OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that a temporary rate limits on image generation will be introduced as their GPU — graphics processing units — are “melting”.
This came after OpenAI’s latest and most advanced AI model, GPT-4o, which comes with an integrated image generator, brought about a revolution of sorts on social media, with millions using it to produce Studio Ghibli-inspired pictures.
OpenAI called its latest model the “most advanced image generator yet,” but the massive usage has left the company’s GPUs “melting,” Mr Altman noted on X.
“It’s super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt. But our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. Hopefully won’t be long! Chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon,” Mr Altman said.
it’s super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.
but our GPUs are melting.
we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won’t be long!
chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.
— Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025
In a subsequent post, he said the company was “refusing some generations that should be allowed,” adding that the same was being fixed “as fast we can.”
The rate limits were not specified by Mr Altman but he assured users that this “hopefully” won’t stay for a long time since the company is trying to improve its efficiency to handle the requests.
The image-generation feature remains available exclusively for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Select subscription tiers.
The massive demand already forced the company to roll back its availability of the built-in image generator for its free users, The Verge reported.
The free users now get up to three images on a daily basis.
Speaking about the GPT-4o model, OpenAI earlier said the multimodal model was “capable of precise, accurate, photorealistic outputs.”
Introducing GPT-4o image generation, the company said it “excels at accurately rendering text, precisely following prompts, and leveraging 4o’s inherent knowledge base and chat context-including transforming uploaded images or using them as visual inspiration.”
The feature allows users to create “exactly the image you envision” to communicate more effectively.
