OpenAI has announced new ChatGPT capabilities and new models in the GPT-5 family: GPT-5.1 Instant and GPT-5.1 Thinking.
According to the company, users will now have more control over ChatGPT’s tone and style. It had added a few preset tone options earlier this year, and now it is refining the options and adding new ones. The existing ones that will remain unchanged are Cynical (originally Cynic) and Nerdy (originally Nerd), while other presets will be updated, including Default, Friendly (originally Listener), and Efficient (originally Robot). Three entirely new presets are being added as well: Professional, Candid, and Quirky.
“These options are designed to align with what we’ve learned about how people naturally steer the model, making it quick and intuitive to choose a personality that feels uniquely right,” OpenAI wrote in a post.
In addition to these presets, users will be able to finetune some of ChatGPT’s characteristics, such as how concise, warm, or scannable its responses are, or how often it uses emojis. ChatGPT may offer to update its settings if it notices these preferences in conversations, or users will be able to change them manually in settings, including being able to remove or change preferences at any point.
The new presets have already begun rolling out, and the ability to tune characteristics is also rolling out to a much smaller number of users as an experiment.
GPT 5.1 Instant and Thinking
GPT-5.1 Instant is warmer and more conversational than its GPT-5 counterpart, and is also better at following instructions. “Based on early testing, it often surprises people with its playfulness while remaining clear and useful,” OpenAI wrote.
It can use adaptive reasoning to decide when it should think before responding, which results in more thorough and accurate answers while still being able to provide quick turnaround times.
The other new model, GPT-5.1 Thinking, also adapts thinking time to the question, meaning it will spend longer working through complex problems and shorter answering simple prompts.
Compared to GPT-5 Thinking, the newer model offers clearer responses with less jargon and fewer undefined terms, according to OpenAI.
“This makes our most capable model more approachable and easily understandable, especially for complex tasks at work and explaining technical concepts,” the company wrote.
These newest models have already begun rolling out to paid ChatGPT users and free and logged-out users will get access next. They will also be added to the API later in the week.
ChatGPT will route queries to the model that will be best suited for the task, so users will not need to select between Instant or Thinking manually.
Additionally, GPT-5 Instant and Thinking will remain available as legacy models for paid users for three months to give users the opportunity to test the new models out. The company plans to follow a similar schedule going forward to allow for a smoother transition when it releases new models.
“Today’s GPT‑5.1 updates and new customization options are a step toward a ChatGPT that feels like it fits you—smarter, more enjoyable to talk to, and more adaptable to your preferences. Going forward, we’ll continue improving along these dimensions—there’s much more to come,” OpenAI wrote.
