OpenAI says goodbye to these ChatGPT models in a few weeks

OpenAI has learned from past mistakes and is giving users a few weeks' notice before removing several older ChatGPT models.

As OpenAI keeps releasing new ChatGPT models, it also removes the older ones. The company has recently announced that certain AI assistance models will no longer be available in the ChatGPT model picker.

On February 13th, 2026, the company will remove these ChatGPT models:

• GPT-4o
• GPT-4.1
• GPT-4.1 mini
• OpenAI o4-mini
• GPT-5 (Instant and Thinking)

This means users will no longer be able to use these models in ChatGPT, but they will remain available via the OpenAI API, the company notes.

ChatGPT’s latest model is GPT-5, released last August, with its updated variant, GPT-5.2, released in December 2025.

When the company first released GPT-5, it removed GPT-40 from the model picker without notifying its users. However, this decision backfired, as some users preferred the GPT-40 model for its tone over GPT-5's, reports 9to5mac.

Because of this ruckus, the company restored ChatGPT-40 and said it will give users a heads-up before making similar changes.

However, the company is now also retiring GPT-4o, as only 0.1% of users still use it.

The removal of ChatGPT models has also sparked debate over how attached people are becoming to them.

Many people find comfort in AI assistants, which are not only there to answer questions but also serve as an outlet for sharing feelings and concerns.

This, however, has already led to behavioral issues in some users. It has been reported that AI assistants have been linked to increasing users' delusional behavior, or even pushing people to commit crimes or suicide.

Some users tend to commit to their AI assistants to the point of wanting to marry them.

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