# OpenAI babbage-002 — deprecation status

> Yes — OpenAI deprecated babbage-002 on September 26, 2025 and shuts it down on September 28, 2026 (in 60 days). The recommended replacement is GPT-5.4 mini.

A base completions model kept in service almost entirely as a fine-tuning target for classification work, where a small model trained on your own labels still beat prompting a large one. Its September 2026 shutdown ends that option.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Provider | OpenAI |
| Model id | `babbage-002` |
| Status | Deprecated |
| Released | August 22, 2023 |
| Deprecated | September 26, 2025 |
| Shutdown | September 28, 2026 (in 60 days) |
| Last verified | July 30, 2026 |

## Replacement

- **GPT-5.4 mini** (`gpt-5.4-mini`) · recommended — https://modeldeprecations.dev/openai/gpt-5.4-mini
  - Existing fine-tunes do not transfer. Budget for re-running training on the new base and re-validating accuracy — a base-model fine-tune and an instruction-model fine-tune do not behave the same way.
  - Parameters it accepts: https://modelparams.dev/models/openai/gpt-5.4-mini

```diff
- "model": "babbage-002"
+ "model": "gpt-5.4-mini"
```

## FAQ

### When will OpenAI babbage-002 shut down?

OpenAI babbage-002 is scheduled to shut down on September 28, 2026, in 60 days.

### What replaces OpenAI babbage-002?

OpenAI recommends GPT-5.4 mini (`gpt-5.4-mini`) as the replacement for OpenAI babbage-002. Existing fine-tunes do not transfer. Budget for re-running training on the new base and re-validating accuracy — a base-model fine-tune and an instruction-model fine-tune do not behave the same way.

### Is OpenAI babbage-002 still available?

Yes, for now. OpenAI babbage-002 is deprecated but still answers requests until September 28, 2026. Deprecated models get no further updates and are the first to lose capacity.

### How do I migrate from OpenAI babbage-002 to gpt-5.4-mini?

Swap the model id in your API call: replace "babbage-002" with "gpt-5.4-mini". Existing fine-tunes do not transfer. Budget for re-running training on the new base and re-validating accuracy — a base-model fine-tune and an instruction-model fine-tune do not behave the same way.

## Sources

- [OpenAI API deprecations](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations) — accessed 2026-07-30

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Canonical page: https://modeldeprecations.dev/openai/babbage-002
JSON: https://modeldeprecations.dev/api/v1/models/openai/babbage-002.json