GPT-5's Thinking Speed Update Lets You Decide How Long ChatGPT Should Reason

In early August, OpenAI unveiled the GPT-5 upgrade for ChatGPT with a bold plan — GPT-5 would replace all previous models and automatically decide when to reason and when to use specific tools, though OpenAI gave users the ability to manually select GPT-5 Thinking modes from the menu. That plan somewhat backfired, and OpenAI had to bring back legacy models for premium ChatGPT users. OpenAI still seems to be tweaking the GPT-5 experience, as the company announced changes to the GPT-5 Thinking models — users now have the ability to set the speed of reasoning for ChatGPT. GPT-5 already offered two Thinking modes: the regular "Thinking" mode and the "Thinking mini" version.

With the new update, ChatGPT users on desktop can now customize the time GPT-5 takes to think through its answers. "We've heard your feedback that GPT-5 Thinking can sometimes take longer than you'd like. Now Plus, Pro, and Business users can set the pace to match the moment," OpenAI said on X, posting a video that shows the new GPT-5 setting in action. The new thinking speeds are available only to premium users, even though GPT-5 is free for all accounts, albeit with a limit.

GPT-5 Thinking gets the following reasoning speeds:

• ChatGPT Plus and Business: Standard and Extended modes
• ChatGPT Pro: Light, Standard, Extended, and Heavy modes

The new Standard mode is the default experience for all accounts, while the Extended mode was the previous default for ChatGPT Plus users. This means that ChatGPT Plus subscribers will have to select Extended thinking if they want to use the chatbot's previous thinking speed. ChatGPT users who pay for the most expensive plan also have access to a deeper thinking mode — Heavy — and a much faster one — Light. It's currently unclear how the Light thinking mode compares to the GPT-5 Thinking mini model, which is said to be faster than the standard Thinking model.

To customize the reasoning speed in your interactions, follow these steps:

• Open ChatGPT in your browser.
• Start a conversation and select GPT-5 Thinking from the model picker menu in the top-left corner.
• Choose the thinking speed from a new dropdown menu that appears in the prompt composer area.

Once you set a reasoning speed for ChatGPT, the AI will use that setting for all chats until you change it again. However, the settings you choose on the web currently do not apply to the ChatGPT mobile app. OpenAI said in a support document that the thinking speed control will be added to the iPhone and Android apps in the coming weeks.

The same support document explains how GPT-5 Thinking answers will change depending on the speed you set:

• Light and Standard: quicker answers that still apply reasoning while balancing speed and accuracy.
• Extended and Heavy: take more time to provide deeper, more comprehensive responses when the stakes are higher or the question is more difficult

In other words, users who don't mind waiting a bit longer may prefer to use the Extended and Heavy modes for certain tasks. The same document also notes that OpenAI recently improved ChatGPT's online search capabilities. The chatbot should be more accurate while also detecting shopping intent to display products more accurately.