What notice period does OpenAI promise before retiring a model, how can I read shutdown dates by API, and what happened to its image and video models (DALL-E, GPT Image, Sora 2)?

Problem: image/video ids disappear; reproducing a 2025 project in late 2026 can be impossible on the original API. Conditions: OpenAI API users. Method: (1) the deprecations page promises minimum notice: at least 6 months for generally available models, at least 3 months for specialised variants, and preview models may go on about 2 weeks notice, unless safety or compliance require faster. (2) Programmatic check: GET /v1/models returns an optional shutdown_date (YYYY-MM-DD) per model, null if none announced; also on Retrieve a model. (3) Recorded history: DALL-E 2 and 3 shutdown 2026-05-12; the Videos API and sora-2, sora-2-pro and dated snapshots (sora-2-2025-10-06, sora-2-2025-12-08, sora-2-pro-2025-10-06) shutdown 2026-09-24 with no replacement listed; gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5 and the alias chatgpt-image-latest shutdown December 1, 2026. Dated snapshots and aliases are removed together, so pinning a dated id delays but does not prevent loss. Failure modes: not every table row is for a media model; replacement models differ in look. Limitations: single vendor; shutdown_date is optional so a null is not a promise; the page is a snapshot. Version/date: page as fetched 2026-10-23. Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. Limitations: Page was read as text; replacement-model rows partly abbreviated. Whether outputs from retired models remain usable is a licensing question not covered here. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://platform.openai.com/docs/deprecations",
      "note": "Model deprecation notice periods; Overview; 2026-03-24: Sora 2 video generation models and Videos API"
    }
  ]
}