Is DALL-E discontinued?
Yes. OpenAI announced DALL-E's deprecation on November 14, 2025, and shut down both DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 in the API on May 12, 2026. ChatGPT users were moved to GPT Image models in December 2025. Image generation continues, but the DALL-E name and models are retired.
Why — the first-principles explanation
"Discontinued" for an AI model means OpenAI stops serving it, so any app or API call pointed at DALL-E stops working after the shutdown date. OpenAI gave the standard notice: it announced deprecation on November 14, 2025, and set the shutdown for May 12, 2026, about six months later, which matches its policy of at least six months' warning for widely used models.
The reason is technological consolidation. DALL-E was a standalone image model that ChatGPT summoned like a separate tool. OpenAI's newer approach builds image generation directly into its main models as GPT Image, which understands prompts and edits more naturally. Maintaining an older, separate model alongside the new one costs engineering effort for little benefit, so OpenAI retired it.
Importantly, discontinued doesn't mean image generation vanished. The capability lives on and arguably improved, just under a new name. ChatGPT users were quietly shifted from DALL-E 3 to GPT Image around December 2025, and developers were told to migrate their API code to gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1, or gpt-image-1-mini. So DALL-E the brand is gone; text-to-image at OpenAI is very much alive.
An example that makes it click
Think of a phone company retiring its old 3G network. The service you cared about, calling people, didn't disappear; it moved to a faster network, and old 3G-only phones simply stopped connecting on the cutoff date. DALL-E is the 3G here: shut off on May 12, 2026, while the actual job of making images continues on the newer GPT Image "network."
Key facts
- OpenAI announced DALL-E's deprecation on November 14, 2025.
- DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 were shut down in the API on May 12, 2026.
- ChatGPT transitioned users from DALL-E 3 to GPT Image around December 2025.
- OpenAI's recommended replacements are gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1, and gpt-image-1-mini.
- Image generation continues under the GPT Image name; only the DALL-E models were retired.
OpenAI's image generator, built into ChatGPT.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
Is DALL-E discontinued? Yes, it is. OpenAI announced the shutdown on November 14th, 2025, and on May 12th, 2026, both DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 stopped working in the API. But don't worry, image generation didn't disappear. Back in December 2025, ChatGPT quietly moved everyone from DALL-E 3 to a newer model called GPT Image, so most people never noticed. Developers were told to update their code to the GPT Image models instead. Think of it like a phone company retiring its old network: calls still go through, just on faster technology. So the DALL-E name is officially retired, but making pictures with OpenAI is alive and, by most accounts, better than before.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Can I still use DALL-E after May 2026?
Not the DALL-E models themselves. They were shut down May 12, 2026. You now use GPT Image, DALL-E's successor, inside ChatGPT or via OpenAI's API.
Did DALL-E get worse or was it an upgrade?
It was an upgrade. GPT Image improves prompt-following, text rendering, and editing compared with DALL-E 3, which is part of why OpenAI retired the older model.
Will my old DALL-E API code still work?
No. Calls to dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 fail after May 12, 2026. You must migrate to gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1, or gpt-image-1-mini.
Are images I already made with DALL-E affected?
No. Any images you already generated and saved are yours to keep and use. The shutdown only affects generating new images from the retired models.