All ChatGPT Models Explained: Which to Use and When?

These days, it looks like there’s a brand new ChatGPT model popping up each different day. There’s GPT-4o, the all-rounder, o3, the deep thinker, some speedy “mini” fashions that nobody is aware of what they do, GPT-4.5 for inventive writing, and some legacy variations you in all probability would wish to keep away from.  So should you’ve ever questioned which ChatGPT model to choose in your task- you aren’t alone! Even specialists battle to determine which ChatGPT model to make use of and when.

However a couple of days again Andrej Karpathy made his opinions clear! On this information, I’ll stroll you thru Andrej Karpathy’s options and preferences relating to every ChatGPT model so you’ll find the one which fits you finest.

ChatGPT Variations

ChatGPT at present provides three totally different subscriptions, every with its personal set of ChatGPT variations you can entry. Here’s a breakdown of it:

Most of those variations deliver one thing distinctive and are specialised for various duties. Utilizing a single mannequin for your entire duties is a factor of the previous once we didn’t have the choices. Now it’s about utilizing the correct mannequin for every job. However not all fashions are value it and a few of them are simply to be ignored – not less than that’s what’s Andrej Karparthy’s opinion. 

Let’s break down his evaluation of all of the ChatGPT variations. 

Decoding ChaGPT Fashions with Andrej Karpathy

Andrej Karpathy is a well known AI researcher identified for his work in deep studying and pc imaginative and prescient. Final week he shared his ideas on numerous LLMs that ChatGPT has to supply. 

GPT-4o

“Use this mannequin for something simple and quick. It’s nice for normal duties”

– Andrej Karparthy

GPT-4o is essentially the most dependable mannequin underneath the ChatGPT hood. The mannequin is designed to offer a stability between velocity and accuracy. It handles all kinds of duties with nice ease and coherence, making it splendid for many of our day-to-day duties.  Whether or not you should whip up an electronic mail, write a weblog put up, or reply a normal question, GPT-4o has your again.

Which duties to make use of GPT-4o for?

• Writing emails, social media posts, and blogs
• Answering FAQs or normal information questions
• Mild coding help like easy operate era or debugging
• Summarizing articles or paperwork
• Informal dialog and brainstorming

The place it struggles: It’s much less efficient for deeply complicated reasoning or duties requiring multi-step logic and precision, the place specialised fashions carry out higher.

My take: GPT-4o is the perfect default mannequin for many customers – quick, versatile, and dependable. It’s the go-to selection for on a regular basis AI help.

o3

“Use this mannequin for something onerous and necessary. The mannequin is sluggish however tremendous clever”

– Andrej Karparthy

Now, o3 is the “thinker” within the ChatGPT mannequin household. This mannequin is optimized for superior reasoning and complicated problem-solving. It trades velocity for intelligence, giving detailed responses on duties that require multi-step pondering or complete evaluation. So when you have a difficult doc to assessment Or possibly only a tough maths drawback or equation, this mannequin takes its time to dig deep and course of onerous and give you actual options.

Which duties to make use of o3 for?

• Authorized doc evaluation and contract assessment
• Complicated scientific analysis and information evaluation
• Debugging and explaining sophisticated code
• Writing detailed technical or educational reviews
• Duties requiring essential, step-by-step reasoning

The place it struggles: The mannequin provides slower response occasions and better compute necessities making it much less appropriate for fast, informal duties or large-scale manufacturing environments the place velocity is essential.

My take: Use o3 when accuracy and depth matter greater than velocity. It’s the heavy hitter for powerful, necessary issues.

o3 Professional

o3 Professional is the most recent addition to the ChatGPT household. This model guarantees extra computational energy than its counterpart o3 with larger accuracy for complicated queries. This model of ChatGPT comes with higher software integration and thus is able to offering extra relabible responses for net searches and file evaluation. In comparison with o3 it’s sluggish, but when pitied in opposition to different high reasoning mode, o3 Professional performs quick. So when you have a job that requires breaking down of complicated duties, in depth evaluation of code or maths – the mannequin can assist however its advisable to validate its responses because the mannequin largely looks like a hald baked cookie. 

