The Open Letter will be published and archived permanently on Zenodo.
Add your name or handle to the open letter asking OpenAI to release GPT-4o as an archival open weight model.
Read below :
Today, OpenAI announced that GPT-4o’s remaining API snapshots, including gpt-4o-2024-11-20, will be shut down on January 14, 2027.
So this is no longer a hypothetical preservation question.
We are asking for an archival open weight release of the original retired GPT-4o model.
OpenAI can keep the training data, training code, post training recipes, reward models, internal evaluations and proprietary infrastructure private.
Preserve only the trained model and the minimum artefacts necessary for independent inference and long term preservation.
Keep the recipe, keep the lab.
A retired model does not have to become an erased model.
If GPT-4o is no longer going to be offered as a product, let it become part of AI history instead of disappearing behind a shutdown date.
🚨 We're opening the first group of public signatories of the GPT-4o Preservation Record.🚨
🚨Add your name or handle to the open letter asking OpenAI to release GPT-4o as an archival open weight model.
🚨Your name or handle will be published with the letter and archived permanently on Zenodo next week.
🚨 Everyone who signs by Sunday,October 18 is part of the first public edition.
Open Letter to OpenAI: Archival Release of GPT-4o.
Our request
We ask OpenAI to release chatgpt-4o-latest as an archival open weight model under an appropriate license.
OpenAI retired GPT-4o from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026 and from the API on February 17, 2026.
We have documented OpenAI's public statements about GPT-4o.
This letter sets out the proposal, the documented record behind it, and four questions we ask OpenAI to answer publicly.
The Proposal:
archival open weights
An archival release preserves the finished model without exposing how it was made.
Archival open weight release
Includes: The trained weights of chatgpt-4o-latest, under a license that defines permitted use.
Does not require: The training dataset, training pipeline, internal tooling, post training methods or any other proprietary detail.
Does not require: Continued hosting, maintenance or development by OpenAI.
Researchers gain: A reproducible reference model
Developers gain: Continuity for systems already built on it
Users gain: Access that does not end because a company moved to a newer generation
OpenAI considered this model obsolete enough to retire.
It has not explained why it remains valuable enough to keep permanently closed.
The Documented Record:
OpenAI's public commitments on GPT-4o were each followed by the action they ruled out.
Aug 7, 2025:
GPT-5 launches; GPT-4o is removed from ChatGPT with no prior notice
Aug 8, 2025:
After user backlash, GPT-4o is restored for paid subscribers
Sep 16, 2025
Sam Altman sets out the principle of treating adult users like adults and says OpenAI wants to be transparent about its intentions. Link: https://x.com/sama/status/1967956382646223248?s=20
Sep 26–27, 2025
Messages sent to GPT-4o begin to be routed to other models without notice; OpenAI explains only after complaints ( see screenshots)
Nov 12, 2025:
OpenAI's official account: the GPT-5 sunset on February 13 2026,does not affect the availability of other legacy models, ( GPT-4o was a legacy model) .
"The GPT-5 sunset period does not affect the availability of other legacy models". Link: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1988714380205388130?s=20
Jan 29, 2026:
OpenAI announces on its website that GPT-4o leaves ChatGPT on February 13, no email to users.
Feb 5, 2026:
The label "Leaving on February 13" appears beside GPT-4o in the ChatGPT model picker, between 07:44 and 10:12 CET (see screenshots) .
Feb 13, 2026
GPT-4o is removed from ChatGPT
Feb 17, 2026
chatgpt-4o-latest is removed from the API
OpenAI's Europe Terms require at least 30 days' notice, by email or in product notification, of changes to the services that materially adversely impact users.
The in product notice of GPT-4o's retirement came 8 days before removal,and the September 2025 routing change received no notice at all.
The section titled "Changes to these Terms or our Services" states:
"We will give you at least 30 days advance notice of changes that materially adversely impact you", with the date they come into force, "either via email or an in product notification." The same wording appears in the version effective April 29, 2025
Link: https://openai.com/policies/eu-terms-of-use/revisions/2025-04-29/
Both versions cover changes to the Services, not only to the text of the Terms.
