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
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