OpenAI to Retire ChatGPT Advanced and Standard Voice on December 11: What Changes for Users?

OpenAI is retiring Advanced and Standard voice in ChatGPT on Dec. 11, automatically moving affected users to its newer Live voice mode. The change means users will lose the option to select the two older voice experiences, while conversations will remain accessible.

However, live video and screen-sharing will continue relying on Advanced voice until GPT-Live supports those capabilities.

Why OpenAI Is Discontinuing Advanced and Standard Voice

OpenAI announced the retirement as part of its effort to simplify ChatGPT’s voice experience and concentrate development on GPT-Live, its latest voice model introduced in July 2026.

The company said voice usage has nearly doubled since GPT-Live’s introduction, with virtually all ChatGPT users who use voice now relying on the newer model.

Explaining the decision, OpenAI said, “This change will allow us to simplify the voice experience and focus on improving GPT-Live.”

The company also acknowledged that some users have become accustomed to the response styles and behaviour of Advanced and Standard voice.

It said feedback and lessons from both older experiences would inform improvements to GPT-Live, particularly in response depth and detail, continuity across conversations and personalisation.

OpenAI has also published guidance on navigating model transitions to help users adjust to the change.

What Happens to ChatGPT Voice Users After Dec. 11?

OpenAI said it will start notifying users about the retirement. During the transition period, users can continue selecting Advanced and Standard voice.

However, from Dec.11, both options will disappear from the model picker under Settings > Voice. Users who previously selected either option will automatically switch to Live voice.

Their existing conversations will not disappear. OpenAI confirmed that conversations made using Advanced and Standard voice will remain in ChatGPT history and can be continued through text or voice after the transition.

The change will also affect custom GPTs, which will continue using Advanced voice until its Dec. 11 deprecation date.

There is one important exception involving existing features. Live video and screen-sharing will continue to be powered by Advanced voice until GPT-Live gains support for those capabilities.

How Is GPT-Live Different From Advanced and Standard Voice?

The three voice experiences use different approaches to processing conversations.

GPT-Live is a full-duplex voice model, meaning it can listen and speak simultaneously. It can respond with conversational acknowledgements such as “mhmm” or “yeah”, participate in quick exchanges or remain quiet when users need time to think.

It can also delegate complex questions and agentic tasks to OpenAI’s frontier text models in the background, allowing voice conversations to continue while those tasks are handled.

Advanced voice, by comparison, used a previous turn-based model that processed and generated audio natively but had to wait until users stopped speaking before responding.

Standard voice relied on three separate models: one converted speech into text, another generated the response, and a third converted the response back into audio. According to OpenAI, this approach could result in slower responses and information loss between voice and text.

By retiring both older options, OpenAI is consolidating its voice experience around GPT-Live. The company says it will continue improving the model to make voice a more seamless part of ChatGPT.