History of ChatGPT

ChatGPT came out on Nov 30, 2022, as a free research preview from OpenAI built on a GPT-3.5 model. By Oct 2026 it had more than 1.2 billion weekly users, paid plans from $8 to $500 a month and the GPT-6 models.

ChatGPT came out on Nov 30, 2022, when OpenAI released it as a free research preview: a chatbot "fine-tuned from a model in the GPT-3.5 series" and trained to answer in conversation with reinforcement learning from human feedback. Within four years it grew from that preview into ChatGPT as it is on Nov 6, 2026: a product with more than 1.2 billion weekly users, five consumer plans from Free to Pro 500, separate Chat, Work and Codex modes, and the GPT-6 models. This page lists the dated milestones, year by year, each linked to the announcement or release note that records it.

Quick facts

Released	Nov 30, 2022, as a free research preview
Maker	OpenAI
First model	A GPT-3.5 series model that "finished training in early 2022"
First paid plan	ChatGPT Plus, $20 a month, Feb 1, 2023
Weekly users	100 million (May 13, 2024), 800 million (Nov 19, 2025), more than 1.2 billion (Oct 21, 2026)
Default model now	GPT-6 (Sol on paid plans, Luna on Free and Go), as of Nov 6, 2026

When did ChatGPT come out?

OpenAI announced ChatGPT on Nov 30, 2022 in a post titled "Introducing ChatGPT". It described a sibling model to InstructGPT, which OpenAI had published as research in March 2022, trained on Microsoft Azure supercomputing and free to use "during the research preview" (OpenAI). The models behind it go back further: the full line from GPT-1 in 2018 is on GPT Model History, and the company's own story is on History of OpenAI.

2022 and 2023: from preview to product

Date	Milestone
Nov 30, 2022	ChatGPT released as a free research preview on a GPT-3.5 model
Feb 1, 2023	ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month: access at peak times, faster answers, new features first
Mar 14, 2023	GPT-4 available on ChatGPT Plus
Mar 23, 2023	ChatGPT plugins announced
May 18, 2023	ChatGPT app for iOS
Aug 28, 2023	ChatGPT Enterprise
Oct 19, 2023	DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise
Nov 6, 2023	GPTs, custom versions of ChatGPT
Nov 17 to 29, 2023	Sam Altman removed as CEO, then returned

Plus was the first time ChatGPT cost money, and ChatGPT Plus still costs the same $20 a month in the US. GPT-4 made Plus the way to reach OpenAI's strongest model, a pattern that held for years. The leadership crisis in November 2023 did not interrupt the product; it is told on History of OpenAI.

2024: GPT-4o, reasoning models and Pro

Date	Milestone
Jan 10, 2024	GPT Store and ChatGPT Team, $25 a user a month yearly or $30 monthly
May 13, 2024	GPT-4o, offered on the free tier; "more than a hundred million people" used ChatGPT weekly
May 30, 2024	ChatGPT Edu for universities
Jul 18, 2024	GPT-4o mini
Sep 12, 2024	OpenAI o1-preview and o1-mini, the first reasoning models in ChatGPT
Sep 24, 2024	Advanced voice on GPT-4o native audio
Oct 3, 2024	Canvas (beta)
Dec 5, 2024	ChatGPT Pro at $200 a month
Dec 9, 2024	Sora video for Plus and Pro, at sora.com

GPT-4o brought the strongest model to Free users for the first time, and the o1 models started the line now covered on OpenAI Reasoning Models. ChatGPT Pro introduced the $200 tier. Canvas and Sora have both since been retired.

2025: agents, GPT-5 and new plans

Date	Milestone
Jan 14, 2025	Scheduled tasks (beta)
Jan 23, 2025	Operator, a browser agent for Pro users in the US
Early Feb 2025	Deep research for Pro users
Feb 27, 2025	GPT-4.5 research preview
Mar 25, 2025	GPT-4o image generation becomes ChatGPT's default image maker
Apr 16, 2025	OpenAI o3 and o4-mini
May 16, 2025	Codex, a cloud coding agent, as a research preview
Jul 17, 2025	ChatGPT agent replaces Operator
Aug 7, 2025	GPT-5, the new default for all users
August 2025	ChatGPT Go introduced in India
Aug 29, 2025	ChatGPT Team renamed ChatGPT Business
Sep 25, 2025	ChatGPT Pulse preview for Pro
Sep 30, 2025	Sora 2 and the Sora app
Oct 21, 2025	ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser, on macOS
Nov 12, 2025	GPT-5.1
Nov 13, 2025	Group chats piloted in four countries
Dec 11, 2025	GPT-5.2
Dec 16, 2025	New ChatGPT Images with GPT Image 1.5

This was the year ChatGPT started acting rather than only answering: Operator and then Agent Mode could use a browser, Deep Research wrote cited reports, and Codex began as a coding agent. GPT-5 replaced the long model menu with one system that routes between a fast model and a thinking model. ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly users by Nov 19, 2025.

2026: Go everywhere, ads, Work and GPT-6

Date	Milestone
Jan 16, 2026	ChatGPT Go worldwide, $8 a month in the US
Feb 2, 2026	The Codex app for macOS
Feb 9, 2026	Ads tested on Free and Go in the US
Feb 13, 2026	GPT-4o, GPT-4.1 and o4-mini retired from ChatGPT
Apr 9, 2026	A $100 Pro plan beside the $200 one
Apr 23, 2026	GPT-5.5
Apr 26, 2026	Sora app and web discontinued
May 28, 2026	Canvas removed from current models
Jun 17, 2026	Pulse sunset as updates move into scheduled tasks
Jul 9, 2026	ChatGPT Work, Plugins, the new desktop app and GPT-5.6; group chats closed to new use; Atlas deprecated
Aug 9, 2026	Atlas stops working
Aug 30, 2026	The DALL-E GPT retired
Aug 31, 2026	"More than 1 billion weekly active users"
Sep 3, 2026	GPT-6 Astra
Sep 29, 2026	Pro 500 at $500 a month, dots and GPT-6.1 Sol
Oct 7, 2026	GPT-6 and Intelligent UI for everyone
Nov 4, 2026	ChatGPT Images 2.6

0:03 2026 reshaped ChatGPT more than any year since launch. ChatGPT Go became the cheap paid tier everywhere, and Ads in ChatGPT arrived on Free and Go, reaching 89 countries by Oct 21, 2026. On Jul 9, 2026 the app split into Chat, ChatGPT Work and Codex, Plugins replaced apps and connectors, and several features were retired: Group Chats, ChatGPT Atlas, ChatGPT Pulse and Canvas. Custom GPTs are scheduled to retire on Dec 11, 2026. The GPT-6 models arrived from Sep 3, and GPT-6 became the default in the Chat tab for every plan from Oct 7 and 8, 2026. The latest changes are on ChatGPT Updates.

How many people use ChatGPT?

OpenAI's own figures, newest first, as of Nov 6, 2026:

Date	Weekly users (OpenAI's words)
Oct 21, 2026	"More than 1.2 billion"
Aug 31, 2026	"More than 1 billion weekly active users"
Nov 19, 2025	"800 million"
May 13, 2024	"More than a hundred million"

Sources: Oct 21, 2026, Aug 31, 2026, Nov 19, 2025, May 13, 2024.

CNBC reported on Mar 31, 2026 that ChatGPT had over 900 million weekly users and over 50 million subscribers. No OpenAI page read for this article states a paid-subscriber count.

Frequently asked questions

When did ChatGPT come out? ChatGPT came out on Nov 30, 2022, as a free research preview from OpenAI. Its first paid plan, ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month, followed on Feb 1, 2023.

What model did the first ChatGPT use? The first ChatGPT was fine-tuned from a GPT-3.5 series model that finished training in early 2022, trained with human feedback like OpenAI's InstructGPT. GPT-4 reached ChatGPT Plus on Mar 14, 2023.

Who made ChatGPT? ChatGPT is made by OpenAI, the AI company founded in December 2015. Its for-profit arm has been OpenAI Group PBC, controlled by the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation, since Oct 28, 2025.

How many people use ChatGPT? OpenAI said on Oct 21, 2026 that more than 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week, up from about 100 million weekly users in May 2024.

What has ChatGPT retired? ChatGPT has retired Operator (into agent mode, Jul 2025), Sora (Apr 26, 2026), canvas (May 28, 2026), Pulse (Jun 2026), group chats (Jul 9, 2026), the Atlas browser (Aug 9, 2026) and many older models such as GPT-4o. Custom GPTs retire on Dec 11, 2026.

What is the newest ChatGPT model? As of Nov 6, 2026, ChatGPT's default is GPT-6, powered by GPT-6 Sol on paid plans and GPT-6 Luna on Free and Go, with GPT-6 Astra behind the Pro option.