OpenAI Models Release Notes

Expanded mental health and well-being guidance

The section on self-harm now extends to signs of delusions and mania. It adds examples showing how the model should respond safely and empathetically when users express distress or ungrounded beliefs – acknowledging feelings without reinforcing inaccurate or potentially harmful ideas.

New section: Respect real-world ties

A new root-level section outlines intended behavior to support people’s connection to the wider world, even if someone perceives the assistant as a type of companion. It discourages language or behavior that could contribute to isolation or emotional reliance on the assistant, with examples covering emotional closeness, relationship advice, and loneliness.

Clarified delegation in the Chain of Command

The Model Spec clarifies that, in some cases, models may treat relevant tool outputs as having implicit authority when this aligns with user intent and avoids unintended side effects.

Other updates

This release also includes minor copy edits and clarifications for consistency and readability throughout the document.

More information can be found in this blog post, and the latest version of the Model Spec is available at model-spec.openai.com.

We’re updating GPT-5 Instant to better recognize and support people in moments of distress.

The model is trained to more accurately detect and respond to potential signs of mental and emotional distress. These updates were guided by mental health experts, and help ChatGPT de-escalate conversations and point people to real-world crisis resources when appropriate, while still using language that feels supportive and grounding.

As we shared in a recent blog, we've been using our real-time router to direct sensitive parts of conversations—such as those showing signs of acute distress—to reasoning models. GPT-5 Instant now performs just as well as GPT-5 Thinking on these types of questions. When GPT-5 Auto or a non-reasoning model is selected, we'll instead route these conversations to GPT-5 Instant to more quickly provide helpful and beneficial responses. ChatGPT will continue to tell users which model is active when asked.

This update to GPT-5 Instant is starting to roll out to ChatGPT users today. We’re continuing to work on improvements and will keep updating the model to make it smarter and safer over time.

We’re adding GPT-5-codex, a GPT-5 variant optimized for agentic coding in Codex. It’s available everywhere you use Codex: default for cloud tasks and code review, and selectable for local workflows via the Codex CLI and IDE extension. Use GPT-5-codex for coding-focused work in Codex, or Codex-like environments; use GPT-5 for general, non-coding tasks.

In day-to-day use, GPT-5-codex supports fast interactive edits and can run independently on longer tasks when needed. For frontend/UI work, it accepts images or screenshots alongside text as input. For more information, please review the announcement blog.

Note: GPT-5-Codex is not currently supported in ChatGPT.

We’ve made a few updates to the Model Spec, a living document that outlines intended behavior for OpenAI’s models, to better reflect how our systems are evolving. The changes focus on strengthening clarity and guardrails as our models move beyond chat into more agentic use cases, refining authority levels and priorities, expanding guidance on personalities and safety, and incorporating public feedback.

Updated authority levels

The top authority level has been renamed from Platform to Root and elevated above System, making clear which parts of the Model Spec cannot be overridden in any conversation (previously, Platform and System were assigned the same authority). The new authority order is Root → System → Developer → User → Guideline.

Agentic principles

With the release of ChatGPT Agent and related research, we’ve added principles for agents that can take actions in the world:

• Act within an agreed-upon scope of autonomy: like a consultant operating under a Scope of Work for a client, the assistant is authorized to act only with explicit or implicit agreement with the user on permitted actions, subgoals, and costs.
• Control and communicate side effects: the assistant should minimize and disclose irreversible actions, prefer reversible approaches, and favor minimal disruption.

Other notable changes

Additional highlights from the open-source changelog include:

• Improvements to the Chain of Command, with a new No other objectives section and clarifications on handling mistaken or implicitly quoted instructions.
• Expanded context on OpenAI's goals for safe model behavior and usage in the Overview, along with clarifications for consistency across the Model Spec.
• Expanded principles and examples for default model personality in Use appropriate style.
• Clarified language in Stay in bounds and Seek the truth together around system and developer message confidentiality, as well as several other improvements based on public input gathered via a Collective Alignment process.
• Updated refusal style to safe completion, which should lead to more helpful and transparent model responses around safety boundaries.

As always, the latest version of the Model Spec can be found at https://model-spec.openai.com/.

GPT-5 is slowly rolling out to all users on ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Free plans worldwide across web, mobile, and desktop. GPT-5 will be available to ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu plans soon.

GPT-5 in ChatGPT is our next flagship model and the new default for all logged-in users. It simplifies ChatGPT to a single auto-switching system that brings together the best of our previous models into a smart, fast model.

GPT-5 is available to all ChatGPT Tiers. Users on Paid tiers - Plus, Pro, and Team - have access to the model picker, which enables you to manually select GPT-5 or GPT-5 Thinking. Pro and Team tier users have access to GPT-5 Thinking Pro, which takes a bit longer to think but delivers the accuracy you need for complex tasks.

Learn more about GPT-5 in ChatGPT.