OpenAI to phase out GPT-4.5 AI model from API, introduce GPT-4.1 as replacement
In a recent announcement, OpenAI revealed its plans to wind down the availability of GPT-4.5, its largest AI model, via its API. The decision comes just a few months after the release of GPT-4.5 in late February.
Developers will continue to have access to GPT-4.5 through OpenAI’s API until July 14. After this date, they will need to transition to another model from OpenAI’s lineup. The company is recommending GPT-4.1, which was launched recently, as the preferred replacement for GPT-4.5.
According to an OpenAI spokesperson, GPT-4.1 offers similar or even better performance than GPT-4.5 in key areas, all while being more cost-effective. The decision to deprecate GPT-4.5 is part of OpenAI’s strategy to focus on developing future models.
It’s important to note that GPT-4.5 will still be available in ChatGPT for research preview for paying customers. The phase-out only applies to the API usage of GPT-4.5.
Code-named Orion, GPT-4.5 was trained using extensive computing power and data, surpassing all of OpenAI’s previous models. While it excels in areas like writing and persuasiveness compared to its predecessor GPT-4o, GPT-4.5 falls short of achieving “frontier-level” performance on various industry benchmarks.
One of the main reasons for phasing out GPT-4.5 is its high operating costs, as acknowledged by OpenAI. The model is priced at $75 per million input tokens (approximately 750,000 words) and $150 per million output tokens, making it one of the most expensive offerings from OpenAI.
