OpenAI Offers Unlimited Access to Latest Model for Free ChatGPT Users to Secure Market Dominance

OpenAI is providing unlimited access to its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model to free ChatGPT users.

OpenAI announced on the 7th local time that text conversations with "Luna," a lightweight specific model of the latest GPT-5.6, will be provided without limits to free users and low-cost "Go" subscription plan users starting next week.

GPT-5.6 is divided into three specific models: "Sol," "Tera," and "Luna." Among them, Luna has the lowest performance but is the fastest model.

Even so, Luna is a decent model evaluated by AI performance analysis firm Artificial Analysis as having an intelligence index equal to Google's latest lightweight model "Gemini 3.6 Flash" and higher than Anthropic's "Claude Haiku 4.5."

In addition, a "Think" button has been added to allow users to set a longer reasoning time when asking questions, enabling them to use it for high-difficulty inquiries.

However, unlimited conversations are available only for text, while limits remain on file uploads, image generation, and voice conversations.

OpenAI stated that for subscribers of paid plans costing 20 dollars or more per month, such as Plus and Pro, the top-tier "Sol" model has been improved to provide clear answers without fluff and significantly enhance the reliability of facts such as numbers, dates, and sources.

Regarding the unlimited provision of the GPT-5.6 Luna model, OpenAI emphasized, "This is a concrete step toward abundant intelligence, and our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity."

This measure comes at a time when the weekly active users (WAU) of ChatGPT have surpassed 1 billion.

Unlike its rival Anthropic, which has primarily focused on expanding corporate clients, OpenAI has pursued a policy of securing individual customers first and expanding into the enterprise market based on that foundation.

Accordingly, this is interpreted as showing a will to defend its dominance in the individual customer market it has already preempted.

Also, considering that OpenAI was the first among major AI chatbot developers to introduce ads, it is assessed that there is also an intention to increase advertising revenue and establish a stable revenue base.

In addition, it is projected that the unlimited AI chat feature will also be effective in fending off the pursuit of low-cost open-source AI models from China.

In fact, OpenAI jumped into the AI model price-cutting competition by lowering its application programming interface (API) usage fees for developers by 20 to 80 percent late last month.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.