OpenAI retires older ChatGPT models

OpenAI has removed several older models from ChatGPT for end users, ending general access that had stayed in place through early 2026. (help.openai.com) OpenAI’s help center says GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, OpenAI o4-mini, and GPT-5 “Instant and Thinking” were retired from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026. The same note says application programming interface access to those models did not change. (help.openai.com) A separate OpenAI product note says ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu customers kept GPT-4o inside custom GPTs until April 3, 2026. That note says GPT-4o was fully retired across all plans after that date. (help.openai.com) In ChatGPT, model retirements change what people can pick in the app’s model menu, while the application programming interface is the separate paid system developers use to build software on top of OpenAI models. OpenAI’s notes draw that line directly: ChatGPT availability changed, but the application programming interface did not. (help.openai.com) The shift narrows the list of legacy options inside ChatGPT at a time when OpenAI is steering users toward newer GPT-5.3 and GPT-5.4 releases. The retirement notice appears inside OpenAI’s GPT-5.3 and GPT-5.4 help article rather than as a standalone launch post. (help.openai.com) For workplace customers, the phaseout also affected custom GPT builders, which are the no-code bots users configure inside ChatGPT with instructions, files, and tools. OpenAI’s custom GPT documentation and workspace management pages both repeat the same February 13, 2026 retirement language and the April 3, 2026 GPT-4o cutoff for eligible business and school plans. (help.openai.com 1) (help.openai.com 2) OpenAI also says GPT-5.1 models were retired on March 11, 2026 across both normal chats and GPTs, while staying available through the application programming interface. The company says it will give advance notice before any future application programming interface retirements. (help.openai.com) The result is a cleaner ChatGPT lineup with fewer older models in the consumer product and a longer runway for developers using the same families through the application programming interface. (help.openai.com)