ChatGPT Model Picker: Free vs Paid, o3 vs o4-mini, and How to Choose

What today’s users need to know about ChatGPT’s model picker and how it changes based on what you’re paying

Not sure if you heard the news, but OpenAI rolled out a couple of new models this past week, o3 and o4‑mini. I was with Lorignite Intern, Katya King, when the news broke, and we had one of those "wait… does the average person even care about this?" conversations.

What's a Model Picker and Why Should You Care?

The ChatGPT model picker is that dropdown menu at the top of your AI chat interface that lets you choose which AI "brain" you want to talk to. Think of it like choosing which tool to use for a specific job. Sometimes you need precision, other times you need speed, and occasionally you need specialized capabilities.

As Kyle Shannon, co-founder of the AI Salon, noted in his recent office hours:

"We're not in the same world this week that we were last week. Something's very different even though it doesn't look that different."

Understanding which model to use for which task can dramatically improve your results, even if you only have access to the free version today, knowing what's possible helps you make better decisions about when to upgrade.

ChatGPT's Model Picker: Free vs. Paid Access

If you're using the free version of ChatGPT, you don't get to choose a model. Where you see ChatGPT, it's actually GPT-3.5, and your model picker looks like this.

Free Account (what the model picker looks like)

For those paying for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, your options expand considerably. Here's what paying customers see in their model picker:

Plus Subscription (what the model picker looks like)

Most of the updates this week were for those of us who cough up $20 a month or more for ChatGPT's enhanced features. I would actually be surprised if many paid subscribers are even taking advantage of all of the different models available to them. If you ask me, it feels a lot like Alphabet Soup, and I couldn't resist generating the image below.

OpenAI's Model Names: Like Alphabet Soup

What These Models Actually Do Best

Each model has specific strengths and ideal use cases.

OpenAI models laid out by Claude.ai

What Makes the New Models Special?

The new o3 and o4-mini models use reasoning that makes them fundamentally different from previous ChatGPT models. What's exciting about these new models is how they use images in their thinking. They're not just recognizing pictures, they're actually working through visual information as part of their problem-solving. Models like o3 and o4-mini can analyze diagrams, adjust visuals along the way, and even create new images to help answer questions. This visual approach means we can tackle all sorts of challenges in new ways we hadn't imagined before. Kyle explains the key difference:

"The difference between a non-reasoning model and a reasoning model is this: a non-reasoning model, you give it a prompt, it gives you an answer. A reasoning model, you give it a prompt and it talks to itself for a while and then gives you an answer."

Full details from OpenAI here.

What to Try If You Have Access to Multiple ChatGPT Models

If you have a paid ChatGPT subscription, Kyle recommends:

"Treat these three new models as if a brand new ChatGPT just launched. Don't think about what these things are as anything we've had before."

Here's how you can experiment:

Ask both o3 and o4-mini this same question: "Analyze the primary causes of the fall of the Roman Empire. Consider political, economic, and military factors."

Compare:

• How long each takes to respond

• How they organize their thinking

• The depth of analysis

• Which feels more thorough and accurate

This helps you get a feel for when to use each model - sometimes you need speed (o4-mini), other times you need depth (o3).

What's Next? A Quick Peek at GPT-5 (and Why You Should Care)

These new models, o3 and o4-mini, are exciting, but they're also stepping stones to something even bigger: GPT-5. OpenAI's leader, Sam Altman, recently shared that originally the team planned to roll these improvements right into GPT-5. But integrating all these new skills turned out to be trickier than expected. So they decided to release o3 and o4-mini first, giving everyone a sneak peek while taking extra time to polish up GPT-5 (coming in a few months).

Here's why this matters (without getting too techy):

• One Model, Many Powers: GPT-5 will combine everything: voice, search, visuals, deep research into one easy-to-use brain. It's like having a multi-tool that knows exactly when to use a screwdriver or a hammer.

• Smooth Rollout: By releasing o3 and o4-mini separately, OpenAI can manage the huge wave of excitement and make sure everything runs smoothly when GPT-5 officially arrives.

• Closer to Human-Level Thinking? o3 performed so well in recent tests that some folks are whispering about it reaching "human-level" intelligence (called AGI—Artificial General Intelligence). On some tricky benchmarks, it even beat human scores.

While the AI experts debate "Are we there yet?" in terms of true human-level AI, here's what's important right now: These new models aren't just answering questions; they're actually solving problems in smarter ways, using visuals, creating tools on-the-fly, and giving better, more reliable results. Bottom line for you: You'll soon have an even smarter helper that understands visuals better, tackles bigger tasks easily, and makes your everyday AI experience even smoother. Understanding which model to use when might seem technical, but it directly impacts what you can accomplish with AI tools. As Kyle said:

"I think the opportunity for the people that are paying attention to this stuff early, if you can get your heads around what these models do really well... it's going to serve you super well."

Even if you're using the free version, knowing what each model does helps you decide when an upgrade is worth it.

What's your experience with these different models? Have you found certain ones work better for specific tasks? Please share. With so much changing so fast, we need to swap stories.

Curious how other platforms handle model selection?

In the next post, I'll break down how Perplexity and Claude approach model picking, along with some other features that help them stand out. I actually had a couple of wow moments with both Perplexity and Claude today.