OpenAI says ChatGPT's new image generation feature is so popular that it 'melts the GPU,' forcing it to impose temporary restrictions

On March 26, 2025, OpenAI announced ' 4o Image Generation ' as a high-precision image generation function available for ChatGPT. The popularity of 4o Image Generation has caused OpenAI's server GPUs to be overloaded to the point of melting, according to the company's CEO, Sam Altman.

OpenAI says 'our GPUs are melting' as it limits ChatGPT image generation requests | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/637542/chatgpt-says-our-gpus-are-melting-as-it-puts-limit-on-image-generation-requests

'4o Image Generation' has been a hot topic since its release due to its high-precision image generation function, but on March 28, 2025, CEO Altman posted, 'It's so much fun to see how people love generating images with ChatGPT. But the GPU is melting. We will temporarily impose rate limits while we work on efficiency. Hopefully the limit won't last too long. ChatGPT free users will be limited to three image generation per day, but the feature will be available soon,' revealing that the image generation function is so popular that some restrictions have to be imposed.

it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.

but our GPUs are melting.

we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!

chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025

At the time of writing, '4o Image Generation' is only available to ChatGPT paid members of 'Plus', 'Pro' and 'Team', and is not available to free users.

Regarding this, CEO Altman said, 'ChatGPT's image generation feature has been much more popular than we expected, despite our high expectations. Unfortunately, the rollout to free users will be delayed for a while.'

images in chatgpt are wayyyy more popular than we expected (and we had pretty high expectations).

rollout to our free tier is unfortunately going to be delayed for awhile.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 26, 2025

However, if Altman's latest comments are anything to go by, free users will soon be able to use 4o Image Generation, although they will be limited to three images per day.

In addition, ChatGPT's '4o Image Generation' has become a hot topic because it can easily generate images that imitate the style of popular works such as Studio Ghibli, once again highlighting the issue of copyright infringement by AI.

ChatGPT implements GPT-4o image generation function, Studio Ghibli-style meme images are mass-produced, and copyright issues are highlighted - GIGAZINE