GPT 5.5 launched, OpenAI says it excels at agentic coding and will help to build AI super app

OpenAI launches GPT 5.5 with enhanced capabilities across coding, research, and workflows, as competition with Anthropic's Claude AI intensifies.

In Short

• OpenAI unveils GPT 5.5 with broader, everyday use focus
• Model competes closely with Anthropic’s Claude AI advancements
• OpenAI shows model’s superior performance across a range of benchmarks

OpenAI has launched its new GPT 5.5 model, which, as per the company's President and Co-founder Greg Brockman, is “no longer just for coders, but for anyone who does computer work.” The new model comes at a time when Anthropic, an AI company founded by ex-OpenAI employees, has gained immense popularity and financial success due to its Claude AI model. The new GPT-5.5 model seems to be the latest step in an increasingly heated battle between OpenAI and Anthropic.

OpenAI says the new GPT 5.5 “excels at writing and debugging code, researching online, analyzing data, creating documents and spreadsheets, operating software, and moving across tools until a task is finished.”

While many of the features introduced in GPT-5.5 have direct equivalents or stronger counterparts in Anthropic’s Claude 4.7 and Claude 5 (Sonnet) models, OpenAI currently holds a slight edge as it can do jobs across the browser, files, docs, and computer, and it can also understand images, video, and voice.

“Instead of carefully managing every step, you can give GPT-5.5 a messy, multi-part task and trust it to plan, use tools, check its work, navigate through ambiguity, and keep going,” OpenAI said in a blog post.

Rapid releases and rising competition

Still, the company is aware of the capabilities of Anthropic and its Claude AI model. OpenAI does not want to take any chance and has continued to churn out new models at a brisk pace. OpenAI released its last model only last month, with a previous release in December and, before that, November.

Anthropic recently released Claude Opus 4.7 and also announced Mythos Preview, a non-public model it says is uniquely advanced in cybersecurity. OpenAI quickly followed with GPT-5.4-Cyber, its own model trained to flag cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

OpenAI has also recently slashed so-called “side quests,” which included its Sora video generation AI model, in favor of chasing bigger revenue drivers.

Benchmark performance and enterprise ambitions

The company also released data Thursday showing the model’s superior performance across a range of benchmarks. Compared to its previous models, and to models from competitors Google and Anthropic (like Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude Opus 4.5), 5.5 consistently scores higher, according to OpenAI.

“The gains are especially strong in agentic coding, computer use, knowledge work, and early scientific research—areas where progress depends on reasoning across context and taking action over time,” OpenAI wrote.

TechCrunch reports that Brockman also said the model was an additional step toward creating a “super app,” envisioning combining ChatGPT, Codex, and an AI browser into one unified service that can aid enterprise customers.

Safety focus and rollout plans

Meanwhile, OpenAI says the GPT 5.5 is “designed to reduce misuse while preserving access for beneficial work.” Mia Glaese, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, said that GPT-5.5 would have a significant impact on the company’s approach to deploying its models toward digital defense, as reported by TechCrunch.

GPT-5.5 is rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in ChatGPT and Codex, and GPT-5.5 Pro is rolling out to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in ChatGPT.

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