OpenAI has walked back a controversial decision from last week that removed user access to older ChatGPT models when GPT-5 became the new default. Following a surge of complaints across forums and social media, legacy models like GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, o3, and o4-mini are once again available—but only for paid users who know where to look.

ChatGPT’s GPT-5 rollout brings new modes and restores legacy models, reflecting OpenAI’s efforts to align AI performance and personality with user preferences.

In an interview, the head of ChatGPT says ‘we have to give people some level of predictability when there’s a major change.’ After the backlash to replacing its 4o model with GPT-5, OpenAI will no longer get rid of old models without a heads up.