By Naomi Moneypenny, Head of Azure AI Foundry Direct Models and Trupti Parkar, Product Manager, Azure AI Foundry Direct  

It’s been only 30 days since launch of the GPT-5 models on Azure AI Foundry, and we’re seeing unprecedented uptake in usage both inside Microsoft’s products and across our customers and partners. Not only was this the biggest launch we’ve ever done for a new set of AI models, simultaneously delivering to our customers and inside our own products from GitHub to Microsoft 365; the first month’s momentum we’re seeing in deployment and range of scenarios is skyrocketing, surpassing even what we’ve seen previously for other releases. The arrival of GPT-5 family in Azure AI Foundry represents a significant advancement in how AI can reason, generate, and automate across industries. Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or business leader, GPT-5 brings new capabilities that make intelligent workflows more accessible and impactful. Let’s break down the innovations, features, and real-world impact of GPT-5, and see how it’s changing the game for enterprise and creative applications.

Core Capabilities

The following section provides an overview of the core capabilities that set GPT-5 on Azure AI Foundry apart. From smarter model selection and enhanced reliability to advanced context handling and remarkable multimodal abilities, these features empower developers and enterprises to harness AI in ways that are more accessible, flexible, and effective than ever before.

Smarter Model Selection: The Model Router Advantage

One of the biggest headaches in AI development has been picking the right model for the job. Using Azure’s model router solves this. This is a smart system that automatically chooses the best model variant for each request. If you need a quick answer, it’ll use a lightweight model. If your task requires deep analysis or multi-step reasoning, it’ll switch to a more advanced version. This means you get the right balance of speed, cost, and intelligence, without having to specifically consider it for every task. This enables cost-efficient scaling that can help customers automatically get the right GPT-5 variant for their task: whether that’s GPT-5-Reasoning for deep analysis, GPT-5-Mini for faster turnaround, or GPT-5-Nano for lightweight calls.

Real world Applicability:
A retail chatbot can instantly answer simple product questions using GPT-5-mini, but when a customer asks about a delayed order, the router switches to a deeper reasoning model to analyze logistics and provide a thoughtful response.

Less Sycophantic, More Reliable

Like any good colleague, instead of always saying what you want to hear, GPT 5 is designed to be direct and honest, even if that means challenging your assumptions. This makes it a more trustworthy partner for production use, especially in scenarios where accuracy and reliability matter.

Why it matters:
In business, you want AI that can flag potential issues, not just nod along. GPT-5’s improved reliability means fewer mistakes and better decision support.

Extended Context and Frontier Deep Reasoning

GPT-5 isn’t just bigger, it’s also smarter. With a context window that can handle hundreds of thousands of tokens (~272K tokens), it can process long documents, codebases, or conversations without losing track. This is a game-changer for tasks like legal analysis, scientific research, or reviewing complex software projects.

Multimodal and Conversational Power

GPT-5 isn’t limited to text. It can understand and generate content across multiple formats including text, images, audio, and even PDFs. The gpt-5-chat variant is built for rich, multi-turn conversations, making it ideal for virtual assistants, customer support, and collaborative agents with ~128k tokens context available.

Freeform Tool Calling: Flexible Automation

Developers can now integrate GPT-5 with external tools using natural language instructions. Instead of rigid schemas, you can ask the model to run SQL queries, execute Python scripts, or format data—just by describing what you want. This makes automation more intuitive and reduces integration overhead. For example, a data analyst can prompt GPT-5 to pull sales data, run calculations, and generate a chart, all in one without writing complex code or switching between tools. Refer to this blog learn more!

Enterprise-Grade Security and Governance

Azure AI Foundry wraps GPT-5 in a robust security and compliance framework. Features like content safety, integration with Microsoft Defender, and policy-driven agent services mean organizations can deploy AI confidently, even in regulated industries. Enterprises choose Azure AI Foundry for trusted security and compliance, seamless integration across the Microsoft stack, and governance tools to deploy GPT-5 responsibly. With optimized routing, you always get the best balance of cost and performance.
From healthcare to finance, enterprises need AI that’s not just powerful, but also safe and auditable. Azure’s governance tools make this seamlessly possible.

Explore the Power of GPT-5 Across Real-World Use Cases

Dive into our latest demo showcasing GPT-5 in action showcasing productivity, creativity, customer support, and decision-making scenarios. Watch how it transforms everyday workflows with smarter summarization, seamless task automation, intuitive conversation, and context-aware insights. Whether you're a developer, researcher, or business leader, this video highlights how GPT-5 can elevate your impact with speed, precision, and adaptability.

Get Started Today

GPT-5 is now available in Azure AI Foundry, with multiple variants to fit your needs. Whether you’re building a simple Q&A bot or a complex agentic workflow, the platform makes it easy to experiment, deploy, and scale.

Ready to see what GPT-5 can do? Dive into Azure AI Foundry and start building the future of intelligent applications.