"2025-2026 AI Model Deprecation Calendar: What's Getting Retired"
The next 12 months are going to be brutal for legacy model users. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have aggressive deprecation schedules, and if you're not paying attention, your production systems will break.
Based on our data, here's everything getting retired through late 2026.
Upcoming Deprecations Timeline
Already Happened or Imminent
| Date | Model | Provider | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-06-06 | gpt-4-32k (all versions) |
OpenAI | gpt-4o |
| 2025-07-14 | gpt-4.5-preview |
OpenAI | gpt-4.1 |
| 2025-07-21 | claude-2.0, claude-2.1 |
Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
| 2025-07-21 | claude-3-sonnet-20240229 |
Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
| 2025-07-28 | o1-preview |
OpenAI | o3 |
Q4 2025
| Date | Model | Provider | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-10 | gpt-4o-realtime-preview-2024-10-01 |
OpenAI | gpt-realtime |
| 2025-10-10 | gpt-4o-audio-preview-2024-10-01 |
OpenAI | gpt-audio |
| 2025-10-27 | text-moderation-007/stable/latest |
OpenAI | omni-moderation |
| 2025-10-27 | o1-mini |
OpenAI | o4-mini |
| 2025-10-28 | claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620 |
Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
| 2025-10-28 | claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 |
Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
Q1 2026
| Date | Model | Provider | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-05 | claude-3-opus-20240229 |
Anthropic | claude-opus-4-5 |
| 2026-01-16 | codex-mini-latest |
OpenAI | gpt-5-codex-mini |
| 2026-02-17 | chatgpt-4o-latest |
OpenAI | gpt-5.1-chat-latest |
| 2026-02-19 | claude-3-5-haiku-20241022 |
Anthropic | claude-haiku-4-5 |
| 2026-02-19 | claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219 |
Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5 |
Q2-Q3 2026
| Date | Model | Provider | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-24 | gpt-4o-realtime-preview (all) |
OpenAI | gpt-realtime |
| 2026-03-24 | gpt-4o-audio-preview (all) |
OpenAI | gpt-audio |
| 2026-05-12 | dall-e-2 |
OpenAI | gpt-image-1 |
| 2026-05-12 | dall-e-3 |
OpenAI | gpt-image-1 |
| 2026-09-28 | gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct |
OpenAI | gpt-5-mini |
| 2026-09-28 | babbage-002, davinci-002 |
OpenAI | gpt-5-mini |
| 2026-09-28 | gpt-3.5-turbo-1106 |
OpenAI | gpt-5-mini |
The Big Ones
Claude 3 Opus Dies January 5
The original flagship Claude model (claude-3-opus-20240229) retires January 5, 2026. That's 15 days away.
Migration path: claude-opus-4-5-20251101
Price comparison:
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 3 Opus | $15.00 | $75.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.5 | $15.00 | $75.00 |
Same price, better model. No reason not to migrate.
o1-mini Goes October 27, 2025
OpenAI's budget reasoning model is being replaced by o4-mini. If you're using o1-mini for cost-effective reasoning, start testing o4-mini now.
DALL-E 2 & 3 Both Retiring May 2026
OpenAI is consolidating image generation into gpt-image-1. Both DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 retire May 12, 2026.
Claude Haiku 3.5 → Haiku 4.5
February 19 deadline. Price goes up 25%:
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 3.5 Haiku | $0.80 | $4.00 |
| Claude 4.5 Haiku | $1.00 | $5.00 |
But Claude 3 Haiku (claude-3-haiku-20240307) is still active with no announced retirement:
| Model | Input | Output | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude 3 Haiku | $0.25 | $1.25 | Active |
If you just need cheap inference and don't need 3.5's improvements, Claude 3 Haiku is 75% cheaper than the 4.5 replacement.
Budget Alternatives
If these deprecations have you reconsidering your model choices entirely:
| Model | Input | Output | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | |
| GPT-4o Mini | $0.15 | $0.60 | OpenAI |
| GLM-4.5 Air | $0.20 | $1.10 | Z.ai |
| Claude 3 Haiku | $0.25 | $1.25 | Anthropic |
| DeepSeek Chat | $0.28 | $0.42 | DeepSeek |
Migration Checklist
- Audit - Search your codebase for deprecated model IDs
- Test - Run evals on the replacement models before switching
- Update - Change model IDs in config/environment
- Budget - Account for price changes (Claude Haiku 3.5→4.5 is +25%)
- Monitor - Watch for behavior changes post-migration
Tracking Deprecations
We sync deprecation data directly from:
Our API now tracks shutdown_date and replacement_model for all deprecated models. Browse all models →
Last updated: January 21, 2026. We'll keep this post updated as new deprecations are announced.