GoKawiilAs of August 2026, OpenAI limits free accounts to using just one of its models: GPT-5.6 Luna. Luna is the smallest of the company's recently released GPT-5.6 family of large language models. Access to the company's other models, including GPT-5.6 Terra and Sol, requires a subscription or paying for API pricing.
Free accounts are also limited to just a single reasoning mode. Tapping the Think button will prompt ChatGPT to take additional time to generate a response; there's no slider like you'll find if you pay for a subscription.
At the free tier, users get access to a handful of other features to round out the ChatGPT experience, including web search and image generation. OpenAI handles file uploads differently than other AI labs. Any documents and images you upload are added to your Library, allowing you to reuse those files at a later date. For free accounts, the Library has a 500MB limit.
ChatGPT's recently updated voice mode is available to free accounts, but it defaults to the smaller Live-1 mini model. Lastly, free accounts can use OpenAI's Codex and Work tools, but usage is limited and in the case of the latter, the only way to access it is through the ChatGPT desktop app.