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ChatGPT free tier gets unlimited text chats and a Think button as OpenAI upgrades GPT-5.6 Sol for paid users

· by Pondero Newsdesk

The short version

OpenAI on August 6 gave free users unlimited text conversations and a Think button for deeper reasoning, while Plus and Pro subscribers got a GPT-5.6 Sol update and a reasoning-depth slider. The announcement came as ChatGPT disclosed 1 billion weekly users.

ChatGPT free tier gets unlimited text chats and a Think button as OpenAI upgrades GPT-5.6 Sol for paid users

Free ChatGPT users have never been able to run unlimited text conversations in a session. That ends the week of August 11. OpenAI on August 6 announced GPT-5.6 Luna as the new default model for free accounts, with unlimited text chats and a Think button rolling out the following week. On the paid side, Plus and Pro subscribers got an updated GPT-5.6 Sol that unifies Instant and reasoning modes behind a single model with a depth slider. Both announcements coincided with OpenAI reporting that ChatGPT now reaches 1 billion weekly users.

What changed for free users

GPT-5.6 Luna replaced the previous free-tier default and began rolling out to Free and Go users this week, per OpenAI's announcement. Unlimited text chats and the Think button follow starting the week of August 11, subject to abuse guardrails. File uploads, image generation, and other non-text tools retain existing limits.

No paid upgrade is required to use the Think button. It gives Luna more time to work through a question before responding. In an internal evaluation of financial, medical, and legal prompts, factual errors were 62% less common with GPT-5.6 Luna than with GPT-5.5 Instant, per the same announcement. GPT-5.5 Instant is the baseline, not Luna's prior free-tier predecessor.

What changed for paid users

Plus and Pro subscribers received an updated GPT-5.6 Sol on August 6. Instant responses and Thinking (extended reasoning) now run through a single model rather than two separate modes, and a new slider in ChatGPT on web, mobile, and desktop lets users choose reasoning depth per conversation.

On accuracy, OpenAI reported that the updated Sol produced 68% fewer factual errors than GPT-5.5 Instant on the same internal evaluation. Response formatting was also reworked: Sol now answers directly on simple questions and expands only when a task calls for it, rather than defaulting to bullet lists on short queries.

Scope note: this Sol update applies only to Chat. ChatGPT Work and Codex continue to use the prior Sol version, unchanged by this release.

Why it matters

On two dimensions at once, the practical gap between free and paid ChatGPT narrowed. Removing the text-chat session cap eliminates one of the cleaner reasons to upgrade to Plus for users who primarily need conversational text. Reasoning depth entering the free tier is new ground: until now, deeper thinking was a paid-only capability.

For teams evaluating whether to provision Plus seats for lighter-use staff, the calculation shifts. Plus now leads on the reasoning slider, the Sol accuracy gains, and continued access to image and file tools, not on unlimited text as a differentiator.

OpenAI cited 1 billion weekly ChatGPT users in the same announcement but provided no methodology. Whether that figure counts weekly active users or weekly sessions was not stated.

What to watch next

Abuse guardrail specifics on the Think button remain undefined. How aggressively they throttle heavy free-tier usage will determine whether the feature functions as a genuine reasoning substitute or a limited preview. Third-party benchmarks on the updated Sol have not appeared yet; the 68% error-reduction claim is from OpenAI's own internal evaluation and independent confirmation remains the standard next test.

Sources