DALL-E

DALL-E was OpenAI's text-to-image model line: DALL-E (Jan 2021), DALL-E 2 (2022) and DALL-E 3 (2023, built into ChatGPT). GPT-4o image generation replaced it in ChatGPT in March 2025, the API models shut down on May 12, 2026, and the DALL-E GPT retired on Aug 30, 2026.

DALL-E is retired. OpenAI's text-to-image line ran from the first DALL-E on Jan 5, 2021 to DALL-E 3 inside ChatGPT, and ended in steps: GPT-4o image generation took over as ChatGPT's default image maker on Mar 25, 2025, dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 were shut down in the API on May 12, 2026, and the official DALL-E GPT in ChatGPT retired on Aug 30, 2026. To make images with OpenAI today, use ChatGPT Images in ChatGPT or the GPT Image models in the API.

Quick facts

Status	Retired; the last piece, the DALL-E GPT, ended Aug 30, 2026
DALL-E	Jan 5, 2021, a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3
DALL-E 2	2022, 4x the resolution of DALL-E
DALL-E 3	In ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise Oct 19, 2023
Replaced in ChatGPT	GPT-4o image generation, Mar 25, 2025
API shutdown	May 12, 2026 (`dall-e-2`, `dall-e-3`)
Use now	ChatGPT Images (Images 2.6) or GPT-Image-2.6 in the API, as of Nov 6, 2026

DALL-E (2021)

The first DALL-E, announced on Jan 5, 2021, was "a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3" trained to make images from text descriptions (OpenAI). It was a research release; there was no public product.

DALL-E 2 (2022)

DALL-E 2 made more realistic and accurate images at four times DALL-E's resolution, and added outpainting (extending an image past its edges), inpainting (editing part of one) and variations (OpenAI). OpenAI's page shows no date in its text; its page data carries Apr 13, 2022, and OpenAI later wrote that it previewed the research "to users in April". On Sep 28, 2022 the waitlist ended, with more than 1.5 million users making over 2 million images a day, and on Nov 3, 2022 the DALL-E API opened in public beta, when more than 3 million people were making over 4 million images a day.

DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT (2023 to 2025)

DALL-E 3 was "built natively on ChatGPT", so people could ask for images in plain conversation (OpenAI). It reached ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise on Oct 19, 2023 and Free users on Aug 8, 2024. It was designed to decline images in the style of a living artist, limited images of public figures, and let creators opt their work out of training for future models. OpenAI also built a provenance classifier it said was over 99% accurate on unmodified DALL-E 3 images.

How DALL-E was replaced

On Mar 25, 2025 GPT-4o image generation became the default image maker in ChatGPT for Free, Plus, Pro and Team users, and DALL-E moved to "a dedicated DALL-E GPT". The same model reached the API as gpt-image-1 on Apr 23, 2025, after more than 130 million people made over 700 million images with it in its first week. OpenAI's image models have since moved on to GPT Image 1.5, 2, 2.5 and, on Nov 4, 2026, Images 2.6; see ChatGPT Images and GPT Image.

The end came in three steps:

ChatGPT default: GPT-4o images replaced DALL-E 3 on Mar 25, 2025.
API: OpenAI announced the shutdown on Nov 14, 2025, and dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 stopped working on May 12, 2026, with gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1 or gpt-image-1-mini named as replacements (OpenAI).
The DALL-E GPT: OpenAI said on Jul 31, 2026 that the official DALL-E GPT would retire on Aug 30, 2026 (OpenAI Help Center).

Frequently asked questions

Is DALL-E still available? No. DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 shut down in OpenAI's API on May 12, 2026, and the DALL-E GPT in ChatGPT retired on Aug 30, 2026. ChatGPT Images and the GPT Image models replace them.

What replaced DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT? GPT-4o image generation replaced DALL-E 3 as ChatGPT's default on Mar 25, 2025. As of Nov 6, 2026, ChatGPT makes images with ChatGPT Images 2.6, released Nov 4, 2026.

When did DALL-E come out? OpenAI announced the first DALL-E on Jan 5, 2021, DALL-E 2 in April 2022 and DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise on Oct 19, 2023.

What should developers use instead of the DALL-E API? OpenAI's deprecation notice named gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1 and gpt-image-1-mini; gpt-image-1 has since shut down too (Oct 23, 2026), and the current models are GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst and Flare.