Archive no. MY-0005
DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3 API snapshots
DALL·E 2 与 DALL·E 3 的 API 快照
The image models that made AI image generation a mainstream developer feature were removed from OpenAI's API in May 2026, after a six-month deprecation window. The documentation pages are what is left.
Original intent · 初衷
The models existed to let developers generate and edit images from a text prompt through an API call, with two generations on offer: the earlier DALL·E 2 and the later DALL·E 3. For application builders the point was not the demo but the endpoint — a stable model name they could depend on while building image features into other products. The research behind the first of the two was published openly in April 2022.
Timeline · 时间线
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2022-04-13 · date-level
The research behind the first generation is published as an arXiv preprint describing hierarchical text-conditional image generation with CLIP latents.
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2025-11-14 · date-level
OpenAI's deprecation register records that developers using DALL·E model snapshots were notified of deprecation and of removal from the API on 12 May 2026.
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2026-05-12 · date-level
Both dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 are removed from the API on the date given in OpenAI's register; the model pages state that they have been deprecated and removed.
Dates are shown at the precision the sources provide; nothing is rounded up to a full date.
What happened · 后来发生了什么
OpenAI runs a public deprecation register for API surfaces. Its entry dated 14 November 2025 states that developers using DALL·E model snapshots were notified that day of their deprecation and removal from the API on 12 May 2026, and lists both dall-e-2 and dall-e-3 with the same shutdown date. The two model pages now carry the notice that the models have been deprecated and removed, and recommend current image models instead.
Why it stopped · 停止原因
OpenAI's register and model pages state the shutdown and the recommended replacements but give no reason for retiring the snapshots. The museum therefore records the outcome without a cause. Wording on the same register that explains other retirements, such as accuracy or cost language attached to unrelated models, does not apply here and is not used.
Curator's reading · 策展人分析
Facts cite a source. Author statements are the makers' own words. Curator analysis and hypotheses are marked as interpretation.
Editor's reading: the interesting longevity here is documentation, not software. Two model generations that were widely used are most precisely recorded in a table of shutdown dates, and the recommended replacement is itself a different family. That is a normal, healthy end of life — the entry is here because it is well evidenced, not because anything went wrong. Our interpretation, not OpenAI's wording.
What remains · 留下了什么
OpenAI's deprecations page is the authoritative schedule for API retirements and still lists the DALL·E entry; the museum treats it as the status record.
The DALL·E 2 model page remains online as documentation of a model that is no longer callable, including the snapshot list where it is flagged as deprecated.
The 2022 arXiv preprint on hierarchical text-conditional image generation with CLIP latents, hosted by arXiv rather than OpenAI, remains publicly readable.
What the makers learned · 制作者总结
The register entry covers the DALL·E model snapshots in the API and names gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1 and gpt-image-1-mini as the recommended replacements.
The DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3 model pages state that each model has been deprecated and removed from the API, and recommend a current image model.
This entry deliberately does not extend to DALL·E as a consumer product or to any ChatGPT surface; no verified source in this archive states what happened there.
The register gives an announcement date, a shutdown date and replacements, but no explanatory sentence. The absence of a stated reason is recorded as such rather than filled in.
A deprecation register is the most useful artefact a vendor can leave behind: it dates the announcement and the shutdown separately, names the replacement, and survives the product. The hard part for anyone building on top of it is the six months of migration work that the notice implies, which the register documents only as a date. Two generations sharing a single shutdown date is also a reminder that version bumps inside one family are not separate product lifetimes.
If someone tried again · 重做问题
Both generations were retired at once, in favour of a different model family. The open question this leaves for anyone building image features is whether to pin a model name and follow its deprecations, or to design for replaceability and treat every image model as a rolling dependency.
Sources and verification · 来源与核验
- Status evidence
- [openai-deprecations] [openai-dalle2-page]
- Added
- 2026-09-13
- Entry updated
- 2026-09-13
- Last verified
- 2026-09-13
- Project period
- 2022-04-13 → 2026-05-12
Supports: The dated deprecation entry for the DALL·E model snapshots: notification on 14 November 2025, removal from the API on 12 May 2026 for both dall-e-2 and dall-e-3, and the recommended replacements. The page is a maintained register, so it carries no single publication date.
Supports: The post-shutdown state of the model: the page states that DALL·E 2 has been deprecated and removed from the API, and shows the snapshot as deprecated.
Supports: The same notice for DALL·E 3, confirming that both snapshots share one removal date rather than being retired in sequence.
Supports: The dating of the underlying research, submitted on 13 April 2022, which is used as the start point for the model line covered here.