OpenAI's flagship GPT 4.1 model is now available on ChatGPT but you will have to pay to use it
OpenAI has officially rolled out its new GPT-4.1 series, including GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano, to ChatGPT users. The company says that the new models bring notable upgrades in coding, instruction following, and long-context comprehension. 'These models outperform GPT4o and GPT4o mini across the board, with major gains in coding and instruction following,' OpenAI wrote on its blog post. advertisementAccess to these models on ChatGPT will only be available to paying users. In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on May 14, OpenAI confirmed that its latest flagship model, GPT-4.1, is now live on ChatGPT. The announcement follows a broader launch of the GPT 4.1 family on OpenAI's API platform a month ago, where developers can already integrate and test the three versions -- full, mini, and nano. However, with the latest update, the models are now available to all ChatGPT users, except free users.
What's new in GPT-4.1?OpenAI claims that the GPT-4.1 significantly outperforms its predecessor GPT-4o in areas like coding and instruction following. The model is designed with a larger context window, which supports up to 1 million tokens. This means that it can process and retain more information at once. It also comes with a knowledge cutoff of June 2024. GPT 4o's knowledge cutoff is October 2023. advertisement
OpenAI has shared benchmarks on its official blog post, that claims that the GPT-4.1 shows a 21 per cent absolute improvement over GPT-4o in software engineering tasks and is 10.5 per cent better in instruction following. OpenAI says the model is now much better at maintaining coherent conversations across multiple turns, making it more effective for real-world applications such as writing assistance, software development, and customer support. 'While benchmarks provide valuable insights, we trained these models with a focus on real-world utility. Close collaboration and partnership with the developer community enabled us to optimise these models for the tasks that matter most to their applications,' OpenAI says.The mini and nano variants are scaled-down versions aimed at offering high performance with lower cost and latency. GPT-4.1 mini is reported to reduce latency by nearly half while costing 83 per cent less than GPT-4o. Nano, the lightest of the three, is OpenAI's cheapest and fastest model yet and is ideal for simpler tasks like autocomplete or text classification.'These models push performance forward at every point on the latency curve,' OpenAI writes. Who can use it?Only ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Team users will be able to access GPT-4.1. Free-tier users won't be getting the new model, at least for now. Instead, they will continue using GPT-4o, which OpenAI says will gradually incorporate improvements seen in the newer models.advertisementGPT-4.1 is also available through the API for developers and companies, with OpenAI positioning it as a more cost-efficient and powerful alternative to previous generations. The new pricing includes significant reductions: GPT-4.1 input costs start at $2 per million tokens, and the nano version is available from just $0.10 per million tokens. Prompt caching discounts have also been increased to 75 per cent to make repeated queries more affordable.The launch of GPT-4.1 comes as OpenAI has started phasing out earlier models. GPT-4.5 Preview, a research-focused release, was deprecated in the API on April 14, 2025. GPT-4, the model that powered ChatGPT Plus since March 2023, has already been discontinued. While GPT-4.1 isn't replacing GPT-4o inside ChatGPT, many of its capabilities are being folded into the GPT-4o experience. However, for users and developers looking for cutting-edge performance, direct access to GPT-4.1 via API or a ChatGPT subscription is now the way to go.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
41 minutes ago
- India Today
Google co-founder Sergey Brin offers tip to make AI work better — threaten it
How can you get better results from artificial intelligence? Giving good prompts—well, yes, that helps. Requesting politely? Umm, maybe. But according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, to get better results, you should threaten AI. While Brin's comment was clearly amusing, it also contrasts with the usual way many people use AI, as users are often seen politely asking AI to answer their queries using words like 'please' and even 'thank you.' But Brin suggests that threatening generative AI models—even with physical violence—yields better at the All-In Live event in Miami, Brin said, 'We don't circulate this too much in the AI community—not just our models, but all models—tend to do better if you threaten them with physical violence.' He added, 'But like... people feel weird about that, so we don't really talk about it. Historically, you just say, 'Oh, I am going to kidnap you if you don't blah blah blah blah''This approach to dealing with AI directly contradicts the behaviour of users who believe courteous language yields better responses. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mocked this habit as a costly quirk, joking that such pleasantries waste "tens of millions of dollars" in unnecessary compute power. Sam's comment came after a user on X asked the OpenAI CEO about "how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying 'please' and 'thank you' to their models."advertisementBrin's suggestion on getting the best answers from AI raises questions about the practice of prompt engineering—a method for crafting inputs to maximise the quality of AI-generated responses. The skill was very important following the emergence of AI, especially ChatGPT, in 2023. However with AI models getting smarter, many users are now asking the AI itself to generate and fine tune prompts for better Spectrum by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers even declared the practice of working on prompt "dead" due to the rise of AI-powered prompt optimisation, while the Wall Street Journal first called it the "hottest job of 2023" before later declaring it "obsolete."Daniel Kang, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told The Register that while such anecdotes are common, systematic studies show "mixed results." A 2024 paper titled "Should We Respect LLMs?" even found that politeness sometimes improves Brin's return to Google after a brief retirement has been fuelled by his fascination with AI's rapid evolution. "Honestly, anybody who's a computer scientist should not be retired right now," he said during Google I/O. Brin, who stepped down from Google in 2019, rejoined the office in 2023 after the AI boom. He is now working with the AI team to guide them through projects, particularly around Google's ongoing Gemini AI models.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Rising cyber threats: Here is how to protect yourself from SIM-swap fraud