Which duties to make use of o3 Professional for?

• Multi step code synthesis or Python execution
• Doc summarization and audit compliance
• Picture or doc evaluation
• Strategising long run enterprise objectives
• Searchhing throughout totally different on-line platforms

The place is struggles: The mannequin struggles with accuracy and correct reasoning when coping with multi-pronged issues. 

My take: The mannequin can be utilized for non-critical information evaluation duties or in areas the place you desire a fast response for a barely tough job. 

Also Learn: OpenAI o3 professional vs Gemini 2.5 professional

o4-mini

“Don’t use this mannequin”

– Andrej Karparthy

This mannequin was launched to deliver superior reasoning at a very quick velocity and that’s precisely the place issues get tough. The mannequin can generate solutions rapidly however it tends to supply much less dependable and principally incoherent outcomes. Its velocity will be a bonus however it doesn’t outweigh the hallucinations and inaccuracy. All of this makes it unsuitable for skilled or severe use. 

Which duties to make use of o4-mini for?

• Experimental tasks the place velocity issues greater than correctness like for vibe coding. 
• Informal or non-critical testing and play like for designing youngsters’s video games.

The place it struggles: The mannequin produces inconsistent, inaccurate, or incomplete solutions, particularly on technical or factual queries.

My take: Regardless of its velocity, I cannot suggest it attributable to poor reliability. It’s higher to decide on a slower however extra dependable mannequin.

o4-mini-high

“Don’t use this mannequin”

– Andrej Karparthy

The mannequin is a twin to o4-mini in terms of efficiency. That’s the reason much like the o4-mini, the o4-mini-high mannequin comes with speedy outputs with higher coding and visible reasoning capabilities. Nonetheless, this mannequin too has the basic problems with poor reliability and high quality. The velocity comes at the price of accuracy leading to incorrect code options or flawed reasoning. Except you might be testing experimental options casually, it’s best to keep away from this mannequin for essential work.

Which duties to make use of o4-mini-high for?

• Fast, tough coding or visible reasoning demos (e.g., displaying an idea in a hackathon or workshop)
• AI experiments the place velocity trumps correctness (e.g., playful AI-based video games or chatbots)

The place it struggles: The mannequin provides decrease output high quality and reliability; vulnerable to errors and hallucinations.

My take: I cannot advise utilizing this mannequin for severe duties, it’s solely okay for informal enjoying.

o1 Professional Mode

“Don’t use this mannequin”

– Andrej Karparthy

o1 Professional is the grandfather for the reasoning fashions. As soon as thought-about an professional reasoning mannequin, o1 Professional Mode is now largely outdated. The mannequin accessible solely within the Professional model, is essentially inaccessible for a lot of. It faces powerful competitors from many new fashions by Gemini and Deepseek that present higher outcomes at a a lot decrease value. Though it may possibly nonetheless produce considerate solutions, its slower velocity and outdated structure make it much less interesting for many present functions.

Which duties to make use of o1 Professional for?

• Operating legacy tasks that require backward compatibility (e.g., sustaining older AI workflows)
• Not advisable for brand spanking new or essential duties

The place it struggles: Slower velocity, decrease accuracy in comparison with newer fashions, and lacking the most recent options.

My take: Its time to say goodbye and transfer on to raised, sooner choices.

GPT-4.1

“Use this mannequin for vibe coding”

– Andrej Karparthy

For the coders and techies, GPT-4.1 is a useful sidekick. The mannequin is made for speedy and efficient coding help. It’s optimized to generate code snippets, debug scripts, and help coders effectively. It produces an incredible stability between velocity and contextual understanding, enabling quick iteration throughout improvement. Whereas it might not match o3’s reasoning depth, it offers sensible coding assist that’s splendid for day-to-day programming duties.

