Clarification needed: Is only gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 deprecated, or the entire gpt-5-mini family?

API Deprecations
1

Hello,

I would like to ask for clarification regarding the recent model deprecation notice sent by OpenAI.

The notice states that API access to the following models will be shut down on December 10, 2026:

  • GPT-5-2025-08-07

  • GPT-5-mini-2025-08-07

  • GPT-5-nano-2025-08-07

  • GPT-5-pro-2025-10-06

We are currently using the gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 snapshot model in production. What we would like to clarify is:

Does this deprecation apply only to the dated snapshot model?

In other words:

Will gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 be shut down while the general gpt-5-mini alias remains available in the API?

Or does this mean that the entire gpt-5-mini model family will be deprecated?

This distinction is important for us because the recommended replacement appears to be gpt-5.4-mini, which is more expensive than our current gpt-5-mini pricing. Our product performs high-volume, cost-sensitive classification workloads, so switching directly to gpt-5.4-mini could significantly increase our operational costs.

Could you please clarify the following points?

  1. After gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 is shut down, will the gpt-5-mini alias continue to work?

  2. If the gpt-5-mini alias remains available, which model or snapshot family will it point to?

  3. Will there be another recommended replacement for gpt-5-mini in the same cost segment, other than gpt-5.4-mini?

  4. For this deprecation process, is switching from the dated snapshot gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 to the gpt-5-mini alias considered a safe and recommended migration path?

We would appreciate clarification so that we can plan our migration accordingly.

Thank you.

2

There are were ambiguities in the deprecations, such as gpt-4-turbo not initially being listed with its destination, but this is not one of them.

Shutdown date Model / system Recommended replacement
Dec 11, 2026 gpt-5-2025-08-07 gpt-5.5
Dec 11, 2026 gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07 gpt-5.4-mini
Dec 11, 2026 gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07 gpt-5.4-nano

The short name is just an alias that points to the dated model.

Made this for a game you can play about your knowledge of the models, but it is the destination dated model you are pointed at by using the short memorable alias (without a super duper verification of audio pointers, that were behind the newest releases for a bit).

const MODEL_MAP = {
  "gpt-realtime": "2025-08-28",
  "gpt-realtime-mini": "2025-12-15",
  "gpt-audio": "2025-08-28",
  "gpt-audio-mini": "2025-12-15",

  "gpt-5": "2025-08-07",
  "gpt-5-mini": "2025-08-07",
  "gpt-5-nano": "2025-08-07",
  "gpt-5-pro": "2025-10-06",
  "gpt-5-search-api": "2025-10-14",

  "gpt-5.2": "2025-12-11",
  "gpt-5.2-pro": "2025-12-11",

  "gpt-5.1": "2025-11-13",

  "gpt-5.4": "2026-03-05",
  "gpt-5.4-pro": "2026-03-05",
  "gpt-5.4-mini": "2026-03-17",
  "gpt-5.4-nano": "2026-03-17",

  "gpt-5.5": "2026-04-23",
  "gpt-5.5-pro": "2026-04-23",

  "gpt-image-2": "2026-04-21",

  "gpt-4o": "gpt-4o-2024-08-06",
  "gpt-4o-mini": "2024-07-18",
  "gpt-4o-search-preview": "2025-03-11",
  "gpt-4o-mini-search-preview": "2025-03-11",
  "gpt-4o-mini-transcribe": "2025-12-15",
  "gpt-4o-mini-tts": "2025-12-15",

  "gpt-4-turbo": "2024-04-09",
  "gpt-4": "0613",

  "computer-use-preview": "2025-03-11",

  "o1": "2024-12-17",
  "o1-pro": "2025-03-19",

  "o3-mini": "2025-01-31",
  "o3": "2025-04-16",
  "o4-mini": "2025-04-16",

  "o3-pro": "2025-06-10",
  "o3-deep-research": "2025-06-26",
  "o4-mini-deep-research": "2025-06-26",

  "omni-moderation-latest": "2024-09-26",

  "gpt-3.5-turbo": "0125",
  "gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct": "0914",

  "tts-1": "1106",
  "tts-1-hd": "1106"
};