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ChatGPT’s free tier gets GPT 5.4 mini model with improved coding capabilities

OpenAI just announced its latest models, GPT 5.4 mini and nano, with the former now available to free ChatGPT users.

Earlier this month, OpenAI launched its GPT 5.4 model in its higher tiers of use, but the new mini and nano variants of that model are now arriving for the masses. Available now, this new model brings improvements across the board, but especially to coding, reasoning, multimodel understanding, and tool/computer use.

OpenAI says:

GPT‑5.4 mini significantly improves over GPT‑5 mini across coding, reasoning, multimodal understanding, and tool use, while running more than 2x faster. It also approaches the performance of the larger GPT‑5.4 model on several evaluations, including SWE-Bench Pro and OSWorld-Verified.

These models are built for the kinds of workloads where latency directly shapes the product experience: coding assistants that need to feel responsive, subagents that quickly complete supporting tasks, computer-using systems that capture and interpret screenshots, and multimodal applications that can reason over images in real-time. In these settings, the best model is often not the largest one—it’s the one that can respond quickly, use tools reliably, and still perform well on complex professional tasks.

With the rise of “vibe coding,” the focus on coding capabilities very much comes into play. OpenAI says that GPT 5.4 mini and nano can both handle coding workflows including “targeted edits, codebase navigation, front-end generation, and debugging loops with low latency.”

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Beyond being a part of ChatGPT’s free and Go tiers, GPT 5.4 mini is now live in OpenAI’s API and Codex, while nano is available solely through the API, both at much lower costs compared to GPT 5.4.

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

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