I found a hidden ChatGPT setting that changes how hard the AI thinks — and the difference surprised me

Today, I was using the ChatGPT app on my iPhone when I accidentally held my finger down on the send button (the blue upward arrow) a bit too long, and I was suddenly taken to a new options screen I hadn’t realized existed before, which I use all the time now.

The option screen gives you three different intelligence settings for the answer you're going to get back from ChatGPT: High, Medium, or Instant.

What’s going on here is that ChatGPT is asking you to choose between three different flavors of ChatGPT-5.5 that change how long the chatbot thinks before answering. These options are easily visible in the web-interface version of ChatGPT, but the reason why I’d never seen them before in the iOS app is that there’s nothing that indicates they exist, and I bet a lot of you haven’t found them either.

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So, fire up ChatGPT and try it now - you’ll be surprised. The workflow goes like this:

1. Type your prompt
2. Long-press the blue send arrow
3. Choose a model - e.g., Thinking
4. Send

For paid users only

What’s nice is that having the freedom to choose ChatGPT’s intelligence level like this means that you can choose differently for each prompt you enter.

So, if you just need a quick answer to a simple question, then choose Instant. If you’ve asked something more difficult and you want to make sure you get the full benefit of the AI thinking about it properly, then choose High. The Medium setting gives you a balance of both approaches.

Sadly, this feature only works for users on paid ChatGPT plans. If you’re using a free ChatGPT account, you won’t get these options.

Android alternatives

Since the feature isn’t prominently documented, many people aren’t aware it exists. And if you’re on an Android phone, well, it doesn’t actually exist, because this hidden feature is unique to iOS, but there is an Android equivalent.

On Android, when you long-press an answer text (not the send button), a new menu will be available for you. At the end of the menu, you can see a Change model option — you can use this to select a thinking or instant variant of your current model.

I love finding hidden features in tech I own, and often it's like this one — the hidden setting turns out to be something I’ll use all the time, once I’ve discovered it. Let's hope you do, too.

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