- OpenAI deprecates GPT-4.5, the final GPT-4 model still available in ChatGPT
- The move closes the chapter on the AI model that helped spark the generative AI boom
- Some people are already nostalgic for GPT-4 and GPT-4o, despite newer models being more capable
It was easy to miss because there was no big announcement, but OpenAI has confirmed that it is pulling the last of the GPT-4 models from ChatGPT. A simple post in ChatGPT’s release notes said: “Today we continue to retire older models with limited use in ChatGPT to better serve our newer, more capable models.”
OpenAI o3 will be retired from ChatGPT on August 26, 2026 after a 90-day sunset period, and GPT-4.5 will disappear on June 27, 2026 after a 30-day sunset period, so you still have a limited time to use the models.
Both o3 and GPT-4.5 are currently only available to paid ChatGPT users via their model settings.
User reaction on X.com from ChatGPT users expressed many people’s dismay that these two models were being retired. “To this day the 4.5 is the best writing model. The o3 was a native pure reasoning model. The 5 series still doesn’t match what those two had”, commented X user Striver.
The AI that changed everything
In many ways, the GPT-4 and its offshoots – especially the GPT-4o – were the models that changed everything. It was the replacement of ChatGPT-4o with the newer ChatGPT-5 that created such a user backlash that OpenAI actually brought it back for a limited time before ultimately carrying out its threat to remove it for good once ChatGPT-5 had been improved.
The retirement of GPT-4.5 means that there are now no GPT-4 models left in ChatGPT, signaling the end of a remarkable chapter in AI history.
GPT-4 was the model that convinced millions of people that artificial intelligence was no longer a futuristic curiosity. It wrote essays, passed exams, coded apps, analyzed images and triggered both excitement and anxiety about what might come next. For many people, it was the first AI that felt truly intelligent.
Today, when people argue about whether GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-5, or the latest reasoning models are “better,” it’s often more to do with how they feel than what they can do. As my colleague Eric Hal Schwartz recently discovered, a chatbot’s personality can have more of an impact on whether you like it than almost anything else.
Bigger, better, smaller?
AI progress doesn’t always feel like a straight line. New models come with better benchmarks, faster responses and more options. Yet they may also lose some of the qualities that made people associate with earlier versions.
OpenAI is betting that few people will miss GPT-4.5, now that successors like GPT-5.5 have taken over. Yet the backlash that followed GPT-4o’s retirement suggests otherwise. For the first time in computing history, people aren’t just nostalgic for old software. They are nostalgic for old personalities.
GPT-4 and its offshoots like 4o were the models that turned AI from a fascinating curiosity into something people actually used, trusted, argued about, and in some cases even fell in love with. It feels like today’s retirement deserved more than a passing mention on a product release page.
Enjoy your retirement, GPT-4. You have earned it.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
The best laptops for all budgets
