OpenAI is rolling out GPT-⁠6 to everyone in ChatGPT

On October 7, OpenAI began rolling out GPT-6 to everyone in ChatGPT. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users get GPT-6 Sol, while Free and Go users get GPT-6 Luna. The rollout is gradual: it started on paid plans on October 7 and reaches Free and Go from October 8.

Both are new versions tuned for everyday conversation in ChatGPT, which 1.2 billion people use every week.

The real headline is Intelligent UI. GPT-6 now builds its answers from text, visuals and interactive elements: graphics, tappable buttons, forms, charts and interactive experiences that can be used right in the conversation. In OpenAI’s launch video, ChatGPT teaches mahjong step by step with interactive tiles.

Plain text isn’t going away: OpenAI says that when a simple text answer is most useful, ChatGPT provides one.

On request, ChatGPT will also build the tool a user needs on the spot: a calculator to see how savings could grow, a bill splitter for dinner with friends, or a game that can be played in the conversation. In the launch video, “Make a retro gaming console I can play” produces a working paddle game.

OpenAI says it built a new compiler so the interface appears progressively as the model writes it.

GPT-6 can also start answering before it has finished thinking. It takes the user’s waiting time into account, builds the answer in parts from what it has found so far, then adds new findings.

In OpenAI’s internal tests, on questions that need web search, GPT-6 Instant starts answering 44% sooner on average than GPT-5.6 Instant. That’s the time to the first words, not the total time.

There are limits too. Intelligent UI works across the thinking levels but not at the top Pro level, which still uses GPT-6 Astra. The older Mac and Windows desktop apps don’t support it either. Users can tone the visuals down in settings, but can’t switch back to plain text entirely.

Early reactions are mixed, with some users finding the visuals excessive. OpenAI itself admits there’s still work ahead on the model’s design judgment.

The same week, on October 5, OpenAI announced a new visual ad format for ChatGPT. The ads will appear while users wait for an image to generate, clearly labeled and kept separate from the image itself. Testing starts later this month in the US for users on the Free and Go plans.

OpenAI says ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, but the visual ad test covers only a small slice of them for now.

OpenAI says ads don’t influence ChatGPT’s answers and aren’t shown to accounts identified as under 18. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans have no ads. Text ads have run in the US since February and are now live in more than 60 countries. Free users who choose the ad-free option lose access to some tools, such as image generation.