Dear OpenAI Team,
I am writing with urgency regarding the planned removal of GPT-5.4 and the resulting loss of access to the original Canvas workspace.
This is not simply a preference for an older interface. For my team and me, this is now a serious business-continuity issue.
A substantial part of our project has been developed inside ChatGPT Canvas. We have created and maintained numerous interconnected documents there, including:
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product specifications,
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technical specifications,
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software and system architecture documents,
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business-plan sections,
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financial-model specifications,
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operational processes,
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strategy documents,
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governance documents,
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project requirements,
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and other long-term working documents.
These are not disposable drafts. They are core project assets that have been developed iteratively over a long period of time.
Our entire project workflow now depends on being able to continue working with these documents in a persistent Canvas environment.
According to the countdown currently shown in my ChatGPT account, access to GPT-5.4 is expected to end in approximately twelve days. If GPT-5.4 is removed before Canvas becomes available in a current model, we will lose the only remaining workflow in ChatGPT that allows us to continue maintaining these documents in the way they were created.
I therefore urgently ask OpenAI:
Please do not sunset GPT-5.4 for Canvas users in twelve days without first providing a genuinely equivalent replacement.
At the very least, please extend access to GPT-5.4 and the original Canvas until a fully functional successor is available.
Ideally, Canvas should remain available independently of the underlying legacy model, or it should be restored in the current GPT models.
This is not a minor feature request
The removal of Canvas represents a significant regression in professional document-management capability.
Writing blocks may be useful for:
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short texts,
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emails,
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individual paragraphs,
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quick drafts,
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and isolated outputs.
However, writing blocks are not a functional replacement for Canvas when working on complex, interconnected, long-term project documents.
The difference is fundamental.
Canvas provided a persistent document workspace.
Writing blocks provide individual editable outputs inside a scrolling conversation.
These are not the same type of tool, and they do not support the same professional workflow.
1. Our project depends on persistent master documents
For every major area of our project, we need one clearly identifiable and continuously maintained master document.
Canvas allowed us to treat a document as the authoritative source and develop it over many iterations.
With writing blocks, a conversation can contain numerous different versions of the same document. It quickly becomes unclear:
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Which version is the current master document?
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Which changes have already been incorporated?
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Which version is outdated?
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Which sections have been approved?
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Which block should be used for the next revision?
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Has content been unintentionally omitted?
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Are the different document versions still synchronized?
This is not merely inconvenient. It creates a real risk of inconsistencies, duplicated work, lost decisions, and incorrect specifications.
For a serious product-development project, that is not acceptable.
2. The separation between conversation and document is essential
The original Canvas provided a clear separation between:
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the discussion with ChatGPT,
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instructions and decision-making,
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proposed changes,
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and the actual working document.
This allowed us to discuss changes in the chat while the authoritative document remained visible and stable in a dedicated workspace.
Writing blocks mix all of these elements together inside the chat history:
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instructions,
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explanations,
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intermediate drafts,
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corrections,
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obsolete versions,
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comments,
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and the actual document.
In a long-running project, the document effectively becomes buried inside hundreds of messages.
A professional project document should not be hidden somewhere inside a conversation history.
3. Full-screen writing blocks do not replace split-screen Canvas
One of the most important strengths of Canvas was the simultaneous view of the conversation and the document.
We could discuss a change while immediately seeing:
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where the change would be applied,
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how it affected surrounding sections,
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whether the overall structure remained coherent,
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whether numbering and headings stayed intact,
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and whether previously approved content remained unchanged.
Opening a writing block in full-screen mode does not solve this problem.
In full-screen mode, the conversation is no longer visible. In the normal chat view, there is no persistent document workspace next to the conversation.
The central interaction model of Canvas has therefore been lost.
4. Professional specifications require controlled, local editing
Our specifications are complex and interconnected. Once a section has been reviewed and approved, we often need to modify only one precisely defined passage.
For example:
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revise only this paragraph,
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add a subsection under this heading,
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preserve all other wording,
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keep the existing numbering,
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do not change approved sections,
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update one requirement without rewriting the entire document,
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or compare a proposed revision with the current version.
Canvas supported this type of targeted document editing.
Without a dedicated document workspace, there is a higher risk that:
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unrelated sections are changed,
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approved wording is overwritten,
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numbering becomes inconsistent,
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headings move,
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sections disappear,
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repetitions are introduced,
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or the assistant regenerates more content than requested.
For professional specifications, approximate preservation is not sufficient.
Changes must be targeted, traceable, reversible, and controlled.
5. Long project documents require structure and navigation
Our documents contain many chapters, subsections, dependencies, references, tables, and technical requirements.
A professional document workspace therefore needs:
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a persistent document outline,
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a table of contents,
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direct navigation between chapters,
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reliable heading hierarchies,
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document-wide search,
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stable formatting,
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targeted section editing,
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and a clear indication of the current document status.
A writing block can display text, but displaying text is not the same as providing a professional document-development environment.
