ChatGPT Review: Plans, Features and Limitations

ChatGPT remains the most widely used AI assistant in the world, with over 400 million weekly active users as of mid-2026. It runs on OpenAI’s GPT-4o model by default, with more powerful reasoning models available on paid plans. For most Australians wanting a capable, general-purpose AI tool, it’s still the benchmark everything else is measured against.

What Plans Are Available?

ChatGPT comes in three main tiers for individual users, and the differences matter more than you’d think.

Free gives you access to GPT-4o with usage limits — you’ll hit a cap during busy periods and get bumped to GPT-4o mini, which is noticeably less capable for complex tasks. You get basic image generation, web search, and file uploads, but no Advanced Voice Mode and no access to the o-series reasoning models.

ChatGPT Plus costs USD$20/month (roughly AUD$32 at current exchange rates). This is the sweet spot for most users. You get priority GPT-4o access, full DALL-E 3 image generation, Advanced Voice Mode, Canvas for document editing, and access to o4-mini for structured reasoning tasks. The step up from free is substantial — caps become rare and response quality is noticeably more reliable.

ChatGPT Pro is USD$200/month (~AUD$320) and unlocks o1 Pro mode and o3 — OpenAI’s most capable reasoning models — plus unlimited usage across everything. It’s a hard sell unless you’re billing clients or running deep research workflows where speed and depth genuinely matter.

Standout Features Worth Knowing About

Advanced Voice Mode is legitimately impressive. Unlike earlier text-to-speech versions bolted onto a chatbot, this processes speech directly, catches tone, and interrupts naturally. It’s close to talking with a knowledgeable person, not a robot reading responses aloud.

Canvas lets you work on documents and code in a side-by-side editor, editing in place rather than reposting your entire draft with each new message. It’s particularly useful for long-form content, refining essays, or debugging code iteratively.

Memory is on by default for Plus and above. ChatGPT retains context across conversations — your job, preferences, and ongoing projects. This makes it meaningfully more useful over time. You can turn it off entirely or manage saved memories at any point from the settings menu.

Web search is baked directly into the interface and cites its sources, which helps when you need to verify current events or research a product quickly.

Real Limitations to Expect

ChatGPT still hallucinates. It will confidently state incorrect facts — particularly with niche topics, specific Australian legislation, or anything requiring very recent data. Always verify medical, legal, or financial information from authoritative sources before acting on it.

DALL-E 3 image generation remains inconsistent on text rendering — it frequently misspells words embedded within images. Competitors like Midjourney v7 still edge it out on photorealism and visual consistency.

The context window (128,000 tokens on GPT-4o) is large, but very long sessions can cause response drift. If you’re feeding in a 50,000-word document, answers towards the end of a conversation sometimes become less precise.

Spreadsheet and data work has improved significantly, but for complex, formula-heavy Excel files you’re better off with a more specialised tool.

Is It Worth Paying For?

For most users, Plus at AUD$32/month is worth it. The reliability gap between free and paid is real, and Advanced Voice Mode alone changes how you interact with the tool day-to-day. If you only need occasional help, the free tier is genuinely capable — just expect to hit limits during peak hours.

Pro at AUD$320/month requires a separate calculation. Unless you’re regularly using o3 for deep research, complex coding, or client-facing work where output quality is critical, the Plus tier covers 95% of use cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ChatGPT free to use in Australia?

Yes. The free tier is available to Australian users and includes GPT-4o with daily usage limits, basic image generation, and web search. During peak times you may be switched to GPT-4o mini, which is faster but less capable on complex tasks.

What’s the difference between GPT-4o and the o-series models?

GPT-4o is a general-purpose multimodal model — fast, conversational, and strong at writing, coding, and analysis. The o-series (o3, o4-mini) are reasoning-focused: they work through problems step-by-step before answering, making them significantly better at maths, logic, and multi-step workflows, though they’re slower to respond.

Can ChatGPT remember previous conversations?

Yes. With Memory enabled (the default on Plus and Pro plans), ChatGPT stores information across sessions — your preferences, projects, and context. You can view, edit, or delete individual memories at any time from the settings menu under Personalisation.