GPT-6 turns ChatGPT answers into mini apps

OpenAI began rolling out GPT-6 to everyone who uses ChatGPT on 7 October, and the bigger change isn't the model. It's what the answers look like. A feature called Intelligent UI lets ChatGPT reply with interactive charts, tappable buttons, forms, maps and small calculators mixed in with the text. Paying users on Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise got it first with a model called GPT-6 Sol; Free and Go users started getting GPT-6 Luna from 8 October. The rollout is global, so it includes the UK.

"ChatGPT has predominantly been a text-based interface."
— Aarush Selvan, OpenAI product manager, to TechCrunch

Answers you can poke at

OpenAI's examples are deliberately everyday. Ask about a road trip and you may get a map of stops. Ask how a seven-speed bike works and you get a diagram you can tap for details. Plan a Sunday roast and, according to Android Authority, there's a guest-count control that rescales the shopping list. You can also ask for a tool outright, such as a bill splitter, a savings calculator or, inevitably, a game of Snake.

ChatGPT decides the format itself and, OpenAI says, will "still use a simple text answer when that works best". Selvan said in a briefing reported by TechCrunch that "the most helpful answers aren't just text." If you'd rather have fewer visuals, Notebookcheck and TechRepublic both report a "Layout and visuals" switch in ChatGPT's web settings, though OpenAI says turning it off doesn't guarantee text-only replies. You can also simply ask for fewer.

A few limits are worth knowing. It only applies in the Chat tab; ChatGPT's Work and Codex modes aren't changing. Older Windows and Mac desktop apps don't support it. And Pro subscribers who pick the heavyweight Pro reasoning option still get GPT-6 Astra, which OpenAI's release notes say "doesn't support Intelligent UI". We looked at Astra itself in our GPT-6 Astra review.

The speed claim is OpenAI's own: "For questions that need web search, GPT‑6 Instant starts answering 44% sooner, on average, than GPT‑5.6 Instant." TechRepublic points out that this measures when a reply begins, not when the full answer (or chart) is ready, adding: "Those are company-reported results rather than independent performance measurements."

A nice chart is still just a claim

Here's the bit that worries me, gently. A wall of text invites a bit of scepticism; you can see the hedges and the gaps. A tidy interactive chart with sliders feels like a finished product, and people tend to trust things that look finished. But the numbers inside it come from the same model that sometimes gets dates, prices and sums wrong, now wrapped in a nicer frame. A retirement calculator is only as good as the assumptions baked into it, and those are easy to miss behind a slider.

TechRepublic put it plainly: "However, interactive answers still need to be checked for accuracy." That's the right instinct. Treat an Intelligent UI chart like a chart from a stranger at the pub: interesting, possibly right, worth checking against the source before you make a money decision on it.

Where the ads come in

For UK readers on the free tiers there's another layer. OpenAI's release notes show it began rolling out ads to Free and Go users in the UK on 4 June 2026; Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education stay ad-free. On 5 October, TechCrunch reported that OpenAI will test a new visual ad format shown alongside images people generate in ChatGPT, starting in the US later in October. OpenAI says ads are clearly labelled and don't influence ChatGPT's answers.

The GPT-6 launch post doesn't say how ads will sit alongside these richer, more app-like answers. That's a fair question to ask now, before the line between an interactive comparison tool and a shopping module gets blurry. A product comparison table and a sponsored product card can look awfully similar on a phone screen.

To be fair to OpenAI

This is a genuinely useful idea. Plenty of questions are better answered with a diagram than five paragraphs, and being able to change an input and see the result is how many people actually learn. Free users get the new model and the feature too, rather than it being locked behind a subscription, and the text-first setting is a sensible concession. Independent hands-on verdicts are still thin on the ground: the coverage so far, from TechCrunch, Engadget, Android Authority and others, is largely built on OpenAI's own demos.

Mind the hype. Especially when it comes with a slider.

Sources: OpenAI · OpenAI release notes · TechCrunch · TechCrunch (ads) · Engadget · Android Authority · TechRepublic · Notebookcheck