OpenAI released GPT-5.5, its latest artificial intelligence model, saying it outperforms previous versions at coding, using computers, and conducting research.
For now, GPT-5.5 is available through ChatGPT and the Codex coding assistant to customers on paid tiers — Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise. API access is on the way, OpenAI said, though the company noted that serving developers through that channel will require "different safeguards" before a wider rollout.
At a Thursday briefing with reporters, OpenAI President Greg Brockman described the model as a step change in autonomous capability. "What is really special about this model is how much more it can do with less guidance," he said. "It can look at an unclear problem and figure out just what needs to happen next."
Among its listed capabilities, GPT-5.5 can analyze data, write and debug code, operate software, conduct online research, and generate documents and spreadsheets, according to OpenAI. On the safety front, the company placed the model in its "High" cybersecurity risk category — one tier below "Critical," a designation reserved for tools that could create "unprecedented new pathways to severe harm." The "High" classification indicates a model that could "amplify existing pathways to severe harm."
Mia Glaese, OpenAI's vice president of research, addressed those concerns at the briefing. "GPT-5.5 underwent extensive third-party safeguard testing and red teaming for cyber and bio [risks], and we've been iterating on our cyber safeguards for months with increasingly cyber capable models," she said.
GPT-5.4 arrived just under two months ago, according to CNBC, underscoring the rapid cadence of releases that has come to define the AI industry. The company is competing with rivals including Google $GOOGL and Anthropic, whose Claude Mythos Preview model has drawn attention on Wall Street. Anthropic limited Mythos' rollout earlier this month because of its ability to identify weaknesses and security flaws within software, according to CNBC.
OpenAI has been pressing its case as a responsible corporate actor even as questions persist about its long-term finances. The company generated $13 billion in revenue in 2025 and recently raised $12 billion in a funding round that valued it at about $852 billion. OpenAI has also outlined $600 billion in spending commitments through 2030 and put forward policy proposals — including a public wealth fund and stronger worker protections — aimed at softening AI's impact on the labor market.