OpenAI narrows ChatGPT model access

OpenAI has narrowed the list of models people can pick inside ChatGPT, retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, OpenAI o4-mini and GPT-5.1 variants from the chat interface while leaving API access in place. (help.openai.com) The first cut happened on February 13, 2026, when ChatGPT removed GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, OpenAI o4-mini and the earlier GPT-5 Instant and Thinking options. GPT-5.1 Instant, GPT-5.1 Thinking and GPT-5.1 Pro were then retired from ChatGPT on March 11, 2026. (help.openai.com) OpenAI said those retired models still remain available through the OpenAI application programming interface, and said it will give advance notice before future API retirements. Existing chats and custom GPTs tied to retired models are being moved to GPT-5.3 Instant or GPT-5.4 Thinking and Pro equivalents. (help.openai.com) That leaves ChatGPT looking more like a routed product than a model catalog. OpenAI’s current help pages describe GPT-5.3 as the default for logged-in users and a single auto-switching system, while GPT-5.5 is rolling out to paid tiers in ChatGPT and Codex. (help.openai.com) The company has also kept changing how model choice appears in the interface. On April 28, 2026, OpenAI said model selection moved into the composer, and thinking-effort controls moved into the model picker for Plus, Pro and Business users on the web. (help.openai.com) The commercial split is getting sharper outside the consumer chat box. OpenAI’s ChatGPT rate card for Business and Enterprise/Edu now lists GPT-5.5 Thinking at about 10 credits per message and GPT-5.5 Pro at about 50 credits, alongside separate charges for agent, deep research, images and voice. (help.openai.com) OpenAI also rewrote Codex pricing in April around token usage instead of per-message estimates. The company said it switched new and existing Plus, Pro and Business customers on April 2, 2026, and extended the change to all existing Enterprise plans on April 23, 2026. (help.openai.com) For government buyers, OpenAI now says ChatGPT Enterprise and the API for FedRAMP have FedRAMP Moderate accreditation through the FedRAMP 20x program, but do not yet include all commercial features. The FedRAMP version uses a separate government API endpoint and excludes legacy models. (help.openai.com) The result is a cleaner public ChatGPT menu and a more explicit divide between the chat app, the paid workplace product and the developer platform. OpenAI is keeping the API as the durable layer while the ChatGPT front end changes faster around it. (help.openai.com 1) (help.openai.com 2)