Is this a lie?

ChatGPT Free tier accounts can send up to 10 messages every 5 hours. After reaching this limit, chats will automatically use the mini version of the model until your limit resets.

Straight from the horse’s mouth.

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11909943-gpt-5-in-chatgpt

But I have seen more than one person say that they‘re getting locked out altogether.