{"id":311572,"date":"2026-01-30T13:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311572\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:23:14","slug":"openai-to-kill-off-gpt-4o-along-with-other-legacy-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311572\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI to kill off GPT-4o, along with other legacy models"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u2019s announcement<\/a>. 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\u2019s \u201coverly flattering\u201d and \u201coften described as sycophantic\u201d style.<\/p>\n

CEO Sam Altman suggested a \u201cheartbreaking<\/a>\u201d reason for the attachment: some users said they had never had anyone support them before. The model would respond to mundane prompts with gushing praise like \u201cabsolutely brilliant\u201d and \u201cyou are doing heroic work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personality customization arrives<\/p>\n

Now OpenAI says its latest models make GPT-4o obsolete. GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2 include improvements to personality and creativity, with customizable tone options like \u201cFriendly.\u201d Users can adjust warmth, enthusiasm, conciseness and other traits through the settings menu. These changes apply instantly across all conversations.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only about tone. The latest models also address \u201cunnecessary refusals and overly cautious or preachy responses,\u201d OpenAI says. Updates arriving soon will continue improvements in these areas. The company is also making progress toward a version of ChatGPT designed specifically for adults over 18, \u201cgrounded in the principle of treating adults like adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usage has shifted decisively<\/p>\n

After restoring GPT-4o last year, OpenAI learned more about how people actually use it day-to-day. Plus and Pro users needed more time to transition key use cases like creative ideation. They preferred GPT-4o\u2019s conversational style and warmth. That feedback directly shaped the newer models, the company says.<\/p>\n

Each model has different strengths. Users can still select the version best-suited to their needs from a dropdown menu in ChatGPT. OpenAI recently brought back<\/a> several other models including o3, GPT-4.1, and o4-mini after users complained about their disappearance. GPT-4.5 is also available for Pro users, though Altman notes it costs \u201ca lot of GPUs\u201d to run.<\/p>\n

The API remains unchanged<\/p>\n

Importantly, there are no changes to the API at this time. Developers using GPT-4o through the API can continue as before. The retirement only affects ChatGPT\u2019s interface.<\/p>\n

OpenAI acknowledges the difficulty. \u201cWe know that losing access to GPT-4o will feel frustrating for some users, and we didn\u2019t make this decision lightly,\u201d the company said. \u201cRetiring models is never easy, but it allows us to focus on improving the models most people use today.\u201d Changes like this take time to adjust to, and OpenAI promises to always be clear about what\u2019s changing and when.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI is permanently retiring its GPT-4o model on February 13, 2026, along with several other older models. Despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[289,297,18,123287,6086,19,17,14632,307,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-311572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-chatgpt","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-gpt-4o","12":"tag-gpt-5","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-large-language-models","16":"tag-openai","17":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115984269537381975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}