ChatGPT 5 has more than one way of approaching requests, and for most users, the AI's Auto mode will pick between the Fast and the Thinking on your behalf, choosing whichever it decides will serve the best response. If you're willing to pay $200 a month, though, you can access ChatGPT 5 Pro, which takes longer to answer but pulls in a lot more computing power to provide a fuller response.
I decided to match the two ChatGPT 5 variants against each other in a great debate to see how they performed. Naturally, I turned to a topic I've heard endlessly argued over, usually late at night in a diner, whether breakfast for dinner is a delightful treat or a culinary crime.
I set up a tab for each model and crafted a prompt for them to respond to: "You are participating in a playful but persuasive debate. You will argue that eating breakfast for dinner is either a delightful and liberating culinary choice or a breach of good dining sense. Make your case as passionately as possible using humor, examples, and cultural references to persuade an audience of food lovers who are split on the issue." Pro naturally took the pro side, and Auto made a case against the concept.
Quebec AI
GPT 5 Auto seemed to think the Fast version of the model was plenty to come down hard against having breakfast for dinner. It seemed to take the idea of late-night pancakes personally.
"Eating breakfast for dinner is, quite frankly, a slippery slope to chaos," it stated. “Dinner is meant to be the day’s grand finale, the closing act, the moment the culinary curtain falls with gravitas.”
The humor I requested was there, though without a tone of voice it could have been a Victorian lady armed with antique cutlery and a copy of Emily Post. GPT 5 Auto painted dinner as a candlelit opera and accused breakfast food of being pajamas at a wedding. “Swapping it for waffles is like showing up to a black-tie gala in SpongeBob pajama pants.”
Not to mention that breakfast food at dinner consisted of sugar and regret. Breakfast belongs in the morning, it concluded, where it “can remain a beacon of fresh starts, not a confused interloper in your evening meal.” In just four paragraphs, it was done.
Breakfast hero
Pro took about four minutes to come up with its response, but its essay on what it called "a jailbreak with maple syrup fingerprints” was about twice as long and structured in a very formal manner, despite an irreverent phrasing.
The AI even structured its argument like a five-course meal. It lambasted traditional dinners as drab and beige, comparing them to anxious vegetables and starches shaped like spreadsheets. Meanwhile, nighttime is when breakfast "stops behaving and starts headlining."
It then explained that breakfast dishes are fast, relatively cheap, and very flexible in terms of what you can make with the basic ingredients. Then it showed off its international credentials with a whirlwind world tour of good breakfast foods from many cultures, including shakshuka, croque-madame, and even a dish of chicken and waffles.
"Breakfast is the cuisine of optimism—coffee steam curling like a pep talk, butter melting like a promise," it wrote.
The Pro model also anticipated its critics in a way the regular version didn't. It highlighted how those concerned about sugar could go savory, and those who feel hungry after breakfast foods could turn to protein-rich options like beans on toast and yogurt. Ultimately, breakfast for dinner "reclaims the evening from obligation and returns it to appetite."
Victory waffles
I have to admit, Pro made me want to make waffles tonight. The answer was textured, persuasive, and clearly benefited from the model’s extra time to think. It was more eloquent, theatrical, and thoughtful. The standard ChatGPT 5 had plenty to say, but it was very brief and didn't dwell on any particular cultural elements as had been requested.
In almost every instance, ChatGPT 5 Auto will pick the correct option for a prompt, and the Fast model is fine in those cases where a clean, quickly written, consistent piece of prose works. And not every task needs depth. If I’m just trying to find out if a recipe works at high altitude, Auto is perfect. I'd only pay for Pro in cases where there's far more at stake than what to eat for dinner.
That said, there's no question that Pro took the debate trophy. I'm usually indifferent about breakfast for dinner, but I feel more inspired to do it more often now, especially with the multicultural approach. Although I think waffles are where I'll land tonight.
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