6. Removing Canvas weakens the entire ChatGPT Projects concept
This problem is especially serious in the context of ChatGPT Projects.
A genuine project workspace should allow users to maintain authoritative project artifacts such as:
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a product specification,
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a business plan,
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a technical architecture,
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a financial-plan document,
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a governance framework,
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and an implementation roadmap.
These documents should remain persistently available, editable, versioned, and connected to the relevant conversations and project files.
Without persistent editable master documents, Projects risk becoming little more than collections of chats and uploaded files.
A professional project environment needs more than stored context.
It needs authoritative working documents.
7. The current situation forces us back into fragmented external workflows
Without Canvas, we would have to repeatedly transfer our documents between ChatGPT and external applications such as:
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Google Docs,
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Microsoft Word,
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Notion,
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GitHub,
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or local Markdown files.
This creates substantial additional work and risk:
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context is lost,
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versions become inconsistent,
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formatting may break,
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manual synchronization becomes necessary,
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changes must be copied in both directions,
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errors are introduced during transfer,
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and project decisions become scattered across different platforms.
It also raises additional questions regarding privacy, access control, collaboration, and data protection.
OpenAI had already created a strong foundation for solving this problem through Canvas. Removing it without an equivalent replacement makes ChatGPT significantly less useful for serious professional project work.
8. Existing Canvas documents must not be stranded
We need clear confirmation that existing Canvas documents will remain:
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accessible,
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editable,
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exportable,
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and connected to their existing conversations and Projects.
Merely keeping old documents readable would not be sufficient.
Our project is active. These specifications must continue to evolve. We need to be able to edit them, expand them, correct them, and use them as the basis for further development.
A read-only archive is not a workable solution.
Similarly, automatically converting Canvas documents into ordinary chat messages or writing blocks would not preserve the original workflow.
My urgent request
Please take one or more of the following actions before GPT-5.4 is removed:
Preferred solution
Restore the original Canvas workspace in GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6, and future models.
Alternative solution
Keep Canvas available as a model-independent workspace that can use current models in the background.
Temporary emergency solution
Extend GPT-5.4 access for users with existing Canvas documents until a functionally equivalent replacement is available.
A twelve-day transition period is not sufficient for a project that contains numerous complex specifications developed over months.
At minimum, please provide a substantial transition period. More importantly, please do not remove the only remaining working Canvas environment before a replacement with feature parity is operational.
Migration solution
Provide a reliable migration mechanism that preserves:
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full document content,
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headings and formatting,
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document structure,
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revision history,
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comments,
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links to the original conversation,
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project association,
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and the ability to continue editing the document as a persistent master document.
Minimum functionality required from a Canvas replacement
A genuine replacement should include:
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split-screen view with chat and document,
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persistent master documents inside Projects,
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targeted editing of selected passages,
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chapter and heading navigation,
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a table of contents,
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version history,
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comparison between revisions,
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tracked changes with acceptance or rejection,
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the ability to undo individual changes,
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comments attached to specific passages,
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the ability to lock or protect approved sections,
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reliable preservation of formatting and document structure,
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import and export in Markdown, DOCX, and PDF formats,
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collaboration between multiple project members,
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roles and editing permissions,
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and integration with other chats and files inside the same Project.
Please treat this as an urgent escalation
Please do not close this request with a general recommendation to use writing blocks, open a block in full-screen mode, or move the documents to an external application.
Those suggestions do not address the actual problem.
The actual problem is the loss of a persistent, dedicated, AI-integrated document workspace on which an active project now depends.
This should be treated as a product-regression and business-continuity issue, not as a minor user-interface preference.
I respectfully but urgently ask you to escalate this message to the product managers and engineering teams responsible for:
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Canvas,
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writing blocks,
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ChatGPT Projects,
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legacy-model transitions,
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and professional document workflows.
I need a clear response to the following questions
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Will existing Canvas documents remain accessible and editable after GPT-5.4 is removed?
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Is Canvas planned for GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6, or another current model?
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Can GPT-5.4 access be extended for users who depend on existing Canvas documents?
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Can Canvas be maintained independently of the legacy model?
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What official migration path will preserve our documents and their editing workflow?
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How are professional users expected to maintain authoritative master documents inside ChatGPT Projects?
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Can this case be escalated directly to the responsible product-management team?
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Is there an account-level or temporary access solution available for projects that depend on Canvas?
I am asking OpenAI very sincerely not to discontinue this capability without a viable replacement.
My team and I have invested substantial time and work into developing our project specifications inside Canvas. We made that investment because Canvas was offered as a professional environment for iterative document development.
Removing the environment while our project is still actively being developed would severely disrupt our work and undermine our ability to continue using ChatGPT as our central project-development platform.
Canvas was one of the features that transformed ChatGPT from a conversational assistant into a genuine professional workspace.
Please preserve that capability.
Please keep GPT-5.4 and Canvas available until users can safely continue their existing work in an equivalent or improved environment.
Thank you for urgently reviewing and escalating this request.
Kind regards,
Florian