OpenAI GPT-5.4 — what it is, when to use it and what to use instead
No. GPT-5.4 is active at OpenAI and has no announced end date.
Summary
GPT-5.4 is a previous-generation OpenAI flagship, at $2.5 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens with a 1.05M-token context window and 128K max output. GPT-5.6 Terra is newer and cheaper at $2 / $12.
GPT-5.4 was OpenAI's more affordable flagship for coding and professional work, on the default snapshot gpt-5.4-2026-03-05. It has since been bracketed by the GPT-5.6 line: Terra is cheaper with the same limits, and Sol is stronger at $4 / $20.
It accepts text and image input and returns text, with reasoning effort from none to xhigh and the full tool set including computer use, hosted shell and MCP. The knowledge cutoff is 31 August 2025. Prompts above 272K input tokens are charged at a premium rate.
No deprecation has been announced.
- Modality
- Use case
- Tier
- Access
Specifications
- Input price
- $2.50 / M tokens
- Output price
- $15.00 / M tokens
- Price band
- Premium
- Context window
- 1.1M tokens
- Max output
- 128K tokens
- Input
- Text, image
- Output
- Text
- Knowledge cutoff
- August 2025
- Tool use
- Yes
- Structured output
- Yes
- 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.
- Released
- Deprecated not announced
- Retired not announced
Use it for
- Keep an existing GPT-5.4 integration running while you evaluate the GPT-5.6 line against it.
- Stay on a pinned snapshot where output has to remain comparable across releases.
Avoid it when
- You are starting a new integration; GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2 / $12 against $2.5 / $15 here and has a February 2026 knowledge cutoff.
- Your prompts depend on facts after August 2025, this model's knowledge cutoff.
- Your prompts routinely exceed 272K input tokens, where premium pricing applies.
Alternatives to consider
-
GPT-5.6 Terra Curated
Newer and cheaper at $2 / $12 against $2.5 / $15, with the same 1.05M-token window and a February 2026 cutoff.
$2.00 in · $12.00 out / M tokens 1.1M context
-
GPT-5.4 mini Curated
A third of the input price at $0.75 / $4.5 within the same generation, against a 400K-token window.
$0.75 in · $4.50 out / M tokens 400K context
-
Claude Sonnet 5 Curated
Anthropic's mid tier at $2 / $10 with a 1M-token window and a January 2026 knowledge cutoff.
$2.00 in · $10.00 out / M tokens 1M context
-
Gemini 3.6 Flash Curated
Google's balanced tier at $0.75 / $3.75, with audio, video and PDF input that GPT-5.4 does not accept.
$0.75 in · $3.75 out / M tokens 1M context
-
GPT-5 Derived
Alternative from Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, same tier (mid-tier), similar price; shares chat, coding, reasoning, agents, long-context and search.
$1.25 in · $10.00 out / M tokens 400K 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/pricing
- developers.openai.com https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-5.4
Verified against the source on . Dataset snapshot . 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 by llm-researcher.
- developers.openai.com https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models
Common questions
- What is GPT-5.4 for?
- GPT-5.4 is a previous-generation OpenAI flagship, at $2.5 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens with a 1.05M-token context window and 128K max output. GPT-5.6 Terra is newer and cheaper at $2 / $12.
- What does GPT-5.4 cost?
- $2.50 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens, as last verified on 2026-09-10.
- What is the context window of GPT-5.4?
- 1.1M tokens.
- Is GPT-5.4 deprecated?
- No. GPT-5.4 is active at OpenAI and has no announced end date.
- What should I use instead of GPT-5.4?
- OpenAI GPT-5.6 Terra — Newer and cheaper at $2 / $12 against $2.5 / $15, with the same 1.05M-token window and a February 2026 cutoff. OpenAI GPT-5.4 mini — A third of the input price at $0.75 / $4.5 within the same generation, against a 400K-token window. Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 — Anthropic's mid tier at $2 / $10 with a 1M-token window and a January 2026 knowledge cutoff.