ChatGPT Free Users to Face Image Generation Rate Limits; GPT-4o New Update Now Available to Paid Users
OpenAI quite recently introduced its advanced image generator onto GPT-4o, and we have been seeing social media being filled with ‘Ghibli’-style generated images/posts. Even though the new image generation capability quickly gained a lot of interest and attention from users, it seems to have take a toll on the company’s GPU resources. Rate limits are thus going to be added for ChatGPT free users, limiting the number to just three per day.
Also, the brand has rolled out a new update for GPT-4o, and it is currently made available to all the paid users. This update carries certain improvements, aimed at enhancing user performance and experience.
Read more about these below.
Image Generation Rate Limits for ChatGPT Free Users
As mentioned, the GPT-4o image generation capability was introduced on ChatGPT only three days back (on the 25th of March 2025), offering image generation capability with precise, accurate, and photorealistic outputs. Text rendering, multi-turn generation, instruction following, in-context learning, world knowledge, and photorealism and style are few of its noted features, and it was initially made available to Plus, Pro, Team, and Free users of ChatGPT, along with availability in Sora and via the dedicated DALL-E GPT (~ coming soon to Enterprise and Edu).
The new image generator does have some limitations and isn’t really perfect, however, it has already become a favorite for many ChatGPT users. Over the three days that it was available to users, many made well use of it without any limits, and had even posted their results on social media platforms praising their outputs. But this will soon be changing.
OpenAI CEO – Sam Altman has shared on the X platform that the overuse of the brand’s latest GPT-4o image generation capability has caused its GPUs to start melting, and it has thus been announced that ‘temporarily’ rate limits will be set while efforts are taken to make it more efficient. From now on, ChatGPT free users will only be able to generate three images only per day, and the change will be implemented soon. Also, Sam Altman on the X platform noted that a few image generation functions will be refused/restricted for the time being, and it will be fixed as fast as possible.
GPT-4o Gets a New Update
In related news, a new update has been rolled out for GPT-4o on ChatGPT. It is currently available to all paid users, whereas free users will be getting it over the next few weeks as per what has been shared.
The changelogs include better capability to follow detailed instructions (especially which contain multiple requests), improved capability to tackle coding and complex technical problems, improved creativity and intuition capability, and fewer emojis.
Stay tuned for more tech updates.
