OpenAI Chat Latest — what it is, when to use it and what to use instead

Summary

Chat Latest is a rolling alias that points to the Instant model currently used in ChatGPT, at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output tokens with a 400K-token context window. Because the underlying snapshot is updated regularly, OpenAI recommends GPT-6 Astra for production use.

This is an alias, not a fixed model. It resolves to whichever Instant model ChatGPT is running at that moment, and OpenAI states that the underlying snapshot is updated regularly, so behaviour and output style can change without any change on your side.

At the time of verification it carried a 400K-token context window, 128K max output and a 31 August 2025 knowledge cutoff, with text and image input and text output. It is available on Chat Completions and Responses; Realtime, Batch, fine-tuning and most other endpoints are not supported.

No deprecation has been announced for the alias itself. Historically, chat-latest aliases from earlier generations, such as gpt-5-chat-latest and gpt-5.2-chat-latest, have been retired on their own schedules.

Modality

• Text
• Vision

Use case

• Chat
• Long context

Tier

• Mid-tier

Access

• Hosted API

Specifications

Input price

$5.00 / M tokens

Output price

$30.00 / M tokens

Price band

Premium

Context window

400K tokens

Max output

unknown

Input

Text, image

Output

Text

Knowledge cutoff

unknown

Tool use

unknown

Structured output

unknown

Weights licence

not published

Model maker

OpenAI

“unknown” means the figure has not been published, or we have not verified it yet — never that the answer is no. “not published” under the weights licence means this model is not offered with downloadable weights. The price band is ours: it bands the blended price (three parts input to one part output) as budget (≤ $0.50), standard (≤ $3), premium (≤ $12) or flagship.

Lifecycle

OpenAI has not announced a deprecation or shutdown date for this model. That is a statement about what has been published, not a guarantee — providers typically announce a shutdown months ahead, and this page updates when they do.

1. Released unknown
2. Deprecated not announced
3. Retired not announced

Use it for

• Prototype against whatever ChatGPT is running today, when matching that behaviour is the point of the test.
• Compare a pinned production model against the current ChatGPT default before a migration.

Avoid it when

• You are shipping to production; the snapshot is updated regularly and your evaluations will drift with it.
• You need reproducible output, for example in regression tests or compliance work.
• You need Batch, fine-tuning or Realtime; those endpoints are not supported.
• Cost per call is a constraint; GPT-5.6 Terra offers a 1.05M-token window at $2 / $12 against $5 / $30 here.

Alternatives to consider

• GPT-6 Astra Curated

  OpenAI ● Active

  The model OpenAI names for production use, at $10 / $50 with a pinned snapshot and an April 2026 cutoff.

  $10.00 in · $50.00 out / M tokens · 1.1M context

• GPT-5.6 Sol Curated

  OpenAI ● Active

  A pinned flagship at $4 / $20, cheaper than this alias and with a 1.05M-token context window.

  $4.00 in · $20.00 out / M tokens · 1.1M context

• GPT-5.6 Terra Curated

  OpenAI ● Active

  A pinned balanced tier at $2 / $12, less than half the price, with the same predictable behaviour.

  $2.00 in · $12.00 out / M tokens · 1.1M context

• Claude Sonnet 5 Curated

  Anthropic ● Active

  Anthropic's mid tier at $2 / $10, a pinned snapshot with a 1M-token context window.

  $2.00 in · $10.00 out / M tokens · 1M context

• Claude Sonnet 4.5 Derived

  Amazon Bedrock ● Active

  Alternative from Amazon Bedrock, same tier (mid-tier), similar price; shares chat and long-context.

  $3.00 in · $15.00 out / M tokens · 200K context

Curated suggestions were picked by a reviewer, with the reason written by hand. Derived suggestions are ranked from the data — shared tags, the same tier and a comparable price band — not from benchmark scores. Check the capability fit yourself: we track lifecycle, price and specifications.

Sources

• developers.openai.com ↗ https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models
• developers.openai.com ↗ https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing
• developers.openai.com ↗ https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/chat-latest
• developers.openai.com ↗ https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations

Verified against the source on 10 September 2026. Dataset snapshot 10 September 2026. Providers can change a date without notice — the link above is always the final word.

About this profile

The specifications and dates above are facts from OpenAI, with the sources listed. The summary, the use-for and avoid-when lists and the curated alternatives are our assessment: editorial profile reviewed on 21 September 2026 by llm-researcher.