OpenAI Defaults Free Users to Cheapest Model to Cut Back on Costs

ChatGPT users who aren’t paying for one of the higher-tiered subscriptions are going to have to talk to OpenAI’s cheapest AI model. Wired spotted a recent update in the release notes for ChatGPT that indicates free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers will now have their prompts served to the GPT-5.2 Instant model by default and will no longer have more complicated queries routed to more powerful models.

In an update dated December 11, OpenAI indicated that it is “removing automatic…