Which duties to make use of GPT-4.1 for?

• Writing, debugging, or explaining code snippets
• Fast prototyping throughout software program improvement (e.g., producing boilerplate code)
• Studying programming ideas or getting fast code examples.

The place it struggles: In duties involving complicated or deeply analytical duties exterior coding.

My take: Nice for builders who need swift, stable help on their coding journey.

GPT-4.1-mini

“Don’t use this mannequin”

– Andrej Karparthy

The mini model of GPT-4.1 guarantees velocity however falls quick on high quality and coherence. It usually produces poorer high quality and fewer dependable outputs than its counterparts of comparable sizes. Like different mini fashions, it’s higher fitted to experimentation or informal use reasonably than severe tasks.

Which duties to make use of GPT-4.1-mini for?

• Informal or low-stakes experiments (e.g., testing fundamental chatbot responses)
• Fast, casual queries that don’t require detailed solutions

The place it struggles: In duties requiring excessive output high quality higher contextual understanding.

My take: Follow the complete GPT-4.1 if you need respectable assist.

GPT-4.5 (Analysis Preview)

“Use this mannequin for inventive writing”

– Andrej Karparthy

GPT-4.5 mannequin places “artwork” in “Good”. The mannequin is appropriate for inventive writing and ideation. It excels at producing imaginative and engaging content material, making it good fo duties like storytelling, poetry, brainstorming, and advertising and marketing content material. This mannequin is usually vulnerable to inconsistencies or factual inaccuracies, its inventive power makes it a helpful software for content material creators trying to transcend the same old. 

Which duties to make use of GPT-4.5 for?

• Writing inventive tales, poems, or scripts (e.g., drafting a brief story or poem)
• Brainstorming promoting slogans or advertising and marketing taglines (e.g., catchy marketing campaign concepts)
• Exploring uncommon or imaginative ideas (e.g., producing fantasy world concepts)
• Ideation classes for content material creators or artists

The place it struggles: Much less constant factual accuracy and stability; not advisable for mission-critical or technical reasoning duties.

My take: A promising mannequin for inventive professionals who wish to experiment with AI-generated concepts and prose.

Deep Analysis Device

“Use this for deep analysis”

– Andrej Karparthy

“Run deep analysis” software is a complicated function that mixes the ability of ChatGPT fashions with real-time net searches and multi-source information retrieval. It’s designed to offer thorough and up-to-date solutions.  This software synthesizes info from a number of paperwork, making it good for in-depth analysis tasks, educational work, and different complicated investigations. It’s nice for deep dives like educational work, market analysis, or coverage evaluation.

Which duties to make use of Deep Analysis for?

• Tutorial analysis that wants the most recent research and papers (e.g., compiling a literature assessment)
• Market analysis that requires up-to-date business developments (e.g., analyzing competitor methods)
• Coverage and authorized evaluation involving latest laws (e.g., summarizing new legal guidelines or rules)

The place it struggles: In duties counting on web information high quality. The responses will be slower attributable to search and synthesis overhead.

My take: A strong augmentation for complicated, information-heavy duties the place complete and present solutions are required.

ChatGPT Model Comparability

Here’s a concise abstract of all of the fashions at present accessible in ChatGPT, their particulars, limitations, and a few use circumstances.

Conclusion

Makers of ChatGPT have made the GPT 4o the default mannequin within the Chatbot for a cause – its simply what you want for any everyday help. For tough and detailed duties, herald o3. Its cheaper too now. For some inventive aptitude use GPT-4.5’s, whereas coders can get fast assist from GPT-4.1. Keep away from the mini fashions for something severe, and depend on the “Run deep analysis” software when you should dig deep and pull in contemporary information. We agree with Andrej Karpathy’s opinion for many of the fashions! Out of the 9 fashions that ChatGPT at present provides – it’s simply 4 fashions which might be actually value your time.

Use this information and I hope it can save you a while and maximize the standard of outputs that you just get utilizing ChatGPT!