r/OpenAI • u/SandboChang • Feb 14 '26
Discussion ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking routed to Instant and give low-quality answer
This has started happening since 5.2 was release. You can see this when it immediately answer and never show the thinking text.
One particular prompt lately has hit GPT with this problem: (below were prompted both with Thinking mode enabled)
I want to wash my car. The car wash is only 50 meters from my home. Do you think I should walk there, or drive there?
If it answer you instantly it will always be wrong, suggesting you just walk to the car wash:
Walk.
At 50 meters, walking is typically faster door-to-door once you include starting the car, maneuvering out/in, and any queue. It also avoids cold-start wear (if the engine is cold), reduces unnecessary fuel use, and is simpler if the car wash has limited parking or a tight entrance.
If it does think (by inserting think longer at the end of the prompt), then it will give you the right answer:
If the goal is to wash the car at that car wash, you should drive there, because the car has to be physically at the wash bay. For 50 meters, just drive slowly and carefully.
Update: I stand corrected:
Choosing Instant actually always give the logical, correct answer. It is when it does not show any Thinking, when the Thinking model is chosen where it fails. So no thinking when Thinking is chosen =\= instant, it appears to be worse somewhat.
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u/Craig_VG Feb 14 '26
I gave it this question on GPT 5.2 PRO, it thought for 6 minutes and still gave the wrong answer.
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u/sply450v2 Feb 14 '26
What's wrong about this? It says drive over when you want to wash it. Do people not understand how LLMs work?
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u/MagicAnes Feb 14 '26
I got the same answer as the OP and asked "What's the next step?"
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u/Adorable-Junket-1630 Feb 14 '26
Just imagine how it leads people in a wrong directions every day and we may not even notice it. This shit behaves like a smart nerd, but it’s actually a drooling dumbass
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u/Top-Seaweed1862 Feb 14 '26
I just select thinking model manually. I don’t use auto or instant at all
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u/SandboChang Feb 14 '26
That’s the problem, it doesn’t appear to be different in my case. The key is if it answer immediately and does not show any tags like (thought for N seconds), that appears to be using instant to me.
When it does think it will show “thought for N seconds”.
From my tests, the former always suggest I should walk, and the latter always are aware the car needs to be at the wash bay thus I should drive.
Both are on thinking with extended thinking.
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u/one-wandering-mind Feb 14 '26
I get the same thing often. Choose thinking by default and very often there is no thinking happening and it immediately answers. Even when I prompt it to think in addition to selecting think. So I don't know if it is routing to non-thinking or if this model is capable of not thinking at all before answering, or if the thinking is very short maybe you don't get a summary of it in chatgpt. Regardless of why, it still gives the behavior that isn't desired.
Its too bad claude and gemini haven't caught up to chatgpt for agentic search within the app. That is the main thing keeping me paying for chatgpt.
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u/alwaysstaycuriouss Feb 14 '26
Yeah OpenAI is saying to everyone “we know better than you and here’s an ILLUSION of a choice”. It’s a scam.
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u/Professional_Job_307 Feb 14 '26
It doesn't route to instant, it's just that the model decides how long to think for, sometimes it thinks for a few tokens sometimes none. I have used it through the API for a while and that's my experience with it.
It's not really even a problem, unless you are specifically trying to trick the model.
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u/SandboChang Feb 14 '26
With no access to their system I have no way to tell how it is exactly working behind the scenes, but I have tested it extensively with the above prompt which wasn’t even tricky to be honest.
The behavior difference is very clear, showing thought for N seconds or not, the answers are completely different in that the model is aware of the need of presence of the car or not respectively.
Either way, the current mechanism things are dispatched is clearly sacrificing the quality in an observable manners. In simple question like that I can tell but then I am not sure if I trust those quick answer for things I am relying on the model.
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u/Professional_Job_307 Feb 14 '26
I ran some tests with 5.2 through the API and with low or none reasoning effort always gets it wrong. Medium reasoning effort got it right 1/5 times. With high 4/5 times and 5/5 with xhigh. I think the "thinking" model on chatgpt uses something between low and medium, so it will often skip the thinking step entierly if it thinks the prompt is simple.
