OpenAI just gutted the ChatGPT model picker and rebuilt it. If you pay for Plus or Pro, you’re looking at a new interface today. It’s simpler, the names actually make sense now, and there’s a sneaky new feature buried in the settings that most people will miss.
Here’s what changed, what’s gone, and what you should actually do about it.
The new model picker
The old naming convention (Thinking-Standard, Thinking-Extended, Thinking-Heavy) is out. Here’s the new lineup:
| Old Name | New Name |
|---|---|
| Instant | Instant |
| Thinking-Light | [removed] |
| Thinking-Standard | Medium |
| Thinking-Extended | High |
| Thinking-Heavy | Extra High (Pro only) |
| Pro Standard | Pro Standard (Pro only) |
| Pro Extended | Pro Extended (Pro only) |
The new names are just better. Instead of “Thinking-Standard” you get “Medium.” Instead of “Thinking-Heavy” you get “Extra High.” It reads like a difficulty slider, which is basically what it is.
Thinking-Light is dead
OpenAI killed Thinking-Light, and honestly, it makes sense. According to Adam Fry (OpenAI’s product lead for ChatGPT), less than 1% of paid users were using it. If you were one of those people, you’re being nudged to Instant, which is faster anyway.
This is the right call. Having a “light thinking” option in a product where people pay specifically for better reasoning was always a weird choice. It’s like selling a sports car with a “slow mode” button.
The auto-switch feature is the real story
Here’s the part most people will gloss over: there’s a new setting under General > Settings that lets Instant auto-switch to Medium when it detects your question needs heavier reasoning.
Think about what that means. OpenAI is essentially saying, “Most of you are picking the wrong model for your task, so we’re going to do it for you.” And they’re probably right. How many times have you started with Instant, gotten a mediocre answer, then switched to Thinking-Extended and wished you’d started there? I’ve done it plenty, and I wrote a whole guide on how to bring GPT-4o back when OpenAI tried to remove it.
The auto-switch tries to solve that. It’s off by default, but I’d bet most Plus users should turn it on. You get the speed of Instant for simple stuff, and the brainpower of Medium when it matters, without having to manually toggle every time.
Where to find it
On iOS and Android, the picker sits at the top of your conversation. On web, it’s right in the message composer. The Pro options (Extra High, Pro Standard, Pro Extended) only show up if you’re on a Pro plan.
The bigger picture
This is the second time in a month OpenAI has simplified a model picker. Codex got a similar treatment earlier, with clean tier names instead of the “thinking level” jargon. It feels like OpenAI is moving away from the “thinking” branding entirely, which makes sense. Nobody outside of AI Twitter talks about “thinking extended” in casual conversation. “High” and “Medium” are how normal humans describe effort levels.
The timing is interesting too. This comes right after the June 8 update that added interactive charts, full-screen writing blocks, email sending from chat, and a major memory upgrade. OpenAI is shipping fast right now, and the model picker cleanup feels like them tightening the UX while the feature set expands.
The June 8 stuff you might’ve missed
While I’m at it, the June 8 release also dropped some solid quality-of-life updates:
- Interactive charts in answers (bar, line, pie, scatter)
- Table of contents for longer conversations
- Full-screen writing blocks for long-form work (essays, PRDs, reports)
- Send emails directly from chat (Gmail/Outlook, Plus and Pro only)
- Memory upgrade that auto-updates and reduces stale memories
These are smaller individually, but together they’re turning ChatGPT from a chatbot into something closer to a workspace. The email sending feature alone is worth a separate look if you haven’t tried it.
Bottom line
The model picker simplification is a minor update that makes a real daily-use product slightly less annoying. The auto-switch feature is the one to watch, because it signals OpenAI’s direction: fewer manual choices, more AI-assisted defaults.
Turn on auto-switch, get used to the new names, and stop overthinking which model to pick. That’s kind of the point.
OpenAI’s model picker update is rolling out today to Plus and Pro users on web, iOS, and Android globally.
