I bet you saw the warning message "You've reached your GPT-5 limit." at least once since the new model was released, or before, in times of mighty GPT4o limits. Each time, this is an annoying roadblock. Especially when you rely on ChatGPT for urgent work, study tasks or things that need instant help from AI assistant. But don't worry, I have found some ways to keep the your conversations going no matter how much messages and replies from GPT you need.

My name is Artem and I have been using GPT models from the very start, with dozens of hours of experience inside of OpenAI models.

• Since GPT-5 launched last month, OpenAI’s been tweaking the rules faster than we can refresh the page. Let’s break it down on what’s going on, and how to use the most out of current state of GPT5.

• In my brief guide, we will go through why you might be seeing this message and I will provide some (legal) hints on how to bypass GPT-5 restrictions with ease.

Message Limits Updates

Let's see how have limits been updated when GPT-5 released and GPT-4o, o3-mini, and o4-mini have seemingly vanished from ChatGPT.

• Free plan have somewhat basic access to GPT-5 in “lite” mode. It is limited to roughly 5–8 messages per 3 hours, also depending on load. Occasional fallback to GPT-4.1 mini. In my experience, no persistent web search. Omni model chatbot that decides, what model to do on each use.

• Plus plan now get around 60–80 GPT-5 messages per 3 hours, plus access to GPT-4.5 “Orion” and GPT-4.1 mini. Tool usage (Web Search, Canvas, Python, Deep Research) is included, but with daily caps.

• Pro / Team plans have full GPT-5 access with the highest per-hour limits, priority processing, and the complete model list: GPT-5 (all sizes), GPT-4.5 Orion, GPT-4.1, o3-pro, and API access to 196K token context mode. Near-unlimited tool usage, including ChatGPT Agents and persistent web-enabled sessions.

Here is a table i made with limits that I found to be up to date as of August 2025. Here is another perspective on limits as experienced by fellow redditor with experience in AI technologies.

TL;DR — What Just Happened?

Let me recap what happened with GPT in recent months, it has affected the limits and users a lot.

• March–June: Gradual rollout of smarter models and tools (o3, 4.1, Deep Research, o3-pro)

• July: ChatGPT Agents become available

• August: GPT-5 revolution. Not without backlash. Users demanded the old models back, and OpenAI responded. Still, this has not satisfied everyone: from Reddit discussions, many users were surprised by the change. One comment summed it up well: “GPT-5 wasn’t for use — it was to get rid of the older models.”

Why Do You See "You've reached your GPT-5 limit"?

GPT 4 Omni is a powerful large language model from OpenAI. Arguably, now in June 2025, it’s still one of the most used LLMs in the world. It's amazingly smart and rather fast compared to many competitors, but it takes rather a lot of resources to run. To manage this, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has set limits on how much GPT-4o users can access.

There are the most common reasons why you might see the message saying that you’ve hit GPT 4 limits:

1. Free User Limits:

OpenAI offers different levels of access to GPT-5, for some, GPT-4 and other models, such as o1 or o3.

If you use the free version of ChatGPT, you are now provided with access to GPT-4o but have a limited number of messages which you can send per short period of time - currently about 10 messages/3 hours. Then, if you reach the new GPT5 usage limit, the service automatically downgrades you to GPT-4o mini, a less intelligent but faster model. You may notice that responses feel a bit less “sharp”, but the label in the UI still only shows “ChatGPT.”

This limit is designed to make sure that anyone from those millions of free users gets an even opportunity to use the platform anywhere and anytime.

Free plan limit for gpt-5 does not let you to do a lot of things, it limits deep research features, thinking (which is actually openAI o3 model built in), and more. It also gives you only a couple image generations per day.

What can you do?

• Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus: subscribing to ChatGPT+ significantly increases the usage limits. The Plus plan provides access to GPT-5 and allows to have longer conversations.

• Just wait: free users usually get their message limits reset after a certain period (like 3-4 hours). Be patient, and you'll be able to chat again soon.

