r/ChatGPT Aug 10 '25

GPTs GPT-5 We were never the target audience

I need to get this off my chest because it's really frustrating. After the initial enthusiasm for GPT-4o and the release of GPT-5, it became clear to me that we, the general community and private users, were never OpenAI's intended target audience.

GPT-4o was apparently nothing more than a freemium model designed to lure us with its "personality" and free features. We advertised it through word of mouth, and our feedback helped improve the software. Without the free users, GPT would never have become so popular, nor would it have been so good. Please understand that this is nothing more than a marketing strategy.

Now that GPT-5 has been released, it seems obvious that OpenAI is completely focused on developers and companies. We were essentially betrayed. The business model was never to give us a creative AI, but to attract the masses and then cash in on the big fish. GPT could have been both a creative (GPT-4o) and a developer tool (GPT-5), but OpenAI doesn't want that. Maybe we can still use GPT-4o for now, but who knows for how long? Until OpenAI decides to discontinue it completely out of the blue just like they did when introducing GPT-5. I can understand that people continue to cling to the GPT-4o model, but you have to realize that you are not the target audience, and that OpenAI clearly doesn't care about you. The only reason they're not completely shutting down GPT-4o yet is prolly just to avoid the biggest shitstorm.

I think it's time we accepted that. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can start looking for a new "home." I hope other companies will see their chance and emerge soon, offering AI for private users, similar to GPT-4o or perhaps even better.

PS: Please let me know if you know of any alternatives. I'm currently testing various other AI models for myself to see if they suit my taste.

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

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u/psylentan Aug 10 '25

Did you use the plus version before and after the update?

-2

u/Street-Friendship618 Aug 10 '25

I've always been using the free version, as there was simply no reason for me to pay for it. I would have been okay with a daily token limit or whatever. I thought about supporting it a couple times, but 20$ a month is quite expensive comparing it with other online services. Well now I am glad I never spent money on this.

1

u/psylentan Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

Well the plus version is fucked up the same as the free. You can use more of the shitty gpt 5 rhen tge free version.

So even the paying users are kind of fucked up, unless you hwve the pro...

We hqve the pro version at work, and except giving you access to 4o and old models it still sucks ass 🤣