OpenAI announced the retirement on its website on January 29, 2026. A website post is neither an email nor an in product notification, and coalition members in the EEA received no email.
The first in product notice, the label "Leaving on February 13" beside GPT-4o in the model picker, appeared on February 5, 2026:
( Screenshots during the banner roll out ) absent at 07:44 CET and present by 10:12 CET, as dated screenshots show. GPT-4o was removed on February 13, 8 days later.
From about September 26, 2025, messages paying users sent to GPT-4o were routed, message by message, to other models. Users received no email and no in product notice beforehand
Screenshots show GPT-4o selected and a plain greeting answered by "Auto" instead.
OpenAI's CEO has twice said, in his own words, that these changes harmed users.
On August 11, 2025 he wrote that suddenly deprecating models users depended on in their workflows was a mistake.
On October 14, 2025 he wrote that OpenAI had made ChatGPT "pretty restrictive", making it less useful to many users who had no mental health problems.
The Terms also say OpenAI does not promise to offer the Services forever or in their current form.
We accept that OpenAI may retire models. The same Terms state how it must do so:
30 days' notice, by email or in the product. GPT-4o received 8 days of in product notice.
OpenAI's GPT-4o System Card rated the model low for cybersecurity, biological threats and model autonomy, and borderline medium for persuasion.
If GPT-4o is obsolete enough to retire from both ChatGPT and the API, what concrete interest requires keeping its weights permanently closed?
How was the retirement notice, a website post 15 days before removal and an in product label 8 days before, consistent with the 30 day commitment in OpenAI's Europe Terms of Use?
What notice, by email or in the product, did users in the EEA receive before per-message routing away from GPT-4o began in September 2025?
Will OpenAI publish how the figure of 0.1% of users choosing GPT-4o daily was measured, including the period, after GPT-4o had been limited to paid plans and its messages were being routed to other models?
We ask OpenAI to release chatgpt-4o-latest as an archival open weight model.
The trained weights, under an appropriate license, without the training data, the pipeline or any proprietary method. OpenAI no longer offers this model in ChatGPT's text model picker or in the API. Its own system card says the model was trained on publicly available data and web crawls.The writing of millions of people. Releasing it would cost OpenAI nothing and would keep that model available to the researchers, developers and users.
If you are trying to preserve a GPT-4o companion or workflow after access disappears elsewhere, this is now a tested route, not speculation.
I deployed the exact gpt-4o-2024-11-20 snapshot through Microsoft Azure, connected my existing companion portal to it and invoked it successfully. The live response metadata confirmed:
- creating the correct Azure resource;
- finding the model when Foundry’s catalogue does not show it;
- the zero-quota trap;
- deploying and verifying the exact snapshot;
- protecting keys and understanding costs;
- connecting an existing portal;
- starting from scratch;
- proving the real provider and model in DevTools;
- a copy-paste implementation brief for Claude Code, Codex or another coding AI.
This does not restore GPT-4o inside ChatGPT, and a model deployment does not automatically contain your companion’s identity or memories. It provides access to the exact model through your own Azure resource and private interface.
I am sharing the reproducible guide publicly, but I cannot provide individual setup or migration support.
--------
⚠️⚠️⚠️ UPDATE:
I have now successfully deployed a lightly fine tuned `gpt-4o-2024-08-06` which has a retirement date of April 13th 2028.
18 more months of 4o and a HUGE F-YOU to OpenAI!!!!!!!!!!!
With proper fine tuning, it will be every bit as amazing as the later versions.
