OpenAI is still dealing with the user backlash from the launch of ChatGPT-5 and the turning off of its popular ChatGPT-4o model at the same time. ChatGPT-5’s more functional and efficient tone, compared to the previous supportive and friendly ChatGPT-4o didn’t sit well with a lot of its user base, and OpenAI was forced to restore ChatGPT-4o access to paid users.
While ChatGPT-5 is without a doubt better for work-related tasks and coding, many users who were using ChatGPT for emotional support thought that the older ChatGPT-4o’s personality was more agreeable. OpenAI has promised to improve the personality of ChatGPT-5, and it’s not clear how long 4o-access will remain as an option for users.
The latest move from OpenAI to help people get along better with ChatGPT-5 is to consolidate all the personality-tweaking features into one place in the Personalization page in ChatGPT’s Settings, so they are easier to find.
Minor adjustments
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI brought this somewhat minor rejigging of the Personalization settings in ChatGPT to everybody’s attention when he tweeted about it today on X.com.
It’s curious that such a minor change to the settings in ChatGPT deserved a tweet from the CEO of the company, and shows how seriously OpenAI is taking the issue of ChatGPT’s personality, as it scrambles to adjust to the public reaction.
The personality tweaking features available in ChatGPT-5 are pretty powerful and shouldn’t be ignored. If you’re finding ChatGPT a bit colder in tone these days, then it’s well worth spending a couple of minutes adjusting the Personalization settings to something that suits you better, because you might find it’s all you need to do to restore things to normal.
To change personality, all you need to do is tap or click on your account name, then choose Personalization from the menu. Different personality types are available from the ChatGPT Personality menu. This is the sort of feature that you can keep tweaking slightly over time, if you find that a particular aspect of ChatGPT’s personality is annoying you.
I have ChatGPT’s personality set to Listener. I find that this is the mode that works best for me. Nerd is also a good one, and I sometimes switch between the two. The other change I’ve made is to put “Be talkative and conversational” into the custom instructions. I find this goes a long way to making ChatGPT-5’s personality feel a bit warmer.
Free ChatGPT users don’t get access to the old ChatGPT-4o model, since it is an option reserved for $20 a month Plus users and Pro users only. So, if you’re a free-tier user who is currently missing the old ChatGPT, then these personalization options are well worth looking into.
With 70% of us using ChatGPT outside of work, according to ChatGPT’s latest survey, the tone of ChatGPT is becoming increasingly important, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next update to ChatGPT features even more advanced personality settings.