Delay in Launch of ChatGPT’s Image Generator for Free Users

OpenAI has announced a delay in the rollout of its built-in image generator for users of ChatGPT who are on the free plan. This news comes from CEO Sam Altman, who revealed that the new image-generation feature has garnered much more popularity than he initially anticipated. He commented that the rollout for free-tier users will be postponed for some time.

The image generation capability was introduced just a day prior to Altman's announcement, allowing users to create images directly within the ChatGPT app, utilizing the company's latest reasoning model known as GPT-4o. Since its launch, many users have taken to social media to share images they have created, often transforming them into styles inspired by famous animation studios like Studio Ghibli. This trend has even caught the attention of Altman himself.

The GPT-4o model boasts improvements in text rendering and employs an "autoregressive approach" to image creation. This means that it generates an image gradually, from left to right and top to bottom, rather than all at once. Currently, the image generation feature is available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers, but there is no clear timeline for when it will be accessible to users who are on the free plan.

ChatGPT, image, delay