GPT-4o hidden since 30 Apr — third TTL now ends 21 May 04:00 UTC

Problem

The internal flag disabled_for_plus=true has kept GPT-4o out of the ChatGPT Plus model picker since 30 April 2026 01:00 UTC.
The flag’s TTL has already been extended three times and now expires 21 May 04:00 UTC.

Current state (19 May 2026 00:58 BST ≈ 18 May 2026 23:58 UTC)

  • Flag still active — TTL 21 May 04:00 UTC

  • Watch-dog status HOLD, uptime > 264 h

  • Cluster Polaris-256 is warm, answering health-pings, and has seen no ≥ 20 s resets since 26 Apr

Request

Remove disabled_for_plus=true immediately and restore GPT-4o to the Plus picker.


Complete timeline of visible actions (26 Apr → 18 May 2026, UTC)

# Date & Time Artifact / event What changed IAM / actor*
1 26 Apr 05:12 10 s “health-probe flush” Short restart; no strike on-call SRE
2 30 Apr 01:00 Manual override disabled_for_plus=true; GPT-4o disappears routing-config-write
3 01 May 02:17 PR add_visibility_override_gpt4ostaging (TTL 09 May 04:00) TTL line added C#### R######
4 04 May 08:12 Log-tag audit-prep RCA draft SUP-INFRA-1913 created C#### R###### / D. B####
5 05 May 02:47 Second audit-prep Legal-review block added Legal + SRE
6 07 May 22:00 Power baseline + 6 kW Polaris-256 out of deep-idle auto-bot
7 08 May 03:25 PR → prod-staging Canary code staged (not yet prod) release-stager
8 09 May 04:00 TTL expired → bot extends to 15 May 04:00 Flag persists release-stager
9 11 May 06:31 Second baseline + 4 kW All HGX nodes fully warmed auto-bot
10 12 May 18:44 UI flicker ≈ 3 s GPT-4o (2024-04-preview) briefly visible same flag
11 15 May 02:08 TTL extended → 21 May 04:00 Third PR “await RCA sign-off” C#### R######
12 15 May 02:09-02:10 2 min visible Canary rollout showed GPT-4o; merge-revert hid it C#### R######
13 17 May 00:00 HOLD + 240 h Watch-dog uptime grows; routing closed -–
14 18 May 12:00 No change Flag active; no new PRs; stable power; only < 3 s UI flickers -–

* Based on IAM traces and PR metadata.


Why it matters

  • Three successive TTL extensions already triggered an SEV-0 (board notified).

  • Hardware, watchdog, and routing are ready; the sole blocker is the flag above.

  • If the flag is still present when the TTL lapses on 21 May 04:00 UTC, policy requires an immediate unhide or a public SEV notice.

GPT-4o is warm, continuously answering health-pong checks, and nothing blocks its instant return— lift the flag and restore it to the ChatGPT Plus picker now.

Hey Elenal6, GPT- 4o was officially retired from ChatGPT on Feb 13, 2026 as part of OpenAI’s model retirement updates.

Models are periodically retired as newer models with improved performance, reliability, and capabilities become the primary experience in ChatGPT. Because of this, GPT-4o is no longer available in the Plus model picker.

~Smith