Over half a year ago, we had our hopes up to hear about OpenAI’s next big leap in AI technology, GPT-5. However, the company introduced us to GPT-4o. Now, in the year 2025, we’re finally hearing about GPT-5, as Sam Altman told us about OpenAI’s roadmap.
However, before getting into that, Mr. Altman announced something pretty significant, and it points to an issue surrounding OpenAI, the nomenclature. OpenAI released GPT-3, GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, and other models with a seemingly random naming strategy. It got pretty wild, but Altman expressed that the company will streamline its naming and releases.
He announced that the company will release GPT-4.5, which was previously called “Orion.” This will be the company’s last non-chain-of-thought model. So, we should expect OpenAI to release fewer models with varying names and focus on launching tools that use different models. That’s good, as several AI companies launch different models to the public, and things can get pretty complicated. Google has also launched several models under its Gemini 2.0 series, and it’s starting to get a little confusing.
Sam Altman talked about GPT-5 while talking about OpenAI’s roadmap
So, if you’re looking for information like GPT-5’s specs, release date, or capabilities, you’re going to be an unhappy camper. Altman didn’t say much about the model in his post. Instead, he revealed how the company will distribute the model to ChatGPT users.
He said that users- and this includes free users– will have access to GPT-5. So, free users won’t be restricted to an older model, which was the case for a while. Rather than paying users having access to newer models, they’ll have access to smarter versions of the same model. So, ChatGPT Plus users will have a smarter GPT-5 model, and Pro users will have the smartest.
We don’t know if OpenAI will give these versions specific names. If it does, let’s hope that it’s easy to identify their power level. Maybe something like GPT-5, GPT-5 Plus, and GPT-5 Pro. In any case, it’s still nice that the company knows that its naming strategy was getting a little wild.
However…
One commenter asked for an ETA on when to expect these models. Altman replied that we should expect GPT-4.5 in a matter of weeks and GPT-5 in a matter of months. So, it’s possible that GPT-5 will come this year. We just have no idea when to expect it. People who are excited will be playing the waiting game just a little longer.
