OpenAI Launches GPT-4.5: Performance Gains Amid Pricing Controversy, GPT-5 Integration Accelerates
March 4, 2025 — OpenAI officially released its next-generation language model, GPT-4.5, marking a critical step toward achieving General Artificial Intelligence (AGI). However, the performance improvements are accompanied by controversy over a 30-fold surge in API costs and industry skepticism about its cost-effectiveness. Simultaneously, OpenAI announced plans to launch GPT-5 by the end of May, integrating the o3 model’s capabilities to advance technological consolidation and market positioning.
GPT-4.5: Performance Upgrade Amid High Costs
Enhanced Focus on “Natural Interaction” and “Knowledge Breadth”
Built on the GPT-4o architecture, GPT-4.5 leverages 10 times the computational power of its predecessor and expanded unsupervised learning to achieve breakthroughs in:
- Mathematical proficiency (+27%),
- Coding efficiency (+7–10%),
- Emotional intelligence (EQ), and
- Hallucination suppression (error rate reduced to 37.1%).
User tests indicate that 70% of participants found its interaction experience superior to GPT-4o. For instance, when handling emotionally charged requests, GPT-4.5 delivers more empathetic responses, such as adjusting users’ emotional states through nuanced language.
Pricing Strategy Sparks Debate
Despite performance gains, GPT-4.5’s API call costs—150 for output—are 30 times higher than GPT-4o and far exceed competitors like Claude-3.7-Sonnet and DeepSeek-R1. For example, generating a 6,000-character report incurs output costs of approximately ¥10.11 (RMB). OpenAI attributes the high pricing to the “tens of thousands of GPU resources” required for training, but users widely question its value proposition. Hugging Face’s CEO criticized its closed-source approach as “less appealing,” while industry commentators dismissed it as a “costly model with no breakthroughs.”
GPT-5 Integration Plan: Ending the Multi-Model Era
OpenAI concurrently revealed that GPT-5, launching by late May, will integrate the standalone o3 reasoning model, eliminating the need for manual model switching. GPT-5 will employ dynamic routing algorithms to automatically invoke o3’s deep reasoning engines or lightweight modules based on task complexity, enabling seamless transitions between “rapid responses” and “deep thinking.” This design aims to resolve user frustration with “model selectors” and enhance multimodal task handling (e.g., 10-billion-pixel-level image analysis). Free users gain unlimited access to basic features, while paid subscribers unlock advanced intelligence services.
Industry Perspectives: Balancing Tech Leaps and Business Logic
Supportive Views:
- Enterprise users acknowledge GPT-4.5’s edge in unstructured data processing (e.g., 19% higher accuracy in legal contract parsing vs. GPT-4o).
- Stanford researchers highlight its validation of “pre-training scalability,” with knowledge coverage reaching 69% on GPQA benchmarks (vs. GPT-4o’s 49%).
Skepticism:
- A professor from New York University notes that reliance on computational expansion has hit diminishing returns, with GPT-4.5’s “transitional” role exposing technical limitations.
- The premium pricing is speculated to be a defensive tactic to prevent competitors from model distillation.
Future Outlook: AGI Race Intensifies
OpenAI’s “dual-track” strategy—commercializing GPT-4.5 while integrating GPT-5—underscores its ambition to solidify market leadership. However, facing pressure from DeepSeek’s open-source models and Google’s Gemini, its promise of an “all-in-one system” via GPT-5 remains unproven. CEO Sam Altman emphasizes that AGI’s definition hinges on “executing mission-critical tasks,” and GPT-5 may become a milestone toward this goal.
Conclusion: The launch of GPT-4.5 reflects both technological iteration and the complexities of commercial strategy. As the tug-of-war between performance, cost, and open-source vs. proprietary models continues, OpenAI’s every move shapes the AI industry’s trajectory. With GPT-5 on the horizon, the endgame of the AGI race may arrive sooner than expected.
