The OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models are a new series of reasoning models for solving hard problems. While GPT-4o is still the best option for most prompts, the o1 series may be helpful for handling complex, problem-solving tasks in domains like research, strategy, coding, math, and science.
For most use cases, especially those that involve the use of tools and vision, we recommend using GPT-4o in ChatGPT. Please note the following limitations on the OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models in ChatGPT:
Our OpenAI o1 pro, o1 and o1-mini models do not have access to the following advanced tools and features:
Memory
Custom instructions
File Uploads (except images)
Web browsing
Discovering and using GPTs
Voice
You will need to switch over to GPT-4o to access these tools.
See Does o1 support file uploads? for details.
What conversation topics are appropriate for OpenAI’s o1 models?
The OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models excel at complex problems that require additional thinking. When you use the OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models on ChatGPT, you can view the response thought process by opening the drop-down above the response:
These are a few scenarios that OpenAI o1 models are ideal for:
Strategy ideation
The OpenAI o1 model can be a helpful ideation partner for early strategy development. When prompted to create a CRO test plan, the model helpfully creates potential test scenarios, a prioritization framework, and next steps to follow to immediately get started.
Education
The OpenAI o1 model can be helpful to faculty on course development and students with course tutoring. In this example, an educator is generating a tutoring guideline by asking the OpenAI o1 model to explain differential equations to a struggling student. The model generates starting principles, examples, and even practice problems that this student can use to learn differential equations.
Coding exercises and reviews
The OpenAI o1-mini model is a helpful coding partner for elaborate coding exercises, capable of understanding the complexity of the problem, providing a step-by-step breakdown and pseudocode of the solution, and providing any references it used to resolve the problem.
UX Design-to-code
The OpenAI o1 model enables quick prototyping of front-end code by transforming UX designs into functional code snippets accelerating the development process. In this example, the OpenAI o1 model is able to analyze the picture and provide the entire front-end code to build a mockup.
Complex writing tasks
The OpenAI o1 model can dig into multi-faceted writing prompts, and is particularly strong at maintaining the structure of the question in its response. In this example, the OpenAI o1 model is able to provide a background, conclusion, and an exhaustive list of strengths and weaknesses based on the question.
When should I use GPT-4o?
GPT-4o accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image, and video and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. For most use cases, especially those that involve the use of advanced tools and vision, we recommend using GPT-4o in ChatGPT.
Our OpenAI o1 pro, o1 and o1-mini models do not have access to the following advanced tools and features:
Memory
Custom instructions
File Uploads (except images)
Web browsing
Discovering and using GPTs
Voice
You will need to switch over to GPT-4o to access these tools.
See Does o1 support file uploads? for details.
FAQ
What is the knowledge cut-off for the OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models?
The OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models share the same knowledge cut-off as our GPT-4o models, October 2023.
When will o1 be available to Enterprise and ChatGPT Edu customers?
ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu customers will have access to the o1 model on December 5.
What usage limits are enforced on the OpenAI o1 and o1-mini models?
Users on ChatGPT Plus and Team accounts have access to the 50 messages a week with OpenAI o1 and 50 messages a day with OpenAI o1-mini.
The ChatGPT Pro plan offers near unlimited access to our o1, o1-mini, and ChatGPT-4o models. However, usage must adhere to our Terms of Use, which prohibits, among other things:
Abusive usage, such as automatically or programmatically extracting data.
Sharing your account credentials or making your account available to anyone else.
Reselling access or using ChatGPT to power third-party services.
We have guardrails in place to help prevent misuse and we are always working to improve our systems. This may occasionally involve a temporary restriction on your usage. We will inform you when this happens, and if you think this might be a mistake, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team at help.openai.com or using the widget at the bottom-right of this page. If policy-violating behavior is not found, your access will be restored.
Can users on ChatGPT Free tier access OpenAI o1 models?
At the moment, OpenAI o1 models are only available on ChatGPT Paid tiers and for Paid Tier API customers. We plan to bring access to OpenAI o1 models on Free tiers at a later time.
What’s the context window for OpenAI o1 models?
In ChatGPT, the context windows for o1 and o1-mini is 32k.
What is the difference between o1 and o1-mini?
The key difference is that o1-mini lacks access to broad world knowledge, making it more suitable for tasks where all necessary context is provided within the prompt.
In the API, o1-mini is OpenAI’s faster, cost-efficient reasoning model, designed for coding and agentic applications. It’s great for developers focused on minimizing costs and latency, where broad world knowledge isn’t required. In ChatGPT, o1-mini excels at writing and debugging complex code that doesn’t need a large context window.