GPT-3.5 Turbo 0301 / 0613 / 1106 (specific dated checkpoints)
by OpenAI
Announced
2024-06-13
Complete
2024-09-13
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Refund status
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OpenAI maintains both a generic `gpt-3.5-turbo` alias that always points to the current default checkpoint, and dated checkpoints (e.g., `gpt-3.5-turbo-0301`) that pin to specific model versions. Apps depending on dated checkpoints for output reproducibility broke when OpenAI sunset the older checkpoints during 2024. The generic alias kept working uninterrupted; only apps that explicitly pinned to dated versions were affected.
Refund flow
- 1
Not applicable. Pay-as-you-go API, no credits tied to deprecated checkpoints.
Migration path
Recommended successor
gpt-3.5-turbo (current alias) or gpt-4o-mini
Why this is the closest fit
gpt-3.5-turbo alias still works — points to the latest GPT-3.5 checkpoint. gpt-4o-mini is the newer cheap-and-fast option with better quality at similar cost.
What differs from the original
If your app relied on reproducibility of a specific dated checkpoint (for evaluation harnesses, regression tests), the current alias breaks that contract. gpt-4o-mini is meaningfully more capable than GPT-3.5 but slightly more expensive.
What this tool meant
Dated-checkpoint pinning is the standard for production AI applications — you don't want your model behavior to drift silently when OpenAI updates the alias. The sunset of older dated checkpoints caused a quiet wave of production breakage in mid-2024 across applications that hadn't migrated to newer pins. The lesson for AI ops: monitor OpenAI's deprecation page proactively, don't pin to checkpoints near the deprecation horizon, and budget migration time well before the cutoff.
Sources
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