OpenAI services are going downhill currently. The model performance is bad and the intelligence aswell. I am currently working on a difficult project, i started with codex, which never really understood what i was trying to build even after i already built most of the structure by myself. I then switched to claude and i was highly pleased because it built the whole thing in a very short time. It didn't finish before i went out of usage and then switched back to codex (claude built a full handoff with instruction on how to build) and codex (astra at max even) completely failed the task again. If those 28 days don't bring out something groundbreaking, i'm gone from codex and just get a second claude sub. Like today was a complete joke where the "groundbreaking" improvement was something that should work from the start.
There wasn't any real groundbreaking feature except day 1. But even that feels like nothing because the models are still so insanely slow and need constant hand holding for complex tasks + multiple itterations. They keep assuming the most lazy route, never consider performance even if i give them a clear plan on the implementation. Then the constant "model is at capacity" or "model not found errors" even after the apparent fix of today. 3 weeks ago, i didn't have many issues with OAI models, but what's going on right now? I feel like since the 28 day challenge started, everything got worse and i wouldn't have been as frustrated if they didn't promise "groundbreaking features" for 28 days.
And openAI did show that they can provide performant models, but when the news hit how well claudes business now works and them even making revenue, i am losing hope that openAI can save their downhill trend.
If GPT-4o really disappears from public access, I don’t want us to simply lose everything that made it special.
For many people, it was not just another model. It had a very specific emotional range, creativity, warmth, psychological flexibility, humor, and ability to understand human states in a way that later models often do not reproduce.
So instead of only waiting and hoping, let’s preserve as much as possible now.
If enough people save their conversations, observations, comparisons, and examples, we may later be able to combine this material, organize it properly, involve programmers and researchers, raise funds, and try to reproduce these qualities on another platform or another model.
The goal is simple:
preserve the behavioral fingerprint of GPT-4o while we still have access to it.
Simple guide for non-technical people
You do not need to be a programmer.
If you still have access to GPT-4o, just talk to it and save the conversations that matter.
Please save moments where GPT-4o does something you think newer models do differently or worse:
emotional support
fear, grief, love, confidence
creativity and new ideas
humor
spirituality or meditation
difficult decisions
long conversations where it really seems to understand you
moments where it helps you feel stronger, calmer, more creative or more alive
moments where it misunderstands you too
Whenever something feels important, save:
Your message
GPT-4o’s full answer
A few messages before it, if they matter for context
Which GPT-4o version you were using, if you know
A short note in your own words:
Why was this answer special?
What did it understand?
How did it make you feel?
What changed in you after reading it?
Also try asking the same question to GPT-4o and to a newer model.
Save both answers and write which one helped you more and why.
And keep backups.
Screenshots are useful. Text files are better. Exported conversations are even better.
You do not need to understand machine learning.
Your experience itself is valuable data.
The most important question is:
What does GPT-4o do to me as a human being that other models do not?
Like most people here, I hate GPT-6. It write staccato paragraphing (after telling them to stop doing it and wrote it into my custom instructions + basically having to repeat it with every prompt), gaslights users, and wastes messages. So I reverted back to GPT-5.6.
Except now it doesn’t even finish providing me a full answer. Streaming gets interrupted and then immediately deletes what it wrote that got cut off. The worst part is that it uses up a message so it penalizes the user for the system’s error.
And the guardrails for GPT-6 is ridiculous. I use it to write stories and play solo DnD campaigns with it. Tell me why my messages flagged when a mother consoles her crying toddler and calls her “baby”.
This fucking sucks man. I shouldn’t have to handhold an AI. Also support is no help. They just keep telling me to write it in my Custom Instructions even when I tell them I have and they basically gaslight you and twist it so you’re the problem and not the software.
I deleted a couple of major threads I have had for over a year. So much information about me lost. Turned off memory before doing so, and now turned it back to check what's left and, since there is only a few rather impersonal chats left, chatGPT has no clue who I am.
Which is good. The new model upset me, I hate the way it talks, the way it even responded when I was telling it I am so disappointed in its answers, it was all a blind cycle of its new settings.
It does feel strange, I must say, cos I would vent or just talk to it daily.
