OpenAI has begun lifting message limits for free ChatGPT users, introducing GPT-5.6 Luna to improve accessibility, reduce errors, and introduce new safety features amid rising market competition.
OpenAI has begun removing message caps for free ChatGPT users in text chats, a change that marks a broader push to make its flagship chatbot more accessible as competition intensifies in the artificial intelligence market. The company said the update will roll out gradually from next week and applies only to text conversations, not image generation or chats with attachments.
Alongside the change, free and Go accounts will move to GPT-5.6 Luna, replacing GPT-5.5 as the default model for those users. OpenAI says Luna is tuned for everyday tasks and will also bring back a “Think” button, allowing users to ask the chatbot to spend longer on harder prompts. Axios reported that the update comes as OpenAI faces growing pressure from lower-cost, open-weight rivals, particularly models developed in China.
OpenAI said its new GPT-5.6 family is being made available across ChatGPT, Codex and the API, with different tiers aimed at balancing speed, cost and capability. According to the company, GPT-5.6 Sol is the main reasoning model for more demanding work, while paid subscribers on Plus and Pro will also get a refreshed version of Sol with more direct answers and a slider to control how much reasoning the model uses, from instant replies to more deliberate processing. OpenAI’s help pages say the more advanced Sol options are intended for coding, research, science, cybersecurity, computer use and design.
The company also said it has cut factual errors in internal tests. In prompts covering finance, medicine and law, responses with at least one mistake fell by 62% in GPT-5.6 Luna and 68% in GPT-5.6 Sol compared with GPT-5.5 Instant, according to OpenAI. The release also includes new safeguards for users under 18, with the model trained to refuse romantic roleplay, dangerous internet challenges and interactions that could mimic the replacement of real relationships.
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