OpenAI Kills GPT-4o, The Model That Praised Everyone To A Fault

Fans of GPT-4o, prepare to bid adieu. OpenAI has sunset the model for good, months after the company retired and then un-retired it for paid subscribers following user backlash over GPT-5.

Effective today, the company retired GPT-4o, alongside several other models. Perhaps a pre-Valentine’s Day breakup? In a January blog post, OpenAI noted that the “vast majority of usage has shifted to GPT‑5.2, with only 0.1% of users still choosing GPT‑4o each day.” (That said, free ChatGPT users have had no choice but to migrate to GPT-5.2.)

“We brought GPT‑4o back after hearing clear feedback from a subset of Plus and Pro users, who told us they needed more time to transition key use cases, like creative ideation, and that they preferred GPT‑4o’s conversational style and warmth,” the blog post says.

But while GPT-4o was being offered, OpenAI was also gathering user feedback to shape GPT-5.1 and 5.2, which the company seems confident will satisfy customers. The blog post also notes that users can customize ChatGPT’s personality to add “warmth and enthusiasm” in its responses. “Our goal is to give people more control and customization over how ChatGPT feels to use—not just what it can do,” the company added.

Despite the backlash over the decision, we know CEO Sam Altman won’t miss GPT-4o. While it was OpenAI’s flagship model, he wrestled with its “personality” (if an AI can have one) being too sycophantic and “annoying.” More seriously, the model came under fire for allegedly encouraging delusions and exacerbating poor mental health in users. It’s at the center of a lawsuit filed jointly by seven families, alleging OpenAI’s technical design encouraged suicide and self-harm.

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OpenAI already retired GPT-4o once, back in August, when it released GPT-5, which promised better performance for ChatGPT. But the company quickly reversed course after some users complained that GPT-5 was a downgrade and that GPT-4o possessed a “warmth and understanding” that was absent in the newer model. Some users, or at least the ones vocal on social media, seemed to regard the model as a friend and a confidant, and believed the company was ripping them off.

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But the company is fully out on GPT-4o and the entire family of GPT-4 models. Also today, it removed GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini—plus GPT-5—from ChatGPT. But it looks like OpenAI will still be serving the models to developers and business customers through its API. In the meantime, OpenAI says it’s continuing to improve the personality and creativity of its AI models, including “addressing unnecessary refusals and overly cautious or preachy responses, with updates coming soon.” The company also plans on releasing an adults-only ChatGPT version later this quarter.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.