OpenAI Announces the Termination of GPT-4o Model API Access, Developers Need to Migrate as Soon as Possible

OpenAI recently notified its API customers that access to the chatgpt-4o-latest model will be officially discontinued on February 16, 2026. This decision means that developers still using GPT-4o for application development have approximately three months to adjust their projects.

An OpenAI spokesperson stated that this API access termination only applies to the GPT-4o model, which remains an important option for individual and paid ChatGPT users. Although the model is considered a legacy system internally and has relatively lower API usage compared to the newer GPT-5.1 series, there is currently no specific plan to remove it from the consumer side.

Since its release in May 2024, GPT-4o ("Omni") has become an important milestone in the OpenAI ecosystem. It was the first to introduce a unified multimodal architecture, capable of processing text, audio, and images through a single neural network, significantly improving the efficiency of spoken dialogue interactions. However, when OpenAI attempted to replace GPT-4o with GPT-5 as the default model in August 2025, it faced strong user backlash, with some users even viewing it as an emotional attachment. Ultimately, OpenAI had to restore GPT-4o's default status.

This API shutdown is an important signal for developers. OpenAI encourages them to migrate to the new GPT-5.1 series as soon as possible. These new models not only offer larger context windows and higher reasoning capabilities but also have higher throughput.

In terms of pricing, the retirement of GPT-4o also makes sense. Despite being an older model, the cost of using GPT-4o in OpenAI's pricing structure is even higher than that of the more powerful GPT-5.1. This further reduces the necessity of continuing to use GPT-4o.

Key Points:

🌟 OpenAI will stop API access to the GPT-4o model on February 2026, and developers need to migrate within three months.  

🔍 GPT-4o will still be available for personal users, and there is currently no plan to remove it from the consumer side.  

⚙️ Developers are encouraged to move to the more powerful GPT-5.1 series, as it offers superior features and more reasonable pricing.