Expected: OpenAI's July 23 Cleanup Retires GPT-5 and 5.1 Chat Aliases, Five Codex Variants, and Both Deep-Research Models
The first wave of OpenAI's April-announced deprecation schedule hits July 23 — and a widely circulated claim that GPT-5.4 retires the same day is contradicted by Microsoft's lifecycle documentation.
OpenAI's published deprecation schedule begins its first shutdown wave on July 23, 2026, retiring the GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 `-chat-latest` aliases, all five Codex-branded variants and both deep-research models, according to developersdigest's migration checklist built from OpenAI's live deprecations page, and Microsoft's Azure model retirement schedule.
What is known
- July 23, 2026: the GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 `-chat-latest` aliases, all five Codex variants (including gpt-5.2-codex), and both deep-research models are scheduled for removal — "July 23, 2026 takes the GPT-5 and 5.1 chat aliases, all five Codex variants - gpt-5.2-codex included - and both deep-research models," per developersdigest.
- August 10: GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.3 chat aliases follow.
- October 23: GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-3.5, o1, o3-mini and o4-mini.
- Not affected: base GPT-5.x models are not deprecated.
- Azure: gpt-realtime-mini (2025-10-06 build) also retires July 23, per Microsoft's official schedule.
What is claimed — and what is false
Secondary trackers circulated a claim that first-party GPT-5.4 also retires July 23. That claim is contradicted by Microsoft's Azure lifecycle documentation, which lists gpt-5.4 as GA with a retirement date of March 5, 2027. Readers should treat any "GPT-5.4 retires July 23" guidance as an error.
What changed
OpenAI's deprecation schedule, announced April 22, 2026, begins its first shutdown wave on July 23: the GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 chat-latest aliases, all five Codex-branded model variants, and both deep-research models are slated for removal. Base GPT-5.x models are not deprecated. A tracker claim that GPT-5.4 also retires July 23 is false per Microsoft's Azure lifecycle documentation.
Why it matters
Deprecation cadence is now a consumer and prosumer pain point, not just a developer one: custom GPTs, saved prompts and third-party apps pinning chat aliases all break on these dates. The compressed timeline — three shutdown waves between July 23 and October 23 — forces migrations onto the GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna naming scheme announced July 9.
What would confirm it
Post-July 23 verification that the listed model IDs return deprecation errors, plus any OpenAI changelog updates adjusting the August and October waves.
Limitations
The schedule mechanics are high-confidence, built from OpenAI's live deprecations page and Microsoft's official lifecycle doc; the shutdowns themselves had not yet occurred at publication and remain a scheduled expectation. OpenAI's deprecations page was accessed via a third-party checklist rather than re-fetched directly.
Next checkpoint
July 23, 2026 — first shutdown wave; August 10 for the GPT-5.2/5.3 alias wave.
Sources
- developersdigest — Migrating off retired GPT models 2026
- Microsoft Learn — Azure OpenAI model retirement schedule
*Last reviewed July 22, 2026.*
Context
OpenAI's deprecation schedule, announced April 22, 2026, begins its first shutdown wave on July 23: the GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 chat-latest aliases, all five Codex-branded model variants, and both deep-research models are slated for removal. Base GPT-5.x models are not deprecated. A tracker claim that GPT-5.4 also retires July 23 is false per Microsoft's Azure lifecycle documentation.
Update note: Last reviewed 2026-07-22. Next checkpoint: monitor official channels and the linked source record.
Sources
Drafted with AI assistance from source briefs; reviewed for citation completeness and label accuracy.