From time to time, OpenAI removes older models from ChatGPT’s model picker, as users become accustomed to newer ones. Here are the models being retired on February 13.
GPT-4o is going away for good
Last August, when OpenAI released GPT-5, it removed GPT-4o from ChatGPT’s model picker without much (or any) warning.
This caused a huge and immediate backlash, as many users had grown accustomed to the tone and behavior of GPT-4o, which many defined as warmer and friendlier than GPT-5’s more straightforward answers.
The pushback prompted OpenAI to restore access to GPT-4o, and sparked intense debates about ethics and the many aspects of people’s emotional attachment to LLMs.
At the time, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said:
4o is back in the model picker for all paid users by default. If we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice. Paid users also now have a “Show additional models” toggle in ChatGPT web settings which will add models like o3, 4.1, and GPT-5 Thinking mini. 4.5 is only available to Pro users—it costs a lot of GPUs.
We are working on an update to GPT-5’s personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o. However, one learning for us from the past few days is we really just need to get to a world with more per-user customization of model personality.
Since then, OpenAI has delivered on Altman’s promise to allow further customization of ChatGPT. Users can currently choose from 7 distinct personalities, in addition to being able to set their own custom instructions.
Now, OpenAI said that it will once again retire GPT-4o, which the company claims only 0.1% of its users choose to interact with on a daily basis. In fact, GPT-4o is not the only model being retired. Here is the full list:
- GPT‑4o
- GPT‑4.1
- GPT‑4.1 mini
- OpenAI o4-mini
Importantly, OpenAI notes that while these models will be retired from ChatGPT, they will not make any changes in the API “at this time,” meaning they will still be available to developers.
To learn more about OpenAI’s announcement, follow this link.
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