OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT-4.1 for Plus and GPT-4.1 Mini for Free users

OpenAI has announced the rollout of its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 Mini AI models to ChatGPT, expanding access beyond developers for the first time. The models, which were initially launched via OpenAI’s API in April, are now available to users on ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team plans, while GPT-4.1 Mini is accessible to both free and paid users. The company announced via a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the model was being made public due to popular demand.

As part of this update, OpenAI is also removing the GPT-4o Mini model from ChatGPT for all users. Earlier on April 30, OpenAI had also removed the GPT-4.0 model for all users, in a bid to reduce model confusion for users.

GPT-4.1 is designed to offer superior performance in coding and instruction-following tasks compared to GPT-4o, while also being faster. The model is particularly useful for software engineers working on code writing or debugging. Despite its improvements, OpenAI has clarified that GPT-4.1 does not qualify as a frontier model, i.e. those that introduce new modalities or significantly more advanced capabilities. Therefore, it does not require the same level of safety reporting as other ones. 

“GPT-4.1 builds on the safety work and mitigations developed for GPT-4o. Across our standard safety evaluations, GPT-4.1 performs at parity with GPT-4o, showing that improvements can be delivered without introducing new safety risks,” said Johannes Heidecke, Head of Safety Systems at OpenAI, in a post on X. He also noted that the model “doesn’t surpass o3 in intelligence.”

OpenAI had previously faced criticism for launching GPT-4.1 without publishing a safety report, prompting concerns from the AI research community about declining transparency standards. In response, the company has now committed to releasing internal safety evaluation results more frequently. These will be published through a new initiative, the Safety Evaluations Hub, launched on Wednesday.