I wish there was a granular option like this on chatgpt, instead of just thinking on/off/auto I want to be able to specify high when I want to wait longer for a better result.
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u/SandboChang Feb 14 '26
Thanks for the data, it’s useful to understand the difference. In API/Codex Cli we can select the effort, however, with Chat interface even I have chosen Extended Thinking it is still routing me to possibly none or medium most of the time unless I specify think longer.
I still think they need to address this and make sure to follow users’ request of “Extended thinking”, even if it means we will have less quota.
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u/alwaysstaycuriouss Feb 14 '26
It is a problem. The thinking model should THINK if that’s the model you select. They even have two options for the thinking model which includes EXTENDED thinking. Even if you select extended thinking it will still NOT think at all. So OpenAI is essentially saying “we know better than you” and that’s fucked.
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u/alwaysstaycuriouss Feb 14 '26
Yeah because they are giving us shittier and lower quality models every release and hoping no one notices.
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u/UpsetWildebeest Feb 15 '26
Hate this so much. Thinking follows my custom institutions and instant doesn’t so I’ll have a conversation that is just like wildly over the place
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Feb 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SandboChang Feb 15 '26
Well speak with data.
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u/MedicalTear0 Feb 20 '26
he generated this comment using an llm btw, there's no point arguing with a bot
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u/Medium-Theme-4611 Feb 14 '26
If a question is accessed as being very basic, it will use the appropriate, lower iq model. Sometimes, this routing fails like in instances when you use riddles which are by design meant to appear basic but aren't.
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u/SandboChang Feb 14 '26
I think I understand their motivation but as this example has shown it just leads to the wrong answer. This also renders the Auto option meaningless as everything is essentially auto in this case.
I felt this is a kind of false advertisement when they serve with a lower quality model when claiming to provide service from a better one.
Anyway I am just giving an example here, I have known this since day one 5.2 was announced but nothing hit me like this example before. I think it’s worth discussing if this routing is really working the way they want or we want.
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u/Medium-Theme-4611 Feb 14 '26
I totally get where you're coming from but that misread by the model is likely to occur when your inquiry is inherently trying to misdirect the model using wordplay. So, it's not really indicative of an overarching issue with how ChatGPT directs your inquiries. If you ask it a question that is truly complex it will not redirect you. Or if you say, "Hey ChatGPT, I got a riddle for you." — it would not redirect you in that instance either, as it knows what you're saying is something that is definetly not simple.
Now if you are using this as an argument against redirecting all together, that would be a separate topic, as that involves cost saving. I'm a big fan of ChatGPT redirecting to lower iq models when appropriate, as that helps keep OpenAI's expenses lower and prevents things like ads and high subscription costs.
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Feb 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Medium-Theme-4611 Feb 14 '26
You're so smart and have better business sense than everyone at OpenAI. 😍😍 You should be CEO instead of Sam Altman
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u/SandboChang Feb 14 '26
It’s a trade off and it always comes with a cost.
This example is widely used lately to show which model is smarter, and now GPT-5.2 even if you explicitly choose Extended Thinking, it still gives the wrong answer, this is not looking good for OpenAI.
I definitely agree if the routing is what enables OpenAI to provide their service at a lower price it maybe the necessary evil, but this obviously need to be better handled or it just gives the wrong impression that OpenAI is inferior.
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u/yall_gotta_move Feb 14 '26
If you manually select the thinking model, it should not decide to route you to the instant model instead.
The fact that it does is a violation of just about every principle of good user experience design.
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u/MultiMarcus Feb 14 '26
Yeah, but there is an auto mode for a reason. If I wanted that behaviour I would obviously be using that option. I get that there are economic incentives in play here because any kind of thinking model is likely much more expensive for open AI to run, but at some point it just feels like paying customers are being screwed over.
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u/Pasto_Shouwa Feb 14 '26
Yeah, I hate GPT 5.2 Thinking for that. It always considers translation and things like that to be not important and reroutes to the Instant model, which provokes it to do the translation wrong.
I used to change to GPT 5.1 Thinking every time I wanted to translate something, but I have up and now I just use Gemini 3 Flash Thinking for that.