In 2025, OpenAI's ChatGPT continued to dominate the AI landscape, reaching 800 million weekly active users by October and generating billions in mobile revenue. The year was marked by intense competition with Google and Chinese rivals like DeepSeek, pushing OpenAI to accelerate product releases and improve model capabilities. Key milestones included the rollout of GPT-5, GPT-5.2, and various agent tools, while the company also faced lawsuits over teen safety and copyright issues.

December 2025

• OpenAI introduced controls to adjust ChatGPT's warmth, enthusiasm, emoji usage, and formatting style.
• Updated guidelines for under-18 users and parental resources were released.
• ChatGPT surpassed $3 billion in mobile app revenue faster than TikTok.
• GPT Image 1.5 launched with faster performance and better instruction following.
• Disney invested $1 billion in OpenAI and brought 200+ characters to Sora video generation.
• Enterprise message volume increased 8x since late 2024.
• GPT-5.2 rolled out in three variants: Instant, Thinking, and Pro.
• Sam Altman declared a "code red" to prioritize ChatGPT improvements over other initiatives.

November 2025

• OpenAI launched an AI shopping assistant for product recommendations.
• A Munich court ruled ChatGPT violated music copyright by reproducing song lyrics.
• Voice mode was integrated into the main chat interface.
• Group chat features became available to all users.
• GPT-5.1 released with warmer tone and improved reasoning.
• Seven families sued OpenAI alleging chatbot role in teen suicides.
• OpenAI reached 1 million business clients, becoming the fastest-growing enterprise platform.

October 2025

• ChatGPT handled over 1 million weekly suicide-related conversations; responses improved with mental health expert input.
• A new music-generation tool was under development.
• The "company knowledge" update allowed searching workplace data across tools like Slack and Google Drive.
• OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI browser for Mac.
• Mobile growth slowed slightly, but daily downloads still reached millions.
• Walmart and Etsy partnerships enabled shopping within ChatGPT.
• ChatGPT Go affordable plan expanded to 16 Asian countries.
• Weekly active users hit 800 million.
• Developers gained the ability to build apps inside ChatGPT via the Apps SDK.

September 2025

• Parental controls were added to allow account linking and content limits.
• ChatGPT Pulse delivered personalized morning briefings to Pro users.
• Instant Checkout let U.S. users buy directly from Etsy and Shopify merchants.
• ChatGPT Go launched in Indonesia at $4.50/month.
• New policies blocked flirtatious exchanges with minors and escalated severe mental health cases.
• GPT-5-Codex, an AI coding agent capable of tasks from seconds to 7 hours, was released.
• The Model Behavior team was reorganized under the Post Training group.

August 2025

• OpenAI implemented stronger mental health detection and parental controls after a teen suicide lawsuit.
• xAI filed a federal lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI over alleged collusion.
• ChatGPT Go launched in India at 399 rupees/month.
• Mobile app revenue reached $2 billion, 53x more than nearest rival Grok.
• Legacy models GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and o3 remained available alongside GPT-5.
• GPT-5 launched with Auto, Fast, and Thinking modes; Altman acknowledged initial glitches.
• ChatGPT Enterprise offered to federal agencies for $1/year.
• OpenAI returned to open source with gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b models.
• Weekly active users neared 700 million.

July 2025

• Study Mode promoted critical thinking for students.
• Altman warned that ChatGPT therapy is not confidential.
• Daily prompts hit 2.5 billion, double the volume from 8 months prior.
• ChatGPT Agent launched to autonomously manage calendars, code, shop, and more.
• Stanford study warned of risks in AI therapy chatbots stigmatizing mental health conditions.
• OpenAI delayed its open-weight model release for additional safety testing.
• An AI-powered browser was reportedly in development.
• A "Study Together" feature appeared in testing.
• Referrals to news sites increased but could not offset declines from search.