2. Just a Temporary Glitch (It Happens!)

Sometimes, that “You’ve hit your GPT-5 limit” message isn’t really about limits. Especially if you’re using the free version of ChatGPT, you might just be dealing with a hiccup on the server side. I’ve seen it happen – you reload once and it’s all back to normal. Here’s what I usually try when it acts up:

• Refresh the tab. Yes, seriously. Often that’s all it takes.

• Log out and back in. The oldest IT trick in the book still works. A quick relog can nudge the system to work again.

• Clear your browser cache because If the issue sticks around, clearing the cache might fix it. Browsers can hang onto weird data sometimes.

This type of glitch doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong – it just means the system glitched out. Happens to the best of us.

3. It’s Not You, It’s High Traffic

Another common reason for hitting your GPT usage limit is high traffic. When too many users are online at once, OpenAI gives priority to paying users. That’s when free accounts get bumped or slowed down – or get that annoying “limit reached” message.

Here’s what helps me in those cases:

• Wait a bit and try later – Late nights or early mornings usually work better if you’re on a free plan.

• Switch to a paid tier like ChatGPT Plus or same-priced Writingmate.ai. With this platform, you can access top-tier models (like GPT-5, Claude 4 Sonnet, o3 Mini, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and more) without hitting usage walls as often. It starts at $10/mo and gives you access to multiple AI models in one place – much better flexibility than most single-model chatbots out there.

If you’re hitting limits constantly, it might be a good time to consider a smarter switch: new.writingmate.ai gives you much more AI power without the typical walls or delays.

More Ways to Use GPT-5 Limit-Free

If you need to use GPT-5 and legacy models without restrictions and limitations, consider some of these options:

1. Explore Writingmate

Writingmate AI gives access to literally all best AI models available in 2025. That’s not a joke: any model from GPT 4o to Gemini 2.5 and Llama 4, also new Claude 4, Mistral, Grok and models for image generation (f.e. Stable Diffusion, DALLE and Flux) as well.

You can try out many other AI models too, making it a very useful platform for all your AI needs. It also features a handy Model Comparison tool, allowing you to directly compare GPT-4o vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet and other models to define the best fit.

• Very beginner-friendly and easy to use

• Over 300 best AI models to switch between, no API keys needed

• Subscription starts at 9 dollars per month, and free tier is also avaliable. (GPT Plus from OpenAI, meanwhile, costs over 20 without offering any non-OpenAI models and additional features).

• No annoying GPT-5 limit, and much more models avaliable as well + useful features like AI Agents and Prompt Libraries.

Use this and avoid such user caps for a fraction of a cost: new.writingmate.ai

4. Try Telegram Bots & Apps

You’d be surprised how many Telegram bots now support GPT-5 and other advanced models in 2025. These bots work right inside the Telegram app, so you don’t even need a browser. I’ve used a few for quick tasks and they’re surprisingly smooth.

How to find one?
Just open Telegram, type something like “GPT-5 bot” or “ChatGPT” in the search bar, and browse through the results. Some of them even let you choose between models like Claude or Gemini.

Telegram sign in: telegram.org

5. Look Into Free Trials on GPT Wrappers

There are also tons of platforms that are often called GPT wrappers. What they do is that they connect you to OpenAI’s models through their own interface. Many of them offer (limited) GPT-4o access, and while most aren’t fully free (because API access isn’t cheap), a lot do offer free trials. That usually means 3 to 7 days of free premium use.

"But Artem, how do you find them?"
Just search Google with phrases like “GPT-4o free trial” or “use GPT-4 for free.” You’ll find platforms offering trials with no payment required upfront – just don’t forget to cancel if you don’t plan to stay subscribed.

Of course, if you want more flexibility and less hunting around, check out Writingmate. It starts at just $9 and gives you access to all the best coding LLMs – GPT-4o, Claude, o3 Mini, Gemini 1.5, and even open-source models – in one clean workspace. Much easier than hopping between bots and wrappers.

