ada
ada (OpenAI)
Yes — ada is retired. OpenAI deprecated it on July 6, 2023 and shut it down on January 4, 2024; API requests to it now fail. The recommended replacement is babbage-002.
The smallest and fastest GPT-3 model, priced so low it was used for embeddings and simple classification at a scale nothing else made sense for. Retired January 2024; the embeddings side of its job moved to the dedicated text-embedding models.
The facts
| Provider | OpenAI |
|---|---|
| Model id | ada |
| Released | June 11, 2020 |
| Deprecated | July 6, 2023 |
| Shutdown | January 4, 2024 · 938 days ago |
| Status | Retired |
| Last verified | July 30, 2026 |
What to use instead
For embeddings specifically, text-embedding-3-small is the modern equivalent and is not deprecated.
What parameters babbage-002 accepts on modelparams.dev
Change the id
In most cases the migration is one string. Check the parameter differences before you ship — newer models drop older sampling knobs more often than they add them.
- "model": "ada"
+ "model": "babbage-002"
Where the migration path ends
The recommended successor has itself been replaced. Following the chain to a model that is still active today:
- ada
- babbage-002 Deprecated
- gpt-5.4-mini Active
Frequently asked questions
- When did OpenAI ada shut down?
- OpenAI ada shut down on January 4, 2024. API requests to it fail from that date onward.
- What replaces OpenAI ada?
- OpenAI recommends babbage-002 (`babbage-002`) as the replacement for OpenAI ada. For embeddings specifically, text-embedding-3-small is the modern equivalent and is not deprecated.
- Is OpenAI ada still available?
- No. OpenAI ada is retired and no longer served — it was shut down on January 4, 2024. Calls to it return an error.
- How do I migrate from OpenAI ada to babbage-002?
- Swap the model id in your API call: replace "ada" with "babbage-002". For embeddings specifically, text-embedding-3-small is the modern equivalent and is not deprecated.
Sources
- OpenAI API deprecations · developers.openai.com · accessed July 30, 2026
Found something wrong? The data is one YAML file — edit it on GitHub.
This page, for machines
Drop the badge in a README so it turns red the day this model is retired:
[](https://modeldeprecations.dev/openai/ada)