Apple Confirms GPT-5 Support for Apple Intelligence Won’t Arrive Until iOS 26

OpenAI’s newly unveiled GPT-5, which the company announced on Thursday, is already available to all ChatGPT users — including those on the free tier — but Apple Intelligence users will have to wait until the rollout of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26 before they can access it, Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac.

For now, Apple Intelligence, the tech giant’s new AI framework that powers enhanced Siri capabilities and its Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence feature, still relies on OpenAI’s GPT-4o model. GPT-5’s absence means users won’t yet experience the model’s advanced reasoning, faster responses, and improved multimodal capabilities within Apple’s native ecosystem.

Apple has so far only committed to releasing its next major software updates “in the fall,” with general availability expected next month, in line with its usual post-iPhone event schedule. It remains unclear whether GPT-5 integration will be part of developer or public betas before the full rollout.

OpenAI, however, has wasted no time in making GPT-5 widely accessible. The company says ChatGPT now serves about 700 million weekly users, reflecting explosive adoption across consumer and enterprise markets. GPT-5’s release is part of OpenAI’s aggressive push to stay ahead in the AI race, offering deeper contextual understanding, more accurate reasoning, and faster multimodal processing.

However, Apple’s delayed rollout highlights the unusual nature of its AI strategy in 2024 and 2025. Long criticized for lagging behind rivals like Google and Microsoft in consumer-facing AI features, Apple surprised the industry in June when it announced a direct partnership with OpenAI—one of its rare moves to integrate a third-party AI service deeply into its core software. Under this arrangement, Apple Intelligence can hand off certain complex tasks to ChatGPT when Siri or its own AI tools fall short, without users needing to create an OpenAI account. The integration is positioned as a privacy-conscious collaboration, with Apple promising that requests routed to ChatGPT will be transparent and optional.

This partnership was born from Apple’s cautious AI philosophy, which emphasizes on-device processing and strict data privacy safeguards. Rather than building a large language model entirely in-house, an effort that could take years and cost billions, Apple opted for a hybrid approach, pairing its proprietary on-device models with established cloud-based models from partners like OpenAI.

The move is seen as an acknowledgment that the AI race has accelerated faster than Apple’s internal development cycles could keep up, while still letting the company frame the integration as “Apple-first” through tight control over data handling and user consent.

The delayed integration into Apple Intelligence also underscores the company’s careful approach to AI rollouts — a strategy Apple has consistently taken to maintain tight control over user experience and privacy. While the partnership with OpenAI marks a rare step for Apple in directly embedding third-party AI into its core software, it also places the company in the middle of the fast-moving generative AI race dominated by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Meta.

But Apple’s hesitation may also be influenced by broader industry dynamics. GPT-5 arrives at a time when regulators in the US and Europe are ramping up scrutiny of AI models, data practices, and potential bias. Apple may be giving itself room to fine-tune safeguards and ensure compliance by waiting until iOS 26.

When the integration does land, Apple users will be able to seamlessly tap GPT-5 for more complex Siri queries, advanced text generation, and visual analysis — a leap that could redefine Apple’s pitch for AI-powered personal devices.

Although OpenAI removed ChatGPT-4o after the launch of GPT-5, it was forced to return it following backlash. This means that for now, Apple users will stay toggling between Apple’s GPT-4o-powered features and the standalone ChatGPT app.