OpenAI GPT-4o Mini: Generate Images, Browse the Web and More for Free

OpenAI continually upgrades its models and gives amazing updates to its users. Not just to paid users, but they also take care of the free users. Well, so they launched a new module 4o-mini which free users can use without any limitations. The 4o-mini is highly capable in itself which we will talk about later but OpenAI also added some amazing add-ons to it, like the ability to generate images using Dall-E 3 directly from the prompts and search the web for up-to-date information, which can be outstanding and better than many paid AI chatbots. Let’s dive deep into what makes this new model a game-changer in the world of AI.

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Introduction to GPT-4o Mini

ChatGPT 4o-mini launched on July 18, 2024, as a compact version of the more powerful OpenAI model GPT-4o. It is designed to offer the advanced capabilities of GPT-4o at a more affordable price while maintaining the same efficiency.

GPT-4o, launched on May 13, 2024, showcases the flagship model with advanced multimodal capabilities, while 4o-mini is a more accessible and cheaper alternative. It’s a smaller, faster, and more cost-efficient version.

GPT-4o have low latency and high throughput, making it ideal for applications like customer support chatbots, large-scale code analysis, and other cases where speed and cost-efficiency are crucial. Currently, it supports text and vision processing, but in future updates, support for audio and video inputs will be added.

But is it really free, let’s find out!

Free Access for ChatGPT Users

GPT-4o mini is really more affordable than any other previous versions but the best part is it is available for free to all ChatGPT users. Yes, it has replaced the previous GPT-3.5 model as the default option for free users. This means that even if we don’t pay for a subscription, we can use this advanced AI model.

For developers and businesses, GPT-4o mini offers decent pricing. It costs 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens, making it 60% cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo. So if you are working on a project, you can integrate it at a very low cost.

How it Differs From Previous Models

GPT-4o-mini is really advanced from its predecessors GPT-3.5. It is a multimodal model capable of processing and generating content across different modalities that go beyond simple text generation.

Let’s understand its capabilities in more detail.

Advanced Image Generation:

GPT-4o mini can now generate images directly from the chatbox. Yes and if you are on a free plan you still can generate a few images per day using it. It takes your prompt to generate the image, use DALL-E 3 to process it and show the generated image in the chat.

Web Browsing Capabilities:

GPT-4o is now capable of surfing the internet using some sort of browsing tool. This ability helps us to do online research, get up-to-date information, fact-check and analyze current events and trends.

ChatGPT access to a browsing tool — Also available for free users

ChatGPT searching on web — ChatGPT searching the web

File Upload and Analysis:

GPT-4o mini can process text, images, and audio inputs simultaneously. It can better analyze and describe visual content including charts and graphs. It can work with complex datasets and provide insights.

Improved Memory Retention:

GPT-4o mini also has improved memory retention. It remembers previous conversations and user preferences better, maintains context in longer conversations and provides more personalized responses that create a more natural, human-like interaction.

Better Contextual Understanding:

It has a better understanding of context, idioms, and cultural references and an improved ability to generate creative content like poetry and stories. It can recognize the tone and identify sarcasm leading to more engaging and productive conversations. This improved understanding of the context makes conversations feel more natural.

Faster Response Times:

One of the obvious changes is that it responds faster than GPT-3.5, especially for complex tasks. It processes large amounts of data more efficiently and allows for real-time verbal conversations with minimal delay.

It is faster in solving complex mathematical and scientific problems and can process more accurate and up-to-date information.

How to Access GPT-4o Mini for Free

Well if you are already using ChatGPT, it is included as the default model for free, so you don’t need to do anything. If you are a paid user, you can use GPT-4o Mini from the model options available at the top of the chat window.

If you haven’t used ChatGPT yet, here are the steps to do so:

Just click here to directly redirect to the ChatGPT official website to start interacting with it:

ChatGPT doesn’t require you to create an account or log in, but it is highly recommended. Logging in helps GPT to understand your search preference and give more specific responses. It also enables features like image inputs, chat history, etc. So let’s do this.

Step 1: Click on the “Sign Up” button:

Step 2: The best method is to go with Google.

Step 3: Enter your login credentials:

Step 4: Complete the authentication:

Step 5: Enter your name and birthday:

That’s it, it’s that simple. The long message box at the bottom is where you type your questions and even attach files to interact with:

Example:

Conclusion

In short, the GPT-4o mini was launched on July 18, 2024. It is the latest OpenAI cost-efficient small model with advanced capabilities of GPT-4o at a cheap price. It replaced GPT-3.5 and became the default model for free ChatGPT users, providing features such as image generation, web browsing, and improved memory retention. With a context window of 128K tokens and support for up to 16K output tokens, it exceeds previous small models in textual intelligence and multimodal reasoning. It costs 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens, making it affordable for individual developers and small businesses. Feel free to try it as it is free and the good news is its future updates may also have audio and video capabilities.