OpenAI is permanently retiring its GPT-4o model on February 13, 2026, along with several other older models. Despite bringing it back once after user backlash, the company says improvements in GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2 now make the transition viable, with only 0.1% of users still choosing the legacy model.
The retirement affects GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT. However, GPT-4o gets special attention in OpenAI’s announcement. Last August, when the model first disappeared with the GPT-5 launch, the company reversed course within 24 hours due to overwhelming requests from paying customers. Many had become attached to what OpenAI itself called GPT-4o’s “overly flattering” and “often described as sycophantic”…