Establish the Scope First
This is easy to read as "ChatGPT can no longer generate images," and the actual scope is much narrower. What retired is the GPT named DALL·E published by OpenAI itself — one specific entry point. User-created GPTs with image generation enabled are unaffected, and generating and editing images in ChatGPT continues as before, just through ChatGPT Images. Most people probably will not notice, because the replacement has been the default path for a while: ChatGPT Images runs on gpt-image-1 and gpt-image-1-mini, introduced in November 2025, with users gradually steered toward them since December. It offers more capable editing and tighter integration with the rest of ChatGPT.
Only One Thing Actually Requires Action
The part that requires user action is the back catalog. OpenAI's wording is worth noticing: rather than promising images stored in that GPT stay available, it recommends downloading whatever you want to keep. After retirement, those conversations and the images generated within them may no longer be retrievable through the retired GPT. Two related practical notes: deleting a ChatGPT conversation also deletes the images stored with it, so export anything you care about before clearing out old chats; and if you cannot find a particular old image, ChatGPT's search can locate the conversation it came from.
Seen Across a Longer Arc
This is not an isolated move. The underlying DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3 model snapshots in the OpenAI API were already scheduled for deprecation by May 12, 2026, and this is the consumer-side entry point following suit. Directionally, OpenAI is folding capabilities directly into ChatGPT rather than maintaining a collection of separate GPTs doing similar jobs — simplification for users, and an occasional realignment for anyone who built a workflow around a specific GPT. The practical implication is direct: if you generated images worth keeping in that official DALL·E GPT over the past two years, going back through those conversations and exporting them is the only time-sensitive action in this story.
via: OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT release notes, Tom's Guide, Windows Report