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OpenAI Expands Free ChatGPT Access In GPT-5.6 Rollout

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BleepingComputer reported that OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.6 Sol for paid ChatGPT users and GPT-5.6 Luna for Free and Go users, pairing unlimited free text chats with a new reasoning control and additional safeguards for users believed to be under 18.

Verified against source materialEdited by SendTech Times AI & Enterprise DeskSource: BleepingComputer
OpenAI Expands Free ChatGPT Access In GPT-5.6 Rollout
Image source: BleepingComputer

OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.6 Sol to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users and making GPT-5.6 Luna the default model for Free and Go users, BleepingComputer reported, in an upgrade aimed at making ChatGPT more direct, more consistent and less prone to factual errors.

The most visible change is a reasoning control that lets users choose how much time the model should spend on a response.

In tests, the publication observed a new slider that moves GPT reasoning from Instant to High.

Instant is designed to respond almost immediately, while High can take several minutes when a question needs deeper work.

That setting gives users a practical split between everyday prompts and tasks such as research, coding, writing, planning and complex decisions.

Simple questions should receive brief answers without added background, while broader questions should get more context without burying the main recommendation.

OpenAI said GPT-5.6 Sol was tuned for regular ChatGPT conversations rather than the longer-running agentic workflows used in Codex and ChatGPT Work.

The company said the model gives more focused answers, adjusts detail to the question, avoids unnecessary formatting and offers a correction when simply agreeing with the user would not be useful.

Reliability is a central part of the release.

OpenAI said GPT-5.6 Sol is less likely to make factual mistakes involving dates, numbers, sources, legal rules, medical information, financial questions or user assumptions.

In its internal tests, responses containing at least one factual error were 68% less common with GPT-5.6 Sol than with GPT-5.5 Instant.

Free and Go users are being moved to GPT-5.6 Luna this week, with some accounts already showing the change.

The source spotted it in an OpenAI account on a Go subscription costing about $10.

Starting next week, OpenAI plans to remove the rate limit for text chats on those plans, though usage will still be covered by abuse protections.

The free-tier expansion does not remove every limit.

File uploads, image generation and other ChatGPT tools will continue to have usage restrictions.

Free users will also get a new Think button that gives GPT-5.6 Luna more time to reason through harder questions.

GPT-5.6 Sol will remain available only through ChatGPT's regular Chat experience.

Alongside the model changes, OpenAI is adding stricter protections for users it believes are under 18, including tighter boundaries around romantic roleplay, sexual content, dangerous activities, eating disorders, body-image risks, age-restricted goods and graphic violence.

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