ChatGPT is currently the gold standard of Large Language Models based chatbots. With around 400+ million weekly active users and 10+ million paying ChatGPT Plus subscribers, it is one of most popular if not the most popular chatbot.
All free users get access to GPT-4.1 mini with limited access to GPT-4o, OpenAI o4-mini, and deep research according to it’s pricing page. There is no dropdown to select which model you want to use. ChatGPT automatically selects GPT-4o – that is accessible a limited number of times every five hours – and switches to mini when the limited is reached.
One can use ChatGPT search without having to sign up.
However, let’s say you finally spent that $20 to get a plus version. Now, you see the dropdown of all the models available to you. It can get confusing at first. The interface of the chatgpt.com itself has now become complicated and it is hard for any regular user to determine what tool and services are offered by ChatGPT. Hopefully, this article will help you decide.
Currently a plus member gets to choose one of the following models:
- GPT-4o (o for Omni)
- GPT-4.1 & GPT-4.1 mini
- GPT-4.5 (Research Preview)
- o-series Reasoning Models o1, o3, o4-mini)
For some reference, GPT only was the original text only generation models. OpenAI is slowing transition to reasoning and multimodal (not just text but also audio, image, video at some point) through its introduction of models with o attached to them.
Models and Features
| Models | Best for | Modalities | Speed | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4o | Most tasks, balanced performance | Text, Images, Files, Voice Chat | Very Fast | Default/flagship, multimodal, very versatile |
| 4.1 | Quick coding & analysis | Text, Images, Files, Voice Chat | Fast | Designed for efficient, analytical tasks |
| 4.1-mini | Everyday fast tasks | Text, Images, Files, Voice Chat | Fast | Light, for quick and simple work |
| 4.5 | Writing, exploring ideas (research) | Text, Images, Files | Fast | Latest research model (preview, evolving) |
| o3 | Advanced reasoning | Text, Images, Files | Fast | Emphasizes logical reasoning |
| o4-mini | Advanced reasoning, high speed | Text, Images, Files | Fastest | Focus on speed for complex queries |
| o4-mini-high | Coding & visual reasoning | Text, Images, Files | Fastest | Great for code and image-based questions |
GPT 5.0 is set to be released soon sometime around the end of summer. Sam Altman has hinted that this new version might integrate all of these various models and their features (reasoning, coding, vision, etc.) into one.
Some Key points to Note:
- Currently only 4o, 4.1, and 4.1-mini support voice chat.
- Mini and Mini-high versions are faster, cost-effective versions of the main models. Therefore, they have higher search limits – meaning that while you might be able to make 40 (just a reference number and not accurate) searches per day in 4.1, you might be able to do double or more searches in 4.1-mini.
- 4.1 is known for being very good at coding. However, it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss to what extent and how they are used. You might want to check out Codex feature or the APIs OpenAI provides for more details.
Key Features
Deep Research
Acting as a research analyst or assistant, Deep Research is an agentic feature that conducts thorough research often for 10+ minutes to put together a comprehensive report.
Different tiers of users get different amount of Deep Research feature. ChatGPT free users get 5 light deep research per month, plus users get 25 (10 full + 25 lightweight), and pro users get 250 (125 full + 125 lightweight).
Create an image
Previously provided as DALL·E, image generation feature has now been integrated into ChatGPT directly.
Search the web
It is honestly optional to select whether you want ChatGPT to search the web. If ChatGPT determines that searching the web is required, then it will do so automatically.
Write or code
If you select “Write or code,” the output from chatgpt is converted into a document – they call it canvas – which you can freely edit, there is a version control, undo and do changes, copy, download, and share options available to users. It’s basically a Google Docs version of ChatGPT.
Conclusion
ChatGPT.com, with its many, many features, has become so huge that it is hard to discuss all features. We have attempted to put together how to and why to select which model for your everyday need. These various GPT series and o-series models combined with text, image, files, audio and voice chat features and finally the various toppings through Deep Research, Image generation, Web Search and Write or code might hopefully help you make the best use of the cutting-edge AI OpenAI has to offer for you.
Some more edits might be done in the future to refine this article. Please let us know if you found it helpful and what you would like us to explore in the future article. Thank you for reading!