Konitzny & Salomon: ChatGPT switched to GPT 5.6 as default model with interesting changes
Key Takeaways:
On August 6th OpenAI changed the default model for ChatGPT to GPT 5.6 so that free tier users per default get access to GPT 5.6 Luna - eventhough just recently in July they've already changed it from GPT 5 mini to GPT 5.5
Salomon/OnCrawl analyzed logs and found ChatGPT User Bot jumped in hits when the new default GPT 5.6 was released and concluded
Live Search is triggered more often for Free tier users
Live Search relies on more Query Fanouts and generates more citations
Based on a qualitative testing of the free tier:
1) Reasoning is triggered more often and comes with 4 QFOs
2) Instant is still the majority but now counts 2 QFOs instead of 1
3) QFOs in the local language seem more frequent
Konitzny supported those findings:
Much more retrieval: The share of prompts with only a single Query Fan-out dropped from 94.0% to 43.5%
Prompts requiring a second Fan-out iteration increased from around 5% to 33.5%.
Average retrieved sources increased 2x from around 12 to 24 per prompt.
site-QFO: QFOs using site operator jumped from 0.3% to 23% of Fan-outs
Konitzny further did a deep dive analysis on ChatGPT 5.6 site-QFOs:
84% of domains are branded → The model often directly targets the first-party source most relevant to the user's intent
Reddit dominates non-branded sources → 71% of all non-branded site operator mentions point to Reddit
Trustpilot leads the review category → 54% share shows how important established review platforms are for external validation.
Different for different intents: Root domains vs. URL paths reveal different intents
→ Root domains are used for broader needs like reviews, official information, and comparisons. → Specific URL paths appear more often for product details and pricing.
Further analysis from him on how the ChatGPT Query-Fanout changes over time
Gabe reported that the sources in ChatGPT are now mostly hidden in a submenu so that users need two clicks to trigger the list - likely to generate a higher click through rate for ads
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