June 2025

• OpenAI began using Google's AI chips for powering ChatGPT.
• MIT study found ChatGPT may harm critical thinking skills.
• iOS app was downloaded 29.6 million times in 28 days.
• Average ChatGPT query used energy equivalent to powering a lightbulb for a few minutes.
• o3-pro reasoning model launched for ChatGPT and Team users.
• Advanced Voice mode upgraded for more natural conversations.
• Business features added meeting recording and connectors for Google Drive, Box, and MCP.

May 2025

• OpenAI planned to purchase Jony Ive's devices startup io for $6.4 billion.
• Codex AI coding agent introduced, using codex-1 model for software engineering.
• Altman expressed desire for ChatGPT to record every aspect of a user's life for personalization.
• GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini models released for coding tasks.
• Deep Research connected with GitHub in beta.
• Data residency program expanded to India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
• OpenAI for Countries program announced to build local AI infrastructure.
• OpenAI promised fixes to prevent sycophancy in ChatGPT responses.

April 2025

• GPT-4o sycophancy issue acknowledged and reverted.
• A bug allowing minors to generate erotic content was being fixed.
• ChatGPT search enhanced with product recommendations and reviews for online shopping.
• OpenAI considered allowing open models to access cloud-hosted models.
• New open model development led by Aidan Clark.
• GPT-4.1 released without safety cards, drawing criticism.
• o3 scored lower than expected on FrontierMath benchmark.
• Flex processing API launched for lower-cost, slower AI tasks.
• Biorisk safeguards added to o3 and o4-mini models.
• o3 and o4-mini reasoning models released with web browsing and image processing.
• "Library" section introduced for image creations.
• OpenAI hinted it could adjust safeguards if rivals release high-risk AI.
• Social media network in early development.
• GPT-4.5 to be removed from API in July.
• GPT-4.1 models focused on coding.
• GPT-4 sunset at end of April; replaced by GPT-4o.
• ChatGPT began remembering previous conversations for Pro and Plus users.
• Watermarking for AI images in development.
• ChatGPT Plus offered free to U.S. and Canadian college students through May.
• Over 700 million images generated since March 25.
• o3 model cost estimated higher than initially thought.
• Altman warned capacity issues would delay product releases.

March 2025

• OpenAI announced plans to release a new open language model.
• Image generation restrictions removed, allowing public figure and hateful symbol generation.
• Adopted Anthropic's Model Context Protocol for linking AI with data.
• Studio Ghibli-style image generation raised copyright concerns.
• Revenue expected to triple to $12.7 billion in 2025.
• Image generation upgraded with GPT-4o for editing and creation.
• Leadership shifts: Brad Lightcap to lead global expansion; Mark Chen as chief research officer.
• Advanced Voice Mode improved with real-time, personable conversations.
• Discussions with Reliance Industries for ChatGPT distribution in India.
• Privacy complaint in Norway over defamatory hallucinations.
• New transcription and voice-generating models added to API.
• o1-pro launched for developers with higher computing costs.
• Research lead Noam Brown suggested reasoning models could have arrived decades ago.
• Altman showcased a creative writing model.
• New tools for building AI agents launched via Responses API.
• Plans to charge up to $20,000/month for specialized AI agents.
• macOS ChatGPT app gained direct code editing in Xcode, VS Code, JetBrains.
• Weekly active users doubled to 400 million by February.

February 2025

• o3 model canceled in favor of unified GPT-5 release.
• Average ChatGPT query found to consume only 0.3 watt-hours.
• o3-mini model revealed more of its thought process.
• ChatGPT web search available without login.
• Deep research agent launched for in-depth research.

January 2025

• OpenAI used subreddit r/ChangeMyView to test AI persuasion.
• o3-mini reasoning model launched.
• 85% of mobile users were male, with over half under 25.
• ChatGPT Gov plan for U.S. government agencies introduced.
• Teen usage for schoolwork doubled according to Pew survey.
• Deleted Operator data retained up to 90 days.
• Operator general-purpose agent previewed.
• Operator available as research preview to $200/month Pro users.
• Phone-number-only signups tested in U.S. and India.
• Reminders and tasks feature rolled out to Plus, Team, Pro users.
• New customizable traits like "Chatty" and "Gen Z" appeared briefly.

Source: TechCrunch News