OpenAI to launch ChatGPT ‘adult mode’ in early 2026

OpenAI is preparing to introduce an “adult mode” on ChatGPT in the first quarter of 2026, according to a report by The Verge. The feature is expected to roll out between January and March, soon after the company unveiled its latest model, GPT-5.2, earlier this week.

Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, told the publication that the company will first strengthen its age-prediction capabilities before launching adult mode. The firm is currently testing an age-prediction model designed to identify users' approximate age and automatically enforce content restrictions for users under 18.

OpenAI recently released GPT-5.2, which it claims significantly improves accuracy and reduces hallucinations compared to its predecessor. The model scores 70.9% on the GDPval benchmark, up from 38.8% with GPT-5.1, and achieves 92.4% accuracy on science questions. Rival models have claimed 100% accuracy on certain tests, though OpenAI emphasized broader, more complex benchmarks.

“GPT-5.2 sets a new state of the art across many benchmarks… outperforming industry professionals at well-specified knowledge-work tasks spanning 44 occupations,” the company said in a blog post.

OpenAI also reported that GPT-5.2’s “Thinking” mode produces 30% fewer errors than GPT-5.1 on de-identified ChatGPT queries. The new model is priced at $1.75 per million input tokens and $14 per million output tokens, with a 90% discount on cached inputs.