OpenAI has officially released GPT-4.1 – a specialized AI model for programming – to the ChatGPT platform after the success of the developer version (API). This move responds to requests from the community and affirms the ability to rapidly improve based on user feedback. GPT-4.1 promises to bring the following highlights:
Along with GPT-4.1, OpenAI launched the Safety Evaluations Hub, a platform that aggregates data on the safety of AI models. The hub currently focuses on text-based interactions, with plans to expand to multimodality in the future.
The expansion of GPT-4.1 shows that OpenAI prioritizes listening to users and quickly adapting the product. Many of GPT-4.1's improvements have been gradually integrated into GPT-4o, but this separate version promises to optimize the experience for programmers and advanced users.
With these moves, OpenAI continues to solidify its leadership in the AI race, balancing performance, accessibility, and safety.
First, the good news about the upgrade is that it is a significant leap over the older ChatGPT models.
GPT-4.1 can handle up to 1 million tokens in a conversation. This is a huge improvement over the previous limit of 128,000 tokens. This allows it to understand and remember much longer conversations or documents without losing track. The models were trained on data available until June 2024 (the knowledge cutoff date).
It also performs better at coding and following detailed instructions. OpenAI says GPT-4.1 outperforms its predecessor, GPT-4o, especially on engineering tasks. According to OpenAI's industry-standard benchmarks, it performs significantly better than older models:
By focusing closely on real-world developer needs—from coding to following instructions and understanding long-form context—these models open up new possibilities for building intelligent systems and complex agent applications.
There are three versions available: GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano.
In the model release notes, OpenAI shares that GPT-4.1 is rolling out to all paid ChatGPT account levels. Plus, Pro, and Team users can now find it in the model selector drop-down menu. GPT-4.1 has the same rate limits as GPT-4o for paid users.
OpenAI mentioned that Enterprise and Edu users will be able to use it 'in the coming weeks.'
Unfortunately, free users will not have access right now. However, all free users will be able to access the smaller but more powerful GPT-4.1 mini in the model selector once they reach their GPT-4o usage limit.
GPT-4.1 mini is a good option if you are a free user. But keep in mind that there may still be some usage limitations during busy times. However, this update should improve the experience for free tier users.
Note : GPT‑4.1 nano is the smallest, fastest, and most cost-effective model in OpenAI's GPT-4.1 family. It is optimized for speed, making it the fastest model in the family. Open AI has not mentioned a release date.