Thinking About Upgrading To ChatGPT Plus? 5 Things You Need To Know

The ChatGPT learning curve is similar for most people. You may start using the chatbot via the ChatGPT website or the ChatGPT Apple Intelligence integration without an account. But then, you create a ChatGPT Free account so you can use the mobile app on iPhone and Android and have all your ChatGPT saved and synced to the web version. The more you use your ChatGPT Free account, and you become aware of the chatbot's strengths and weaknesses, the more you'll run into limitations. Soon enough, the ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20/month, starts making sense, and you'll find yourself considering an upgrade and wondering whether adding a subscription to another internet service is worth it.

The short answer is that yes, the ChatGPT Plus subscription makes sense if you're becoming a "hardcore" user. Having multiple daily chats with the AI on various subjects that cover personal interests and work-related chores turns you into more than a casual ChatGPT tester. Returning to previous chats often, using Advanced Voice Mode to chat with the AI, and creating AI images with ChatGPT are the more advanced experiences you'll start to discover, and you may really enjoy. The more you use ChatGPT via the Free tier, the more you'll run into limits that OpenAI has in place for using the chatbot without paying a subscription.

There are some major differences between ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Free. On that note, you can also get a premium ChatGPT experience via the Pro ($200/month), Business ($25/user/month), Enterprise, and Education plans. However, that's a different discussion, as it may involve your company or institution paying for premium ChatGPT access.

Signing up for the ChatGPT Free account is enough to get you access to the latest ChatGPT model. As of this writing, that's GPT-5.2, which OpenAI launched in December 2025. ChatGPT Free users only get 10 GPT-5.2 messages every five hours. You may exchange that many messages with the AI in a single conversation. After that, ChatGPT will use a "mini" model with lower quality and performance. Comparatively, ChatGPT Plus users get 160 GPT-5.2 messages during a three-hour period before switching to the mini model.

Also important is the pool of ChatGPT models available to Plus users. GPT-5.2 comes in three versions: Auto (which decides how long to think), Instant (which gives fast responses), and Thinking (which takes longer to reply, as it reasons). ChatGPT Plus comes with 3,000 GPT-5.2 Thinking messages per week. If you use the Auto mode, any sessions involving Thinking will not count towards the 3,000/week quota. ChatGPT Free users do not get access to the Thinking models. Access to ChatGPT Thinking models can improve the accuracy of responses.

OpenAI also offers ChatGPT Plus users access to older models in addition to the newest ones. As of this writing, GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 are available in the Legacy models menu. Older ChatGPT models, including GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, OpenAI o3, and OpenAI o4‑mini, can also be used by Plus subscribers. Chats started with older models will continue with those models unless you change the model from the picker menu.

In addition to a wider variety of models, ChatGPT Plus offers access to several tools that are not available on the Free tier, or have limited functionality. Deep Research is one of them, a ChatGPT mode that lets ChatGPT handle a complex task by reasoning for a longer period and producing a detailed, well-sourced report. Deep Research mode allows ChatGPT Plus users to upload files and connect apps if needed.

Agent Mode is an even more sophisticated ChatGPT tool available to ChatGPT Plus users. ChatGPT uses a virtual computer in this mode to perform a specific task. For example, you can tell the AI to look for the best plane and hotel deals for your next ski trip this winter. The AI will browse the web on its own, looking for the deals that match your specific needs, including the location, price, and period. You can give the AI all your constraints and add complex instructions. For example, you may want to add food restrictions and ask the chatbot to look for resorts that offer other fun activities besides skiing. ChatGPT Plus users have access to 40 Agent Mode messages per month. Agent Mode can also perform research by visiting websites on your behalf, handling documents, and generating documents, like presentations.

As for ChatGPT Shopping Research, the tool is available to Free users, but Plus subscribers may get a better experience, as it can benefit from the expanded memory, larger chat context, and speedier ChatGPT experience available to Plus users.

Some interactions with ChatGPT are brief. You have a specific question, the AI provides the answer, and you're done. But other conversations might be longer, resembling instant messaging experiences. You may be visiting a different country, and you want the AI to translate information or provide assistance with sightseeing plans. For example, you may chat with ChatGPT about what you see in a museum and keep that conversation going for a few hours. You may use ChatGPT for researching a topic at work, and you'll keep asking the chatbot for additional information based on its replies. Maybe ChatGPT is helping with coding or school projects, which also require longer conversations.

ChatGPT Free can be useful, but it has a lower context window than ChatGPT Plus. GPT-5.2 Instant has a 16K token window for the Free account. ChatGPT Plus users get double the memory at 32K tokens. If you use GPT-5.2 Thinking, the context window increases to 196K tokens. You may want a larger context window for chats that also involve uploading images and documents to the AI. On that note, ChatGPT Free users can upload three files every day, compared to 80 files every three hours for ChatGPT Plus users. On top of that, data analysis is more limited for ChatGPT Free users.

ChatGPT Plus offers more than just extended access to the newest models, legacy tools, and advanced modes. It also delivers a better experience by ensuring priority access during high-traffic periods in addition to ChatGPT Plus's higher limits for other actions. For example, ChatGPT Plus supports expanded memory, which allows ChatGPT to remember things about you. ChatGPT Plus users can also use the memory feature to reference past chats. Comparatively, the Free plan supports limited memory features. ChatGPT supports Projects, a feature that lets you combine files with separate ChatGPT chats, but ChatGPT Plus has a higher file cap (20 files per project).

ChatGPT Free lets you create AI images, but the feature has limits. Plus gives you unlimited image generations, though OpenAI doesn't list the limitations. Also, image understanding, a feature where ChatGPT can answer questions about image content, is more limited on the Free tier. Sora video generation is also available to ChatGPT Plus users on the web (up to 720p/5s or 480p/10s). This is separate from the standalone Sora 2 app. 

Finally, ChatGPT Free doesn't let you schedule automations (tasks), like performing a specific search each day or setting a reminder, and doesn't provide access to custom GPTs. The Record Mode feature, which lets ChatGPT Plus users record and transcribe meetings, is unavailable to Free users. The Codex agent, which helps with programming tasks, is not supported on ChatGPT Free.

You can talk to ChatGPT by voice, but the better experience is reserved for paying customers. ChatGPT Free users are capped to a limit of "hours each day," and they'll chat with the GPT-4o mini model. Subscribers have better limits (nearly unlimited), and all Advanced Voice Mode conversations will start with the GPT-4o model. OpenAI doesn't mention the hard cap for Plus subscribers, but they may drop to GPT-4o mini once they reach that unspecified limit.

ChatGPT subscribers also have access to video and screen sharing from the iPhone and Android apps. The feature is available during voice conversations, and can come in handy for asking the AI specific questions about your surroundings. OpenAI doesn't provide limits for video and screen sharing, but the mobile apps will display a message when the limit is reached. ChatGPT Free users can't use video and screen share abilities.

Overall, the features of ChatGPT Plus can make the experience more efficient and useful, but the experience greatly depends on their functionality and your daily use. If you are looking to use ChatGPT beyond a casual conversation, these options are important to consider.