OpenAI releases ChatGPT 5.2 earlier than expected; what’s new?
OpenAI has officially released GPT-5.2, just weeks after the arrival of ChatGPT-5.1. While the previous update focused on restoring the personality and conversational warmth missing from the 5.0 version, GPT-5.2 takes a more practical approach, emphasizing clarity, reliability, and the ability to handle complex, long-form tasks. This development is essential for OpenAI, which was caught off guard by the release of Google Gemini 3 Pro, which proved favorable for many users and has since grown its user base immensely.
OpenAI positions the model not around benchmarks or academic claims, but around everyday usefulness as generative AI becomes a routine tool for work and study.
Like earlier versions, ChatGPT-5.2 is available in three tiers: Instant, Thinking, and Pro. Each tier offers increasing levels of capability. The core advancement lies in reasoning. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.2 Thinking performs at or above the level of human experts across many professional tasks. In the GDPval evaluation, which spans 44 fields, including finance, law, and consulting, the model matches or outperforms top professionals on nearly 75% of tasks, ranging from spreadsheet creation to complex analytical work.
A major leap is GPT-5.2’s improved multi-step reasoning. Instead of simply predicting the next sentence, the model can decompose complex problems, plan intermediate steps, and maintain coherence across long conversations or extended projects. This results in clearer explanations, better logical flow, and answers that remain coherent even when tasks span many stages.
These gains in reasoning are closely tied to a significant memory upgrade. OpenAI says GPT-5.2 Thinking can track information across hundreds of thousands of words with near-perfect accuracy. Users can now upload large project folders, lengthy reports, legal documents, or research papers, and the model treats them as a single, connected body of information rather than losing context midway. This also extends to vision capabilities, with improved understanding of charts, diagrams, software interfaces, and even low-quality or complex images.
Reliability is the third defining improvement. OpenAI claims hallucinations have dropped by around 30% compared to GPT-5.1, a hard-to-measure claim. While errors still occur, they require less correction. The model is also more consistent when using tools, as demonstrated in complex customer-service scenarios in which GPT-5.2 completed tasks that GPT-5.1 could not.
Finally, OpenAI highlights safer, more supportive conversational behavior, particularly around sensitive topics such as mental health. However, this was met with not-so-positive feedback from the community, which characterized the new chatbot as “cold” and “distant.”
ChatGPT-5.2 is already rolling out gradually across Plus, Pro, Go, Business, and Enterprise plans, with GPT-5.1 support ending in three months.
