ChatGPT brings unlimited text chats to free users

OpenAI is removing limits on text-based chats for all ChatGPT users, the company announced today, shortly after the chatbot crossed the 1 billion weekly user mark. The new GPT-5.6 Luna model will power the unlimited text experience and become the default model for Free and Go users, replacing GPT-5.5.

Free and Go users will also get a new “Think” button that lets them select higher reasoning power for complex questions. OpenAI noted that separate limits will remain for files, images, voice, and image generation, so the change is specifically about text conversations.

The update also touches paid tiers. Plus and Pro users gain access to an upgraded GPT-5.6 Sol model that OpenAI says is better for quick tasks such as questions, web research, advice, planning, writing, and making decisions, delivering more compact and robust answers.

Plus and Pro subscribers are also getting a thinking slider to adjust “how much” thought the model puts into an answer, letting them tune reasoning depth based on the complexity and steps involved in solving a query.

OpenAI said an internal evaluation found that, compared with GPT-5.5-Instant, factual errors were 62% less common for GPT-5.6 Luna and 68% less common for GPT-5.6 Sol — an unusually concrete accuracy claim for the company to publish.

The updated GPT-5.6 Sol is available to Plus and Pro users today, while the changes for Free and Go users are arriving this week. Next week, users will gain access to unlimited text chats and the Think button for harder questions.

Muse Code aside, this is a direct bid to keep ChatGPT's massive free audience inside the product at a moment when rival assistants and open-weights models are competing hard for consumer attention, and unlimited text at no cost removes one of the most common friction points for heavy daily users.

What to watch: how the new models perform in independent benchmarks, whether the reasoning controls meaningfully change answer quality, and how quickly OpenAI extends the unlimited-text promise to other modalities while limits on files, images, and voice remain.