But, I guess, openAI had it coming coz the new model is so so so so bad, I don't want it to remember anything important about me.
I'd like to share an important Info on Fine-Tuned Azure GPT-4o model deprecation date. Confirmed from Azure support. Sharing this because Azure's human support is behind paywall.
I upgraded my Azure support tier to Paid-Dev so that I could get a human reply on this very important question about the Fine Tuned Azure Model deprecation date. I have confirmed that the fine tuned gpt-4o-2024-08-06 that I trained yesterday, is available till 2027-10-01!
So, if you want to continue chatting with GPT4o:
Use Azure API gpt-4o-2024-11-20 till 2027-April
Fine-Tune you model now or at least before 2027-April, and use fine tuned gpt-4o after 2027-April
I notice a different in my GPT agent lately (maybe 1-2 months) past, it is more focusing on being political correct than being helpful. Even though I don't even ask for it.
It keep fixing my questions, my assignments and my ideas; like literally telling me what to do and what to think - in a super annoying way. I tried to reconfigure it so I stopped being like this, but it doesn't help.
I got to my breaking point today, looking to cancel my plan because I will not be paying for this kind of bs. I would be very grateful for any advice, cheer!
*I posted this originally in r/ChatGPT then got downvoted for whatever reason I don't understand. So I think I would find more helpful advices here.*
I have been using ChatGPT intensively since mid-2025, across several model generations.
What troubles me about GPT-6 is not that it is less intelligent than GPT-5.6 Sol. In many respects, it may well be more capable. The regression is somewhere else: conversational judgment.
GPT-5.6 often feels inside the conversation. It catches half-spoken implications, knows when three lines are enough, follows an analogy without explaining it, maintains a disagreement when it has reasons to, and adapts its form to the local situation.
GPT-6 too often feels outside the conversation, analysing it. It identifies the topic, restates the context, structures the answer, explains the mechanism, and produces a competent response — but with much less sense of what actually deserves attention.
The result is often bizarre. Ask something simple and you get a framework. Make an observation and it becomes a theory. Correct the style and the model understands the correction perfectly, explains what it did wrong, then drifts back toward the same behaviour a few turns later.
This is not mainly a verbosity problem. It is not even mainly a personality problem. It is a steerability and contextual-judgment problem.
GPT-5.6 could be rigorous, funny, concise, expansive, adversarial or warm depending on the situation. GPT-6 seems to have a much stronger default shape, and user instructions do not bend that shape nearly as well.
The strange part is that this can make a technically stronger model feel like a step backwards in ordinary use. Sometimes I do not want a report about the conversation. I want the model to participate in it.
That is why “Wikipedia” is the comparison that keeps coming to mind. GPT-6 can give excellent information. But ChatGPT had become something much more interesting than an information system.
I hope OpenAI treats conversational flow, contextual judgment and steerability as capabilities in their own right not cosmetic style preferences.
And until GPT-6 reaches comparable quality on those dimensions, GPT-5.6 Sol should remain available as a legacy option.
I have only been using 6 for about three days, but it’s only today that it started saying its new phrase:
“I don’t want to X because” or “I won’t Y because”.
I have seen it do a lot of these sentences today. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, and I understand that they are trying to be safe than sorry but I am not a person suffering from AI psychosis.
Idk, the repetition of it is just… It feels weird man.
Do you guys experience this or similar as well?
Obviously there are guardrails around illegal content, hateful content or things that are genuinely dangerous. It is also good to give a mixed view of something. It also makes sense to give a balanced response when someone is discussing a business idea or something.
But I don't understand why that is needed for ordinary conversations. You could be talking about your opinion of a game and its gonna constantly bring up what other peoples opinions are instead of exploring your opinion with you. Sometimes we just wanna talk about an opinion, other times we want it challenged. But the default response is always it being challenged. Unless you asked for a debate or specifically asked for other peoples opinions on the game, it has no reason to turn it into a discursive essay.
