OpenAI model deprecations

How OpenAI retires models

OpenAI gives at least six months’ notice before it shuts down a generally available model, and at least three months for specialized variants such as its chat, Codex and deep research models. Preview models, the ones with “preview” in their name, can go with much shorter notice, such as two weeks. A safety or compliance issue can shorten any of these, with as much notice as OpenAI can reasonably give.

When it deprecates a model, OpenAI emails the customers actively using it and lists it on its deprecations page, with a blog post for larger changes. The List models endpoint (GET /v1/models) carries a shutdown_date field, so a script can watch for them. On the shutdown day, the model is no longer accessible. OpenAI says some developers may keep access past that day through dedicated capacity, by contacting its sales team.

Next shutdowns: chatgpt-image-latest on December 1, 2026, gpt-image-1-mini on December 1, 2026, gpt-image-1.5 on December 1, 2026.

What OpenAI answers a call to ft-babbage-002 since October 23, 2026, as recorded from real responses:

{"error":{"message":"The model `ft-babbage-002` has been deprecated, learn more here: https://platform.openai.com/docs/deprecations","type":"invalid_request_error","param":null,"code":"model_not_found"}}

Policy read on OpenAI's pages on November 5, 2026. Okapi last checked OpenAI's model pages on November 6, 2026.

• OpenAI deprecations developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations