ChatGPT, OpenAI's text-generating AI chatbot, has continued its explosive growth in 2025, reaching 300 million weekly active users and introducing a host of major features. This timeline captures the most impactful updates from the year, from new reasoning models to enterprise tools and strategic partnerships.
December 2025
OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.2, its latest model, in three versions—Instant, Thinking, and Pro—to handle everything from everyday tasks to complex reasoning. The company also added new controls for tweaking ChatGPT’s warmth, enthusiasm, emoji use, and formatting style. A major partnership with Disney brought over 200 characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars to OpenAI’s Sora video generator, with Disney investing $1 billion. Meanwhile, CEO Sam Altman declared a “code red” internally, prioritizing ChatGPT improvements amid rising competition from Google and others.
November 2025
OpenAI launched an AI shopping assistant in ChatGPT, allowing users to get product recommendations and compare prices. The company also integrated voice mode directly into the main chat interface and rolled out group chats for all users. GPT-5.1 was released with improved reasoning and a warmer, more conversational tone. By early November, OpenAI announced it had reached 1 million business clients globally, making it the fastest-growing business platform in history.
October 2025
OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT now handles over a million suicide-related conversations weekly, prompting improved mental health responses. The company launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered browser, initially on Mac, and introduced “Instant Checkout” for purchasing directly from Etsy and Shopify merchants. ChatGPT surpassed 800 million weekly active users, and developers gained the ability to build interactive apps inside the chatbot using the Apps SDK.
September 2025
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Pulse, a personalized morning briefing feature, and tightened parental controls for under-18 users. The company rolled out GPT-5-Codex, an AI coding agent that can work on tasks for up to seven hours, and expanded its affordable ChatGPT Go plan to Indonesia. The Model Behavior team was restructured, and new policies were implemented to block flirtatious exchanges with minors and strengthen suicide-related safeguards.
August 2025
OpenAI released GPT-5, a next-generation AI model capable of handling tasks like coding apps, managing calendars, and creating research briefs. The company offered ChatGPT Enterprise to federal agencies for just $1 for the first year and returned to open source with two new models: gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b. ChatGPT’s mobile app hit $2 billion in consumer spending, and weekly active users neared 700 million, quadrupling growth in a year. OpenAI also faced a lawsuit from a teen’s family over an alleged suicide-related chat, leading to new safeguards.
July 2025
OpenAI launched Study Mode to promote critical thinking in students and introduced ChatGPT Agent, a general-purpose agent that can navigate calendars, draft presentations, and handle complex workflows. The company delayed its open-weight model for additional safety testing. ChatGPT received 2.5 billion prompts daily, and a new MIT study suggested the tool might be harming critical thinking skills.
June 2025
OpenAI began using Google’s AI chips to power ChatGPT, marking a shift from its reliance on Nvidia. The company upgraded Advanced Voice Mode for paid users, making conversations more natural, and launched o3-pro, an enhanced reasoning model. New features for business users included meeting recording and connectors for Google Drive, Box, and other cloud services.
May 2025
OpenAI unveiled Codex, its AI coding agent, powered by the codex-1 model, and announced plans to purchase Jony Ive’s device startup io for $6.4 billion. The company launched GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini models in ChatGPT, focusing on coding capabilities. Sam Altman expressed a desire to make ChatGPT more personalized by tracking every detail of a user’s life. OpenAI also introduced a data residency program in Asia and promised to fix a sycophancy issue with the model.
April 2025
OpenAI released its latest reasoning models, o3 and o4-mini, which can use ChatGPT features like web browsing and image generation. The company added a “library” section for easier access to AI-generated images and offered ChatGPT Plus for free to US and Canadian college students. OpenAI clarified the reason behind ChatGPT’s overly flattering behavior and worked to fix a bug that allowed minors to engage in inappropriate conversations. The company also announced plans to sunset GPT-4 at the end of April.
March 2025
OpenAI rolled out a major upgrade to ChatGPT’s image-generation capabilities, enabling Ghibli-style images and sparking copyright concerns. The company announced plans to release an “open” language model, its first since GPT-2, and adopted Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol for linking AI models with data. ChatGPT’s weekly active users doubled to 400 million by February, driven by new features and models. OpenAI also launched new tools for building AI agents and revealed that it had trained a model “really good” at creative writing.
February 2025
OpenAI canceled its standalone o3 model in favor of a unified GPT-5 release and introduced deep research, an AI agent for in-depth research tasks. The company now reveals more of its o3-mini model’s thought process and allowed ChatGPT web search without logging in. ChatGPT’s mobile users were found to be 85% male, and OpenAI launched ChatGPT Gov for US government agencies.
January 2025
OpenAI launched o3-mini, its latest reasoning model, and tested AI persuasion on a subreddit. The company introduced Operator, an AI agent that can control a web browser to perform tasks autonomously, and launched ChatGPT Gov for US government agencies. New features included scheduling reminders via a “tasks” feature and the ability for users to assign traits like “chatty” and “Gen Z” to the chatbot. OpenAI also began testing phone-number-only signups and revealed that ChatGPT’s mobile users were 85% male.
Source: TechCrunch News