What are the new features of GPT-5?
OpenAI describes GPT-5 as “the smartest and most useful model yet—with built-in reasoning that makes expert knowledge accessible to everyone” (OpenAI, 2025). According to the official GPT-5 system card, OpenAI describes GPT-5 as “a unified system with a fast model, a deeper reasoning model (GPT-5 Thinking), and a real-time router that quickly decides which model to use based on the type of conversation and complexity.” The “router” is an administrative layer or decision-making logic, not necessarily a standalone “hardware router” in the traditional sense. The model to be used is decided on a per-prompt basis. The model promises shorter response times and more stable performance, while also offering longer dialogue times and personalized responses. Here is an overview of the most important new features, based on OpenAI's release blog:
Improved accuracy and speed: more precise answers and faster responses than its predecessors, especially in the fields of mathematics, science, finance, and law.
Optimized programming capabilities: introduction of GPT-5 Codex as a specialized model for demanding programming and debugging tasks, a model that has been specifically trained for coding agent tasks; it is used in development environments and is also available to companies via the API. In general, the standard GPT-5 model has significantly improved programming capabilities compared to GPT-4o
Advanced creative writing: GPT-5 transforms raw ideas into compelling, impressive texts with literary depth and rhythm
Improved health literacy: HealthBench scores significantly higher than all previous models, based on realistic scenarios and criteria defined by doctors.
Advanced context processing: The extended token context window allows GPT-5 to engage in longer and more complex conversations.
New model variants: Specialized variants such as GPT-5 mini and GPT-5 nano are optimized for specific tasks
Enhanced security features: GPT-5 Codex includes both model-level mitigations (e.g., training against malicious tasks and prompt injections) and product-level protections such as sandboxing and configurable network access.
This makes GPT-5 more versatile for use in a wide variety of areas, from content creation and programming to business analysis. The following graphic demonstrates the system architecture and underlying models for GPT-5:
While companies and developers welcome this potential, critics are increasingly voicing concerns about data protection and social implications.
GPT-5 under discussion: Why is the model so polarizing?
As with any major AI innovation, GPT-5 is also causing debate. The topics of ethics and security are particularly polarizing, but so is transparency. OpenAI does not present GPT-5 as a fundamental innovation, but rather as a moderate continuation of GPT-4 in terms of its performance and capabilities. Spectacular leaps and revolutionary capabilities are therefore not to be expected, but rather iterative developments. The disappointed perception of GPT-5 seems to be based on overly high expectations and hype. In the Effective Altruism forum, where technical and ethical aspects in particular are discussed intensively, it is referred to as a family model plus router: “It's more of a product release: a family of models plus a router.”
User reactions to the router model can be seen in the post on X by Nick Turley, Head of ChatGPT and a key figure behind the product strategy and development. His online presence (@nickaturley on X, formerly Twitter) is a regular part of the public debate on GPT versions and AI directions, as was the case with the release of GPT-5. Particular criticism has been directed at the testing of GPT-5's safety routing decisions, which Nick Turley also highlighted on X:
Security routing automatically censors sensitive/emotional chats for paying adults and severely restricts creative and emotional nuances by automatically switching from GPT-4/o to GPT-5. Users criticize this, partly due to strong attachments to earlier models, and are consequently demanding protective measures and options such as opt-out, clear notices, and routing protocols (see Reddit). Overall, discussions on the web reflect that while GPT-5 delivers progress, many observers remain skeptical about how “revolutionary” and transparent these advances are.
GPT-5 Pro vs. GPT-5
The main difference between ChatGPT 5 (standard) and ChatGPT 5 Pro lies in computing power and processing time. The Pro version is primarily aimed at professional users, developers, and researchers who need advanced features. It relies on parallel use of computing resources for maximum precision, which can result in longer response times of up to five minutes (TechRadar, 2025). Topics can be combined and creatively synthesized. The model costs $200 per month, but for this price it offers 80% fewer errors in complex queries compared to GPT-4 and a performance increase from 6.3% to 24.8% in expert tests thanks to its “thinking” mode. (Vellum, 2025). Compared to the standard version, it is therefore ideal for complex and demanding tasks
GPT-5 vs. GPT-4/4o
While GPT-4 already represented a major leap forward in AI-powered text and image processing, GPT-5 is now setting new standards in terms of accuracy and performance. GPT-4 offers developers and companies a powerful platform for applications in text processing, chatbots, content generation, and much more.
GPT-5 significantly expands these capabilities: While GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4o in particular already supported multimodality, GPT-5 allows audio and video content in addition to text and images, offers a significantly larger context window, and introduced the new “Thinking Mode.” This was previously introduced with GPT-4o, the optimized version of GPT-4.
Here are the most important changes at a glance:
GPT-4, GPT-4o, and GPT-5 represent the continuous development of OpenAI's AI models. GPT-4 laid the foundation with advanced text and image processing and reliable accuracy in everyday tasks. GPT-4o, a turbo-optimized variant, works faster and more accurately, introduces deep thinking, and also experiments with audio and video processing. GPT-5, the latest next-generation version, combines maximum accuracy with native multimodality for text, image, audio, and video, as well as an enormous context window. The choice of model ultimately depends on the required accuracy and model capacity for each use case.
Assessment and Outlook
The introduction of a hybrid multi-model system enables more efficient task distribution and leads to improved performance for complex queries. Benchmark tests confirm higher accuracy and reduced error rates compared to previous models.
"GPT-5's strengths lie primarily in agentic applications, especially in the area of in-depth research and as an assistant in programming." (Patrick from moinAI, knowhere CEO & Head of Research)
With less buzz in the general news world, we at moinAI are very excited about the open-source model gpt-oss. This was introduced in the same week as the GPT-5 models. The advantage of the OSS variant for moinAI as a SaaS provider is that it is very fast and performs similarly to the popular GPT-4o model. This makes it possible to offer the service at its current excellent level, hosted entirely on German servers at moinAI, without having to rely on providers such as OpenAI or Azure. This ensures that customer data is never passed on to third parties.
The biggest challenge for future developments is to strike a balance between technical excellence and appealing user interaction. Future models such as GPT-6 could therefore have better personalization features to respond to individual user preferences, as well as further increase the context window and offer even more accurate multimodality. However, exact values are not yet available, and the official announcement of GPT-6 and its specific features remains to be seen.
Conclusion
GPT-5 marks a significant advance in AI development, particularly in technical areas such as development and medical accuracy. However, the current availability and performance of GPT-5 models are not yet at the level users would like them to be. There are complaints about lower transparency and control compared to previous models, and responses are perceived as too formal and less appealing. OpenAI needs to address this feedback and incorporate it into future releases. The biggest challenge for OpenAI is therefore to find the balance between technical excellence and appealing user interaction.
