GPT-5 was touted as a major upgrade to ChatGPT, but not everyone thinks that’s the case: “Kill 4o isn’t innovation, it’s erasure.”

After releasing GPT-5 and removing the option for GPT-4o, OpenAI restored access to its older model after a deluge of unhappy user comments.

After a GPT-5 rollout that was "a little more bumpy" than expected, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is bringing back GPT-4o — with a catch. During a Reddit AMA (and also on X), Altman said GPT-4o will soon be available again for paid ChatGPT users.

OpenAI’s latest upgrade was supposed to be a leap forward. Instead, it sparked backlash—and raises big questions about whether stitching together multiple models is the path to AI’s future.

The latest model is missing some of what people like the most, and it’s an important lesson in understanding your users.

CEO Sam Altman wrote on X that OpenAI plans to update the model to “feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o.” He added, “One learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality.

But if the social media reception thus far is any indication, it appears more that GPT-5 is breaking brains, rather than expectations. That's because, by most accounts, the GPT-5 hype train has derailed;

OpenAI lost a number of subscribers who were upset at the changes made with GPT-5. While this number is likely to be small, and OpenAI has clearly seen an uplift in users since the launch, appeasing existing subscribers seems to be high on the agenda for the brand.

OpenAI's GPT-5 launch backfired so spectacularly that paying users revolted, forcing the company to restore beloved GPT-4o within days.

OpenAI is doubling GPT-5 rate limits for Plus users and considering offering a limited number of GPT-5 Pro queries each month to give subscribers access to its highest-end capabilities

GPT-5 is a unified version that combines all the previous available models. While different models have different capabilities, GPT-5 was supposed to be an