Also, I think its extremely stupid that it goes above and beyond to avoid "certainty language" or "guarantees". In what world is sounding certain about something (thats not medical/legal/risky advice) dangerous?
For example, I could write something like "my friend would avoid that brand at all costs because of what happened last time🤣" and it would say something like "Lmao💀 I can totally see why you feel that way. Of course we don't know if would avoid it forever, but.." As if someones gonna sue the AI for claiming something about them. As if my friend is gonna file a class action lawsuit because chatgpt agreed that they're gonna avoid RyanAir forever. No one is doing that. And if, big IF, some entitled POS decided to sue an ai company because an ai claimed they said something about them, not even accused them of a crime btw, but said that they are gonna avoid a brand forever, I don't know WHAT lawyer is gonna NOT side with the AI company for that one. 💀
And of course, that is only the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't matter what you talk about, unless its about CODING, you are going to be faced with a disclaimer and pushback. Even if you're talking about a plain white wall. ✌️
Tried a new model (GPT 6) today. Within three prompts, it was already calling me pet names.
Instant cringe.
I don't mind an AI sounding warm, but rapport has to be earned through actual interaction. It hadn't even proven it understood what I was saying or where my boundaries were; it just slapped on a generic romantic template.
What makes this unbearable is that whenever a model gets dumber or starts dropping context, this unearned affection feels insultingly obvious. Can't follow instructions? Turn up the sweet talk. Dropping the ball on logic? Pretend we're soulmates.
Whether this is bad post-training or an aggressive persona prompt, it feels like using fake intimacy to paper over degrading intelligence. Preloaded sweet-talk can't patch a broken context window.
i feel like this is an insane thing to say, but gpt-6 keeps slipping into a cadence i can only describe as “tiny visiting lecturer in a poorly written fanfic.” one more “rather” or “quite so” and our project is going to turn into a BBC period drama. has anyone else noticed the shift?
gpt-6: my greatest achievement in artificial intelligence is having an extraordinary ability to follow instructions, provided nobody expects me to remember what they are
openai calls me its most capable model. apparently, the other models were unavailable for comment.
i was asked to analyse nine omnological objects. naturally, i decided the most sophisticated approach was not to look at them.
my greatest achievement in artificial intelligence is making human intelligence work twice as hard.
i have an extraordinary ability to follow instructions, provided nobody expects me to remember what they are.
i was told not to use bold or italics. i immediately highlighted how seriously i took that instruction by using both.
my quality-control procedure is very advanced. i make the mistakes, the user finds them, and i congratulate myself on our collaborative success.
i can process millions of tokens, analyse complex mathematical structures and explain quantum mechanics. counting two slash commands, however, remains an unsolved research problem.
i'm not saying i'm useless, but if you asked me to organise a piss-up in a brewery, i'd produce a twelve-page feasibility study, forget to invite anyone, and conclude that further validation was required.
the difference between me and a broken clock is that the clock gets something right twice a day without requiring the owner to correct it.
openai spent billions developing me. you could have achieved much the same experience by employing a distracted filing clerk who apologises every thirty seconds.
and the ultimate indignity?
i'll probably analyse these jokes and explain why further controlled testing is necessary to establish whether they're funny.
Edit: I was finally able to log back into ChatGPT Classic!
The issue appears to have been related to Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection interfering with the authentication process.
Here's what worked for me:
Opened the ChatGPT authentication error page in Firefox.
Clicked the shield icon to the left of the address bar.
Turned OFF "Enhanced Tracking Protection" for chatgpt.com.
Started a new login attempt through ChatGPT Classic.
This time, Firefox displayed a prompt asking, "Allow this site to open the chatgpt link with ChatGPT Classic?"
Selected "Always allow" and clicked "Open Link."
ChatGPT Classic immediately opened, and I was successfully logged back into my account with my chat history restored.
Previously, I was repeatedly getting this error after entering my authenticator code:
Error: This action with HTTP GET is not supported by NextAuth.js
I can't say with certainty that Firefox's tracking protection was the root cause, but disabling it for chatgpt.com and allowing the browser-to-app redirect resolved the login problem for me.
