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What Happened to OpenAI’s “Strawberry” Model? The o1 Launch Explained

The “Strawberry” release forecast was followed by OpenAI’s o1-preview announcement in September 2024, but the company did not explicitly confirm the two names were identical.
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OpenAI’s September 2024 forecast that a model called “Strawberry” might arrive as soon as that week was followed by the company’s announcement of o1-preview on September 12. Reporting linked the internal name Strawberry to the o1 release, but OpenAI’s announcement named the public model series “OpenAI o1” and did not itself confirm that the two names referred to the same thing. The forecast is historical, not a current launch announcement.

What was OpenAI’s “Strawberry” model?

“Strawberry” was the reported internal codename for an OpenAI project focused on improving AI reasoning. Reuters reported on July 12, 2024, citing a person familiar with the matter and internal documentation it reviewed, that the project was intended for research involving long-horizon tasks and autonomous web navigation. Reuters also reported that Strawberry was formerly known as Q*. That history was Reuters’ reporting, not a confirmation in OpenAI’s public product announcement. Reuters’ report, republished by Investing.com.

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The reporting did not establish that Strawberry was ready for public release. Reuters said it could not determine whether an internal demonstration it had heard about was Strawberry, or what a cited deep-research dataset contained. OpenAI’s spokesperson offered a general statement about ongoing AI research, but did not directly confirm the reported project details: “We want our AI models to see and understand the world more like we do.”

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Was Strawberry the same model as OpenAI o1?

Bloomberg’s September 12, 2024 report said a limited release of a model known internally as Strawberry could come as soon as that week and connected the reported release with o1. OpenAI announced o1-preview that same day. The timing and reporting linked the two, but OpenAI’s announcement did not explicitly say that “Strawberry” and “o1” were identical. The most precise description is that o1 was the public release that reporting associated with Strawberry. Bloomberg’s September 12 report.

When did OpenAI launch o1, and what did it do?

OpenAI announced o1-preview in ChatGPT and its API on September 12, 2024. The company described o1 as the first model in a new series designed to spend more time thinking before answering. It said the models could refine their thinking, try different strategies, and recognize mistakes. OpenAI highlighted science, coding, mathematics, and multi-step workflows as potential uses. These were the company’s descriptions, not independent evaluations of the model. OpenAI’s launch announcement.

The phrase “human-like reasoning” appeared in coverage and headlines, but it should not be read as proof that the model reasoned like a person. OpenAI described a model trained to spend longer working through problems; its announcement did not establish equivalence to human reasoning.

What did OpenAI report about o1’s performance?

OpenAI published several evaluation results alongside the launch. They were company-reported figures tied to particular tests, not independent confirmation of general reasoning ability:

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  • Mathematics: OpenAI said a reasoning model scored 83% on an International Mathematics Olympiad qualifying exam, compared with 13% for GPT-4o. The announcement described the 83% result as an evaluation of the next model update then in development; it should not be treated as a general measure of reasoning or as an independently verified o1-preview result.
  • Coding: OpenAI said the model’s coding abilities reached the 89th percentile in Codeforces competitions.
  • Safety testing: On one of the company’s hardest jailbreak tests, OpenAI reported a score of 84 for o1-preview and 22 for GPT-4o on a 0–100 scale. That result applies to that test and is not a general safety guarantee.
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What were o1-preview’s launch-era limitations and access details?

OpenAI called o1-preview an early model. At launch, it said the model lacked ChatGPT features such as web browsing and uploading files or images, and that GPT-4o might be more capable for many common cases in the near term. Those statements describe the September 2024 launch and do not establish current feature availability.

The access rules and usage limits below are also historical launch details, not current account guidance. OpenAI’s announcement said Plus and Team users could access o1 models in ChatGPT beginning September 12, 2024, while Enterprise and Edu access was due the following week. API prototyping was initially limited to qualifying tier-5 developers.

Launch-era detail OpenAI’s September 2024 announcement
Initial ChatGPT limit 30 weekly messages for o1-preview; 50 for o1-mini
Updated ChatGPT limit, as stated on September 17, 2024 50 weekly queries for o1-preview; 50 daily queries for o1-mini
API rate limit for eligible developers 20 requests per minute
o1-mini comparison Described by OpenAI as 80% cheaper than o1-preview at launch; this was a historical relative price claim, not current pricing

OpenAI characterized o1-mini as a smaller, faster model particularly effective at coding. The announcement’s access limits and cost comparison should not be used to infer today’s availability, quotas, or prices.

What should readers take away from the Strawberry report?

  • Strawberry was a reported internal codename; its exact relationship to the public o1 model was not explicitly confirmed by OpenAI.
  • The September 2024 “as soon as this week” forecast was followed by OpenAI’s o1-preview announcement on September 12, 2024.
  • OpenAI positioned o1 around longer reasoning for demanding tasks, while acknowledging launch-era feature gaps and possible advantages for GPT-4o in everyday use.
  • Performance and safety numbers publicized at launch were OpenAI’s results for specified evaluations, not independent proof of human-like reasoning.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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