ChatGPT’s Image Generator is Now Available for All Free Users

OpenAI has made the new image generation capabilities in ChatGPT available for all free users of the chatbot. Image generation started rolling out a week ago for Plus, Pro, and Team users, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said today that all free users can also try it.

Last week, Altman posted “our GPUs are melting” due to enthusiasm for the new image generation capabilities, adding that free users would soon get 3 generations per day. Well, OpenAI apparently spruced up its GPU capabilities to expand the feature to all users.

chatgpt image gen now rolled out to all free users!

— Sam Altman (@sama) April 1, 2025

Since its launch, ChatGPT’s new image generator has been used extensively to create images inspired by the style of Studio Ghibli, a renowned Japanese animation studio. Altman himself surfed on the trend and updated his profile picture on X with a Ghibli-style portrait.

Thanks to its new image generation capabilities, ChatGPT has now crossed 500 million weekly active users. Altman emphasized yesterday that the chatbot added one million new users in just an hour and compared that to the five days it took ChatGPT to cross one million users after its launch 26 months ago.

Yesterday, OpenAI also announced a new $40 billion funding round, which values the AI startup at $300 billion. The ChatGPT maker plans to use this money to “push the frontiers of AI research even further, scale our compute infrastructure, and deliver increasingly powerful tools.”