Short answer
Free ChatGPT users who are switched to GPT-4o can upload files, ask questions about photos, get answers that draw on the web, analyze data and make charts, use GPTs from the GPT Store, and turn on Memory. These features arrive gradually and come with a message limit, after which ChatGPT falls back to GPT-3.5.
Follow-up question What are the limits?
Until this month, a free ChatGPT account meant GPT-3.5 and plain text: you typed, it answered from what it learned in training. With GPT-4o, OpenAI is moving free users onto the same model that paying subscribers use, along with most of the tools that used to require a Plus subscription. OpenAI describes GPT-4o as giving intelligence at the level of GPT-4 while being much faster.
The change is rolling out over several weeks, so your account may get the new features before or after a friend's. This guide walks through what you can now do and how to plan around the limits.
What free accounts gain
OpenAI lists the features free users get when they are using GPT-4o. Here is each one in plain terms.
| Feature | What it means | An everyday use |
|---|---|---|
| Web answers | ChatGPT can look things up and combine what it finds with its own knowledge | Checking this week's hours for a museum |
| Data analysis and charts | You upload a spreadsheet; it calculates and draws graphs | Totaling a club's expenses by category |
| Photo questions | You share a picture and ask about it | Translating a menu written in another language |
| File uploads | You attach a document for summarizing, writing help or analysis | Getting the key points of a long PDF report |
| GPTs and the GPT Store | You can find and use custom versions of ChatGPT that others have built | A GPT made for a specific hobby or subject |
| Memory | ChatGPT can keep facts you share across conversations | Remembering that you teach grade 5 |
The menu example comes from OpenAI itself: take a picture of a menu in another language, then ask GPT-4o to translate it, explain the dishes and their background, and suggest what to order.
A worked example: one free session, planned
Because the number of GPT-4o messages is limited, it pays to do your heavier work first and save simple chat for later. Suppose you volunteer for a neighborhood association and have three jobs to do today.
- Upload the file first. Attach the association's 20-page annual report as a PDF and send:
Summarize this report for a newsletter. Give me five bullet points, each under 25 words, covering money raised, money spent, main projects and next year's plans. Then list any numbers I should double-check.- Ask for a chart in the same chat. Upload the expense spreadsheet and ask: "Make a bar chart of expenses by category, and tell me which category grew the most since last year."
- Use a photo. Snap the handwritten sign-up sheet from the last meeting and ask ChatGPT to type it up as a list of names and tasks. Check every name against the paper, since handwriting is easy to misread.
- Leave light tasks for last. Polishing a short thank-you message works fine even if you have reached your GPT-4o limit and moved to GPT-3.5.
Each of the first three steps uses a tool that only works with GPT-4o on a free account, so doing them early protects them from the cap.
Try it: Take a photo of something with text on it, such as a recipe card, a product label or a sign, and ask GPT-4o to transcribe it and then explain one part you are unsure about. Compare the transcription with the original word by word.
What is not here yet
Two features shown at the GPT-4o launch are not part of the free package today. The new Voice Mode, the one that can respond almost instantly and react to what your camera sees, is planned as an alpha test for Plus subscribers first, in the coming weeks. The voice feature in the current app still uses the older system. The new ChatGPT app for Mac is also starting with Plus users and is set to reach more people in the coming weeks.
What are the limits?
The main limit is the message cap. OpenAI has not published a fixed number for free accounts. It says the number of GPT-4o messages a free user can send depends on overall usage and demand, so it may change from day to day. Plus subscribers get a cap up to five times higher, and Team and Enterprise plans higher still.
When you reach the cap, ChatGPT switches the conversation to GPT-3.5 automatically so you can keep going. That fallback matters, because OpenAI ties the tools in the table above to GPT-4o. Once a chat has moved to GPT-3.5, expect to wait for your GPT-4o access to return before you can use them again. Plan important work accordingly, as in the example above.
The other limits are the usual ones. GPT-4o can still be wrong, misread a photo or report a number incorrectly, so check anything you plan to publish or act on. Memory also deserves a thought: only share facts you are comfortable having ChatGPT keep from one conversation to the next.
Sources
- Introducing GPT-4o and more tools to ChatGPT free users — OpenAI, May 13, 2024
- Hello GPT-4o — OpenAI, May 13, 2024