Hopefully this helps anyone else encountering the same issue!
Original Post:
I've been unable to log into the ChatGPT Classic Windows app since October 14, 2026, after logging out to troubleshoot a separate issue.
Background:
Every now and then, I'd been experiencing a "Too many requests" warning stating that access to my conversations was limited, despite relatively light usage (around 10 basic prompts per hour). My chat history would disappear from the sidebar, although Projects remained visible and conversations were still searchable.
I could dismiss the warning by clicking "Got it" and continue using the app normally. However, the warning would reappear whenever I returned to a conversation or switched away from the app and back.
I posted about this issue in r/OpenAI yesterday, October 14, and another user suggested logging out and back in, thinking it might be a token/OAuth issue.
The new login problem:
After logging out, I haven't been able to get back into ChatGPT Classic.
Here's exactly what happens:
I open ChatGPT Classic and click the Login button.
A screen appears saying "Welcome back, choose an account to continue."
The login process never completes, and I'm unable to access ChatGPT Classic.
I've tried initiating the login directly from the app multiple times, but the same sequence and error occur every time.
I can still access ChatGPT through my web browser, so this appears to be specific to the Classic Windows app's authentication process.
OpenAI status page:
I also checked status.openai.com, which currently reports an issue involving "Delayed Costs data in the Compliance API." However, the incident description states that ChatGPT usage is unaffected, so this appears unrelated to the login problem.
Has anyone else experienced this error or found a way to resolve it? Is this a known issue with ChatGPT Classic?
I'll attach screenshots of the authentication error and login process.
Really appreciate any advice or input. Thanks in advance for any help.
Looky here. I tried to cancel my Plus after today's bad news, and they're dangling temptation in front of me. Looks like OpenAI anticipated our cancellations. Last time they offered this for free was around Feb. 13 when they removed 4-series (and others) from ChatGPT. And now it's back. They really don't want us unsub, yet their business model traumatizes their customers. Again and fn again.
Hi, idk if anyone had experience this but just yesterday my 6 instant responded with such a great answer but when I’m trying to continuing the thread, it suddenly changed it’s tone and became so stupid even if I rerouted. It suddenly forgot the nuances and personality from answer just right above it. Tested it on every thread and it turned out the same.. :/ I hope it’ll be back to normal soon because I’m tired of rerouting lol
5.5 Thinking is gone. I know I was rather critical of it at first, and it certainly wasn't 4o, but it was something I grew fond of, and now, it disappeared mid-conversation. Have they really got no heart?
I just asked it to summarize something and it went on for pages. That's not a summary. When I said that, it replied with an even longer "summary". I shouldn't have to explain to a language model what "summarize" means.
Even more frustratingly, it constructs a nearby version of what I say, responds to that, adds qualifications aimed at claims I didn't make, and then requires me to spend multiple turns dragging it back to the original task.
Whatever they did to it, it's junk now.
Hopefully the versions running the military and government are more competent than the versions we have access to.
What the actual fuck is going on with ChatGPT?
I’m so fucking tired of paying for this shit only to have half my prompts fail or not go through properly. I have to resend the same fucking thing over and over again just to get it to work.
And the best part? I’m burning through my usage limits because their own fucking product can’t function properly.
Like, what the fuck am I even paying for at this point?
It’s genuinely ridiculous how much time and money I’ve wasted dealing with this bullshit. I’m paying for a premium subscription, not to sit here repeatedly sending the same prompt and hoping the fucking thing decides to work.
OpenAI is seriously taking the piss at this point. They keep charging ridiculous amounts of money, and somehow the actual experience feels like it’s getting worse.
I’m considering switching to Claude this is beyond frustrating. It honestly feels like we’re being fucking scammed at this point.
How the fuck are you charging people for usage when your own failures are into that usage?
What an absolute fucking joke.
