has no video generation capability in this review.
Which plan do I need for Codex? Plus is enough for day-to-day Codex use. Pro $100 gets 5x Plus usage, with a 10x promo through May 31, 2026. Pro $200 gets 20x Plus for heavy agentic coding workloads.
How does ChatGPT compare to Claude Opus 4.7? ChatGPT wins on breadth, image generation, and agent integrations. Claude remains the stronger pick for long-form reasoning, nuanced writing, and transparent long-context work.
Sources
- ChatGPT Official Site and Pricing: Current model access by tier and feature overview (verified 2026-05-24)
- OpenAI: GPT-5.5 in ChatGPT: default model, tier access, usage limits, context windows, and tool support (verified 2026-05-24)
- OpenAI: ChatGPT release notes: Codex updates, Finances, and File Library expansion (verified 2026-05-24)
- OpenAI: About ChatGPT Pro tiers: Pro $100, Pro $200, Codex limits, and promo details (verified 2026-05-24)
- OpenAI: Models: API model IDs, context window, and pricing for gpt-5.5 (verified 2026-05-24)
- OpenAI: File storage and Library in ChatGPT: Library availability, saved-file behavior, and storage limits (verified 2026-05-24)
This review follows the aipedia.wiki four-axis scoring model: Utility, Value, Moat, and Longevity. Last verified 2026-05-24.
