October 14, 2026 is the scheduled retirement date. The OpenAI API is outside the change. Illustration: MacDigest.
OpenAI scheduled GPT-5.5 to retire from ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex on October 14, 2026, across all plans. The September 14 notice excludes the OpenAI API and gives no exact cutoff time or time zone.
Start with how you sign in
For Codex users signed in through ChatGPT, OpenAI’s retirement guide points Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu subscribers to GPT-6 Sol (gpt-6-sol), where available. Free and Go users are directed to GPT-6 Luna (gpt-6-luna) in the desktop app, also subject to availability.
Managed-workspace users should confirm administrator access on each client they use. A different default does not unlock a model the workspace has not enabled.
Check what still selects GPT-5.5
On a Mac, review saved model settings, custom agents and scripts that explicitly select gpt-5.5. Check scheduled tasks too, particularly work that runs without you opening a fresh chat.
Codex’s configuration guide documents user defaults at ~/.codex/config.toml and project overrides in .codex/config.toml. Command-line flags and trusted-project settings take precedence over the user default, so a saved command or project can keep selecting an old model after a default changes.
Update affected ChatGPT-authenticated workflows to a model your plan, workspace and client support. Administrators should review workspace defaults and managed configurations as well. This retirement does not require changing GPT-5.5 model pins in API-backed scripts.
After updating, run a small test of each recurring workflow and check which model it selects before relying on the next unattended run.
