# OpenAI davinci — deprecation status

> Yes — davinci 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 davinci-002.

The largest GPT-3 base model, and the one the 2020 paper actually described. It had no instruction tuning at all — you steered it with few-shot examples, which is the technique the whole prompt-engineering field grew out of. Retired January 2024.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Provider | OpenAI |
| Model id | `davinci` |
| Status | Retired |
| Released | June 11, 2020 |
| Deprecated | July 6, 2023 |
| Shutdown | January 4, 2024 (938 days ago) |
| Last verified | July 30, 2026 |

## Replacement

- **davinci-002** (`davinci-002`) · recommended — https://modeldeprecations.dev/openai/davinci-002
  - davinci-002 was the named replacement base model and is itself deprecated, shutting down September 2026 — after which OpenAI hosts no base models at all.
  - Parameters it accepts: https://modelparams.dev/models/openai/davinci-002

```diff
- "model": "davinci"
+ "model": "davinci-002"
```

## FAQ

### When did OpenAI davinci shut down?

OpenAI davinci shut down on January 4, 2024. API requests to it fail from that date onward.

### What replaces OpenAI davinci?

OpenAI recommends davinci-002 (`davinci-002`) as the replacement for OpenAI davinci. davinci-002 was the named replacement base model and is itself deprecated, shutting down September 2026 — after which OpenAI hosts no base models at all.

### Is OpenAI davinci still available?

No. OpenAI davinci 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 davinci to davinci-002?

Swap the model id in your API call: replace "davinci" with "davinci-002". davinci-002 was the named replacement base model and is itself deprecated, shutting down September 2026 — after which OpenAI hosts no base models at all.

## 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/davinci
JSON: https://modeldeprecations.dev/api/v1/models/openai/davinci.json