OpenAI is retiring GPT-4 from ChatGPT

OpenAI's GPT-4 model will soon be "fully replaced" by its natively multimodal GPT-4o model.

According to ChatGPT's release notes (via TechCrunch), "GPT-4 will be retired from ChatGPT" on April 30. The model, which was released over two years ago, will still be available in the API, but recent updates to GPT-4o have rendered GPT-4 somewhat obsolete.

"Recent upgrades have further improved GPT‑4o’s instruction following, problem-solving, and conversational flow, making it a natural successor to GPT‑4," the note read.

For those who have been following OpenAI and the AI industry, it puts the breakneck speed of the industry into sharp relief, while simultaneously pointing out that GPT-5 has yet to emerge. GPT-4, released in March 2023, was a notable step up from GPT-3.5, the previous model, which ushered in the ChatGPT explosive introduction to the world. Since then, OpenAI has released the multimodal GPT-4o and iterations of its "o-series" models, which have "chain-of-thought" reasoning capabilities.

This announcement isn't entirely unexpected. In March, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared on X that the company was "simplifying" its offerings and would make GPT-4.5 its last "non-chain-of-thought model." After that, the company would focus on combining its o-series and GPT models into a product that's trained to adapt to users' needs. Making GPT-4o the default model is a step towards that effort to streamline its products.

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Currently, OpenAI plans to release o3 and o4-mini as standalone models and has pushed back the GPT-5 release, which Altman says will ship "in a few months." That all could change though, since GPT-5 has been delayed several times now.

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However, according to the release note, GPT-4 has officially served its purpose as a "pivotal moment in ChatGPT’s evolution." Its services are no longer required. RIP.