OpenAI is postponing the launch of its ChatGPT image generator for free users. In a post on Wednesday, CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that the image generator tool is more popular than he expected, adding that “the rollout of our free tier will unfortunately be delayed for a while.”
OpenAI just added image generation capabilities to ChatGPT on Tuesday, allowing users to create images directly in the app using the company’s GPT-4o reasoning model. Since the app’s launch, users have flooded social media feeds with photos transformed into Studio Ghibli-style images, a trend that hasn’t left even Altman indifferent.
The GPT-4o comes with improved text rendering and uses an “autoregressive approach” to image generation, which means it generates images from left to right and top to bottom, rather than all at once. It is currently available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers, but it is not yet known when it will be available to free users.
