OpenAI will retire GPT-5.5 from ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex on October 14, 2026, as the company continues to move its products towards newer generations of its artificial intelligence models.
The retirement will apply across all ChatGPT plans, including consumer, Business, Enterprise and Edu offerings. However, OpenAI has clarified that the change does not currently apply to the OpenAI API, meaning developers accessing GPT-5.5 through the API will not be affected by the October deadline.
The transition could require more attention from developers and organisations that have configured Codex workflows around GPT-5.5. OpenAI is advising users who access Codex through their ChatGPT account to move from GPT-5.5 to GPT-5.6 Sol before the retirement date.
Organisations have also been advised to review workspace defaults, saved model settings and managed configurations that specifically select GPT-5.5. Custom agents, scheduled tasks and scripts containing the model name may also need to be updated to avoid disruptions after the model is withdrawn from the affected products.
For regular ChatGPT users, the impact is expected to be more limited, particularly for those who do not manually select or build workflows around a specific model. The change is more relevant to users and teams that have explicitly configured GPT-5.5 for coding, automation or other recurring tasks.
GPT-5.5 was introduced earlier in 2026 and subsequently received updates aimed at improving response quality and conversational style. Its retirement from the main ChatGPT and Codex environments comes as OpenAI expands availability of its GPT-5.6 model family.
OpenAI introduced GPT-5.6 Sol in ChatGPT in July, positioning it as a flagship reasoning model for complex work spanning coding, research, science, cybersecurity, computer use and design. For Codex users currently relying on GPT-5.5 with ChatGPT authentication, GPT-5.6 Sol is the officially recommended replacement.
The company has been consolidating its model lineup as newer systems become available. GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.4 mini were also scheduled for retirement from Codex for ChatGPT-authenticated users at the end of August, with users directed towards newer GPT-5.6 models.
The October change highlights a practical consideration for businesses increasingly embedding generative AI models into internal workflows. While the underlying API availability remains unchanged for now, teams using model-specific configurations within ChatGPT and Codex will need to review their setups before the retirement takes effect.
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