Recent ChatGPT Updates (March - June 2025)

First of all, let me summarize for you the recent news from ChatGPT that was announced in the last months:

These caps were an obvious solution to manage system load, especially during high-demand periods. So if you’re doing a lot of dev work or coding tasks, o3-mini and GPT-4o mini give you the best flexibility and frequency, especially if you use it through Writingmate.ai, no API keys or professional-grade skills needed. Heavy use of deep research is more limited, so plan those prompts wisely.

Access to Reasoning with GPT-5

You can now enjoy the access to all reasoning models and GPT‑5 in one place with Writingmate, an all-in-one AI tool.

Starting at just $9.99/month, Writingmate gives you access to nearly 200 AI models at once. That includes GPT‑5, o-series, Claude 4 Sonnet & Opus, Gemini Flash and Pro, DeepSeek R1, Grok, and more, as simple as every of them under one subscription.

• That’s up to 75% savings compared to subscribing to separate AI platforms;

• You no longer need to switch between different GPT wrappers or also deal with Telegram bots.

• o3-mini and more of reasoning models, new Llama, Claude, Deepseek R1 & more.

• Instead, you get a seamless, centralized workspace where you can compare outputs, scale usage, and explore models based on any of your coding, reasoning, or creative needs.

• Chatgpt plus gpt5 limit gone as well, instead, you get dozens of top models even if you start using the tool for free and with no card attached. If you like how the tool works, you can have a most affordable 9 dollar plan and it will let you do much more than generic GPT chatbot by openAI can ever do.

Try it here: new.writingmate.ai

"Discontinued" Models and Understanding of OpenAI Legacy Models.

AI models are like different tools, each with its own strengths and weakneses. While GPT-5 is powerful, it's not the only one out there. You might come across other models, like a good old GPT-3.5, on various platforms.

Inside generic GPT chatbot, most of the old models are gone now, but, because of users requested it, OpenAI brought back some of the models in API mode. Read more about it here.

Let's now break down the differences in simple terms:

• GPT-3.5: quite old but very fast model. Was replaced by GPT-4o mini. Not relevant as of now, but easy to build your own model with this example in mind.

• GPT-4 and 4 Turbo: the older generations of top-tier models. Was replaced by GPT-4o and o1 back in 2024.

• GPT-4o: Advanced model and the most popular one. ChatGPT default model since Spring 2025. Great at coming up with creative ideas, being accurate, and handling tough or complex questions.

• GPT-4o mini: the younger brother of the 4o. It works much faster than bigger 4o and great for everyday task, unless you don't to find the answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

• O1 and O1 mini: the models for reasoning tasks, very complex calculations and multi-tasking. They are no longer available in ChatGPT, but still available in Writingmate.ai.

• O3 and O3 mini: new, fast, and the cost-efficient reasoning models dropped in 2025. The o3-mini is faster and cost-efficient, while o3 research is deeper but has lower weekly cap. Available through both ChatGPT and Writingmate.

• GPT‑4.5 “Orion” - the largest OpenAI's model so far, accessible as a research preview and with a probable release in late 2025.

Our recommendation: it’s worth trying different models and define which one works best for your needs.

If you got your own OpenAI API keys installed, you will be limited only with the money you have on your account. In this case, you will not be having message limits until your account is above zero. Check the pricing for API access.

Final Words

Please keep in mind: so-called battle of AI models is at its highest boiling point right now. New AIs are announced every week, AI developers have become Big Tech companies with their valuation growing by leaps and bounds. As a real-life example: while we were preparing the first version of this article for you, Google released its new AI called Gemini 2.0. And this new version of Gemini has outperformed both GPT-4 and even o1 models by OpenAI models by total summary of different scores. 

What does this mean for all of us, you may say? It's a high time now to explore and test different AIs. Of course, you can fully focus on ChatGPT, but we recommend keeping an eye on this engaging AI battle and exploring the innovations by yourself. This way, you'll always be "in the loop" and can find the most effective AIs available on the market for your specific tasks. You can choose the single subscriptions to services such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude, or stick to all-in-one platforms like Writingmate.ai – it's entirely up to you. See you and good luck!

AI Models Leaderboard by Chatbot Arena, as of June 2025.