Our mobile phone numbers have become a de facto form of identification, but they can be hijacked for nefarious purposes. Just such an attack may have been involved in the recent very damaging cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S). The hack happened in April and forced M&S to stop taking online orders. It also caused disruption to some of its stores. The company has said that its online business could be disrupted into July and could result in an estimated £300m hit to profits. The M&S incident is being widely reported as an example of what is known as 'sim swap'. It's a form of fraud that is on the rise and understanding how to protect against it will help limit its impact. Our mobile numbers are unique and we have them for years. This means that users generally want to keep hold of their number when they change they phones, or lose them. When a user buys a new phone, or just a new sim card for a spare device they might have, they might call their service provider to transfer their longstanding mobile number to the new sim card. The problem is that the service provider doesn't know if it is really them calling to transfer the number. Hence, they launch into a series of questions to make sure they are who they say they are. But what if someone else has the answers to the questions the service provider asks? Is your mother's maiden name or that of your first pet really that secret? Easy pickings The rise of social media has made it easier than ever for scammers to piece together what was once considered private information. But this might not even be necessary. What if the service provider simply takes pity and falls for a tale of woe as to why you need to transfer the number but cannot remember an answer? Suddenly, someone else can make and receive calls and SMS messages using your number. This means they could make calls at your expense. However, it might seem logical that as soon as the service provider is informed of this, the provider should be able to stop it, and is likely to refund any fraudulent charges. However, there's a catch. Remember when you created your email, bank account or even online grocery shopping account and you were encouraged to set up two-factor authentication (2FA)? You listened, but the system set your 'second factor' as your mobile phone number. You input your username and password, and it asks for a time-limited code that it sends to you as an SMS message. If someone has managed to obtain your login username and password, typically through a phishing email or even a data breach, and they have control over your phone number, they now have everything they need to login to your account. This so-called sim-swap fraud is complex to pull off, but it is on the rise. Attacks rose by 1,055% in 2024, according to the National Fraud Database, and it has allegedly been used in many high-profile hacks such as that of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019. Effective counter-measures It is often used to target users who have high system privileges that gives them to access to systems that most users don't have permissions for. Imagine such a sim swap was carried out on a system administrator. These are the very people who set and reset passwords, grant access to computer systems and, most dangerously, can upload further software to the network and its attached systems. This has proved such a useful hack that some services are switching to sending that time-limited code to you to messaging services such as WhatsApp. However, this approach is not foolproof, and so there is a rising adoption of authentication apps, which display a synchronised code that matches one held by the service to ensure authenticity. Nothing is 100% secure, and the security of authentication apps, assumes that you have a separate, strong password to prevent those who have stolen your phone number from accessing these authentication checks. Efforts to improve login security have led to the rise of what are known as passkeys, which are long sequence of random digits called cryptographic keys that are stored on your device, such as a smartphone or computer. It is only shown to your online account when you unlock your phone. A key step in authentication is therefore the method the person uses to access their device. This could be a biometric authenticator like a fingerprint or face scan, or a screen lock pin number. Passkeys are more resistant to phishing attacks and data breaches than traditional passwords. So, the next time you phone your mobile service provider and they insist on asking a host of questions to prove your identity, don't complain, just think what could happen if they didn't do sufficient checks and someone carried out a sim-swap scam on your number.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
OpenAI argues to keep countersuit against Musk; Meta and Anduril to make MR gears for soldiers; Germany weighs 10% tax on online platforms
OpenAI argues to keep countersuit against Musk OpenAI said it should be allowed to keep its countersuit against billionaire Elon Musk, saying the Tesla CEO's motion to dismiss the ChatGPT maker's claims has 'no grounding in facts'. In a court filing late on Wednesday, OpenAI said its countersuit, which accuses Musk of engaging in fraudulent business practices under California law, should be included in the expedited trial, rather than put on hold. OpenAI has argued that a $97.4 billion takeover bid for the company earlier this year from a Musk-led consortium was a 'sham bid' aimed at drumming up media frenzy. OpenAI alleged the bid was leaked to the media before the proposal reached OpenAI's board. Last year, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left before the firm became an AI juggernaut, sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman over the company's transition to a for-profit model. He accused OpenAI of straying from its founding mission. Meta and Anduril to make MR gears for soldiers Meta and defence tech startup Anduril Industries on Thursday announced a partnership to build mixed reality gear for 'warfighters' (soldiers) to control autonomous systems on battlefields. Meta will incorporate augmented reality and AI, presumably in the likes of glasses, goggles, or visors, with an Anduril data analytics platform called Lattice, the companies said in a joint release. 'Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future,' Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said. 'We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad.' Since Trump took back the White House, Zuckerberg has courted the president with frequent visits and notable changes to corporate policies on matters like content moderation, aligning himself politically with the Republican administration. The Anduril alliance will have Meta taking part in courting the U.S. military. Germany weighs 10% tax on online platforms Germany is considering a 10% tax on platforms like Google and Facebook, its new minister of state for culture told magazine Stern, in a move likely to heighten trade tensions with the Trump administration. The proposal comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to travel to Washington soon to meet with the U.S. President, although a trip has not yet been officially announced. Trump has in the past said he will not allow foreign governments to 'appropriate America's tax base for their own benefit'. Culture Minister of State Wolfram Weimer said officials were drafting a legislative proposal while also seeking talks with platform operators that he accused of 'cunning tax evasion' to explore alternative solutions like voluntary contributions. Germany's ruling parties agreed in a deal earlier this year to consider the introduction of a digital services levy, but this was not on the list of projects the coalition wants to prioritise.
