Microsoft Foundry retires six GA model versions between October 1 and 21, 2026, plus a preview. The versions actually retiring are not the ones most deployment names suggest — and the live registry currently disagrees with the official schedule on several Azure records.
GA versions, Oct 1 – Oct 21, 2026
Azure version groups vs official schedule
Oct 1, 2026 — observed Aug 31, 2026
Official retirement schedule for Foundry Models sold by Azure, observed August 31, 2026. The replacement column is Microsoft’s recommended replacement.
| Model version | Stage | Retirement | Replacement | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-4o 2024-05-13 | Deprecated | Oct 1, 2026 | gpt-5.1 | Auto-upgrade on Standard SKU |
| o3-mini 2025-01-31 | Deprecated | Oct 1, 2026 | o4-mini | — |
| o4-mini 2025-04-16 | Deprecated | Oct 16, 2026 | — | — |
| o1 2024-12-17 | Deprecated | Oct 21, 2026 | gpt-5.6-sol | — |
| o1-pro 2025-03-19 | GA | Oct 21, 2026 | gpt-5.6-sol | — |
| o3 2025-04-16 | GA | Oct 21, 2026 | gpt-5.6-sol | — |
| gpt-realtime-2 2026-05-06 | Preview | Aug 31, 2026 | — | Preview: short-notice retirement class |
Source: learn.microsoft.com · Model retirement schedule. For gpt-4o 2024-05-13, Microsoft states the service “automatically upgrades it to gpt-5.1 on the Standard SKU in each region where that version is currently available.” learn.microsoft.com · Models lifecycle and support policy
ALLM catalog snapshot cat_2026_08_27, observed August 26, 2026 — compared against the official schedule observed August 31, 2026.
| Azure deployment record | ALLM catalog | Official schedule |
|---|---|---|
| gpt-4o-2024-08-06 (standard, eu/, global/, global-standard/, us/) | Deprecated · EOL 2026-10-01 | Deprecated · EOL 2027-04-14 |
| gpt-4.1 / gpt-4.1-mini / gpt-4.1-nano 2025-04-14 | EOL 2026-10-14 | Legacy · EOL 2027-04-14 |
| gpt-4o-2024-05-13 | Available · no EOL | Deprecated · EOL 2026-10-01 |
| o1 / o1-pro / o3 / o3-pro / o4-mini | Available · no EOL | EOL 2026-10-01 → 2026-10-21 |
For gpt-4o 2024-08-06 and the gpt-4.1 family, the registry EOL dates (2026-10-01 and 2026-10-14) are about six months earlier than Microsoft’s schedule (2027-04-14), and the registry does not yet carry EOL dates for gpt-4o 2024-05-13 or the o1/o3/o4-mini versions that retire in October. The registry evidence URL for these records (…/concepts/model-lifecycle) currently returns 404; the schedule now lives at the two pages linked in the sources below. These records are flagged for upstream correction; until then, plan with the official schedule.
The same canonical model version can retire on different dates at each provider. Retirement dates: Azure from Microsoft’s schedule, OpenAI direct from the API deprecations page.
| Model version | Azure AI (Foundry) | OpenAI direct |
|---|---|---|
| gpt-4o 2024-05-13 | Oct 1, 2026 · auto-upgrade to gpt-5.1 | Oct 23, 2026 shutdown |
| gpt-4o 2024-08-06 | Apr 14, 2027 | No announced shutdown |
| gpt-4.1 2025-04-14 | Apr 14, 2027 | No announced shutdown |
| gpt-4.1-mini 2025-04-14 | Apr 14, 2027 | No announced shutdown |
| gpt-4.1-nano 2025-04-14 | Apr 14, 2027 | Oct 23, 2026 shutdown → gpt-5.6-luna |
Sources: learn.microsoft.com · Model retirement schedule · developers.openai.com · API deprecations
Officially announced or officially listed changes observed between August 24 and August 31, 2026.
On August 26, 2026, OpenAI notified developers that whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe and gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize are deprecated, with removal on February 26, 2027. Recommended replacements: gpt-live-transcribe or gpt-transcribe.
claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929 is listed “not sooner than September 29, 2026” and claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 “not sooner than October 15, 2026”. claude-opus-4-1-20250805 retired August 5, 2026 with claude-opus-4-8 as the recommended replacement.
anthropic.claude-opus-4-1-20250805-v1:0 is still available on Bedrock with EOL January 8, 2027 (public extended access from October 8, 2026) even though the direct Claude API retired it in August. anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0 has EOL October 14, 2026. AI21 jamba-1-5-large-v1:0 has EOL November 26, 2026.
The official deprecation page lists “no shutdown date announced” for gemini-2.5-flash, gemini-2.5-flash-lite and gemini-2.5-pro, while the ALLM registry records 2026-10-16 for those deployments citing the same page. Treat the registry date as unverified until Google publishes one. gemini-2.5-flash-image shuts down October 2, 2026.
llama-3.1-8b-instant and llama-3.3-70b-versatile are shut down, with openai/gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120b / qwen/qwen3.6-27b as replacements. The deprecation applies to free and developer-tier usage; committed-spend enterprise contracts are unaffected.
All official pages observed August 31, 2026 (Europe/Paris). ALLM catalog snapshot cat_2026_08_27 observed August 26, 2026.
Related live views: models with a published end-of-life date and the OpenAI vs Azure AI deployment comparison render the current catalog records.
Deployment intelligence, explained
Microsoft Foundry publishes a per-version retirement schedule. Two versions of the same model family can retire more than six months apart, and the version that retires first is not always the one a deployment name suggests.
Check the exact model version in your deployment before planning a migration. The ALLM catalog records for some Azure versions were observed out of step with the official schedule; the official schedule linked here is the planning source of record.
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