OpenAI announced the release of GPT‑5 on August 7, 2025 and began rolling out the model to free and paid users the same day.

As with previous models, limits depend on the user’s specific plan.

GPT-5 is also available through the OpenAI API for developers and businesses.

Currently, GPT-5 is the #1 model on LMArena—a public platform that compares large language models (LLMs) through anonymous, crowd-sourced voting.

How Is GPT-5 Different?

GPT-5 is positioned as faster, more accurate, better equipped for certain tasks, and more capable of advanced reasoning.

The model is designed to be:

• Better at coding: GPT-5 is intended to build and troubleshoot large, complex coding projects more reliably. And to have more effective debugging capabilities.
• Less likely to hallucinate: GPT-5 replies are estimated to about 45% less likely to contain factual inaccuracies compared to GPT-4o
• More capable of writing: GPT-5 is positioned as the most capable model when it comes to writing, including for creative writing
• More thoughtful: GPT-5 is meant to be less over-the-top agreeable and more likely to provide thoughtful responses
• Safer: GPT-5 uses a different type of safety training that’s more nuanced
• Better at reasoning: GPT-5 is designed with advanced reasoning built in, and should be able to automatically decide when to take extra time to work through multi-step problems

We wanted to test the reasoning capabilities. When we gave it a complex prompt, it took over a minute to think before responding.

Notably, the knowledge cutoff for GPT-5 is October 2024. This compares to a knowledge cutoff of October 2023 in GPT-4o (it was later updated to June 2024). 

It’s worth pointing out that there were some issues with the roll-out. During a Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the launch was bumpier than expected in response to user feedback.

4 Takeaways for Marketers Who Want Visibility in AI Tools

ChatGPT is estimated to have 700 million weekly users, making it part of a growing trend toward AI tools that make brand mentions and AI citations valuable for influencing customer decisions.

Our AI search study predicts that AI search visitors will surpass traditional search visitors in 2028.

Brands that are easy for LLMs to find, trust, and cite will gain the most visibility. 

Here are four actions you can take to work toward better visibility in ChatGPT and other AI tools:

1. Follow Fundamental SEO Practices

ChatGPT pulls live search data from across the web for certain prompts. 

If your site is ranking well in search engines like Google and Bing, there could be a higher chance of getting mentioned or cited in ChatGPT answers.

So, keep applying core SEO best practices like:

• Publishing high-quality, relevant content that meets what searchers are looking for
• Optimizing your website for a smooth user experience by prioritizing fast load times and a mobile-friendly design
• Implementing relevant schema markup to provide more information about your content
• Ensuring your website is easy to crawl by having an XML sitemap and making sure you aren’t blocking crawlers via your robots.txt file

2. Prioritize Gaining Brand Mentions

Early evidence suggests that getting brand mentions on trustworthy websites and platforms can increase your chances of being mentioned and cited in AI responses.

So, aim to be featured on reputable websites in your niche by contributing guest blog posts or providing quotes for articles. And participate in conversations on platforms like Reddit and Quora—our AI search study shows these two platforms are the most cited domains in AI Overviews.

There’s reason to believe other LLMs have a bias toward forums as well. Especially when you consider that LLMs rely on real reviews for up-to-date information that isn’t included in the initial data models were trained on. 

3. Optimize the Sections within Each Page

LLMs like ChatGPT extract short sections (called chunks) when evaluating pages to inform responses, which means you should write each section to stand on its own.

How can you do this key LLM optimization tactic? 

Follow these tips to optimize each section on your webpages:

• Implement a logical structure that breaks up content into more detailed sections. And use subheadings to signal those sections.
• Stay focused on the specific subtopic the subheading outlines. Avoid veering into other topics that have their own sections.
• Use specific language that clearly indicates what’s being discussed
• Keep sections relatively short. It’s best to aim for between 100 and 300 words.

4. Track Your Brand in ChatGPT and Other LLMs

Actually tracking whether and how prominently you’re mentioned in AI tools is the only way to know how visible you are. Specialized software makes this monitoring easy.

For SMBs, the Semrush AI Toolkit provides detailed insights into your share of voice, how you stack up against competitors, and what you can do to improve. 

You can even compare your visibility across AI tools.

Each report provides specific recommendations and an estimate of how long the tactic will take to implement. So you can prioritize your next steps.

Enterprise organizations will want to use Semrush Enterprise AIO. 

It’s a more comprehensive AI optimization tool that generates brand-specific prompts across various stages of the buyer’s journey. Semrush Enterprise AIO uses these prompts to evaluate your visibility in comparison to your rivals across different LLMs. 

You can also dig into how prominently you appear for different prompts.

Move Forward with GPT-5

For marketers, success with the GPT-5 model starts with knowing what’s already working. 

Find out how LLMs are currently talking about your brand, so you can take strategic action to improve your results.