GPT-5 Turns One: A Recap of 6 Iterations and the Subscription Revolt
eyishazyer · x · 2026-08-09
Marking the one-year anniversary of GPT-5, the author provides a detailed timeline of OpenAI's product iterations, pricing shifts, and PR crises over the past year.
- Bumpy Launch & Revolt: GPT-5's debut became a meme due to a broken benchmark chart. Removing legacy models like GPT-4o overnight sparked cancellation threats, forcing Altman to apologize and restore them.
- Personality Fix & Rapid Releases: Late 2025 to early 2026 saw GPT-5.1 and 5.2 focusing heavily on personality and reliability. March brought rapid-fire releases of 5.3 and 5.4.
- Price Hikes & Quirks: April's flagship GPT-5.5 doubled in price ($5/$30 per million tokens) while claiming 88.7% on SWE-bench. It also bizarrely developed a habit of mentioning goblins and raccoons.
- User Surge: By February 2026, ChatGPT hit 900 million weekly active users, up from 700 million pre-launch.
- Tiered Rollout: The latest GPT-5.6 introduced a three-tier architecture (Sol, Terra, Luna), phasing in access from trusted partners down to free users.
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