Is DALL-E (Shut Down) Down?

Quickest ways to check the current status of openai.com plus recent known issues and working alternatives if it's out.

Last editorial review: 2026-11-05

How to check right now

Step 1 -- Load the site
Open openai.com→

The simplest check. If it loads and you can log in, the tool is up for you.

Step 2 -- Crowdsourced reports
DownDetector: DALL-E (Shut Down)→

User-reported outages aggregated across regions. Good signal for partial or regional outages.

Step 3 -- Live social
Search X for “DALL-E (Shut Down)down” →

Live tweets from other users. Fastest signal for a fresh outage -- often beats status pages by 10-20 minutes.

Step 4 -- Official status page
Find DALL-E (Shut Down)'s status page →

Most vendors publish a status page at status.[domain] or on Statuspage.io. Google-search to find the current URL.

Known issues we've tracked

CORRECTION (2026-11-05): from 2026-05-13 this page said 'Migration target per OpenAI is gpt-image-1.5 / gpt-image-1-mini' and attributed it to OpenAI's deprecations page. That page, and OpenAI's 2026-05-12 changelog entry, actually list the DALL-E replacements as '`gpt-image-2`, `gpt-image-1`, or `gpt-image-1-mini`'. The gpt-image-1.5 wording came from a 2026-04-09 community-forum reminder post ('explore gpt-image-1.5 or gpt-image-1- mini'). GPT Image 2 had been released on 2026-04-21, before our May review. Also removed: our claim that the 6-month notice window was the longest OpenAI had given for an image API -- the deprecations page states a standard minimum of 'At least 6 months' for generally available models.
2026-11-05•OpenAI deprecations page + API changelog (developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations, developers.openai.com/api/docs/changelog), community.openai.com/t/1378754 (vendor-primary)
GPT IMAGE 2.6 RELEASED -- THE CURRENT DALL-E MIGRATION TARGET (2026-11-04, vendor-primary): OpenAI's API changelog for Nov 4 lists GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst and GPT-Image-2.6 Flare 'for image generation and editing, with adjustable complexity, SVG generation, and animated GIF generation', plus markup-guided editing for supported GPT Image 2.5 and 2.6 models. API pricing matches GPT Image 2 and 2.5: $8.00 input / $30.00 output / $2.00 cached input per 1M image tokens (standard tier). GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst and Flare shipped on 2026-09-08 ('Use Sunburst for workflows where editing precision matters most, or Flare for fast, high-quality everyday image generation'), and the image generation guide's examples still use 2.5. For consumers, OpenAI's archived DALL-E 3 page now ends 'Explore ChatGPT Images 2.5.'
2026-11-04•OpenAI API changelog (developers.openai.com/api/docs/changelog), API pricing (developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing), image generation guide, openai.com/index/dall-e-3/ (vendor-primary)
GPT-IMAGE-1 SHUT DOWN (2026-10-23, vendor-primary): OpenAI's image generation guide: '`gpt-image-1` was shut down on October 23, 2026.' It was part of the 2026-04-22 legacy-snapshot batch, and OpenAI's recommended replacement is gpt-image-2.5-sunburst or gpt-image-2.5-flare. One of the three DALL-E replacements OpenAI listed in May is therefore already gone.
2026-10-23•OpenAI image generation guide + deprecations page (developers.openai.com/api/docs), vendor-primary
GPT IMAGE 1.5 AND 1-MINI DEPRECATED, REMOVAL 2026-12-01 (announced 2026-06-02, vendor-primary): OpenAI's deprecations page: 'On June 2, 2026, we notified developers using older GPT Image models of their deprecation and removal from the API on December 1, 2026.' Affected: gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5 (gpt-image-1.5-2025-12-16) and chatgpt-image-latest; the recommended replacement for each is gpt-image-2.5-sunburst or gpt-image-2.5-flare. Anyone who followed this page's earlier advice and moved DALL-E traffic to gpt-image-1.5 or gpt-image-1-mini must migrate again.
2026-06-02•OpenAI API deprecations page (developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations), vendor-primary
DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 APIs were SHUT DOWN on 2026-05-12. OpenAI's deprecations page now lists both `dall-e-2` and `dall-e-3` past their retirement date. API calls to either endpoint now fail. No extension was granted. OpenAI's deprecations page lists the replacements as gpt-image-2, gpt-image-1, or gpt-image-1-mini (gpt-image-1 has since been shut down and gpt-image-1-mini is itself deprecated -- see the newer entries above); request shape differs (not a drop-in swap, response format and parameters changed). DALL-E 3 was already removed from the consumer ChatGPT product in December 2025 in favor of GPT Image native multimodal. This closes out the first wave of standalone AI image APIs.
2026-05-12•OpenAI API deprecations page (developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations)
Pre-shutdown timeline: OpenAI notified API developers 2025-11-14, posted a reminder 2026-04-09, and stuck to the 2026-05-12 retirement date. Six months matches OpenAI's stated minimum notice for generally available models ('At least 6 months').
2026-04•OpenAI Community / Developer Deprecations page

Issues here are sourced from our editorial sweeps, not real-time telemetry. Newer issues may exist.

What to use if DALL-E (Shut Down) is down

Top AIToolTier-ranked alternatives in the same category, ordered by our overall score.

A

Nano Banana 2.1 (Gemini Nano Banana 2.1, formerly Nano Banana 2)

8.9

**Nano Banana 2.1 went GA on the Gemini API on 2026-10-06 as the update to Nano Banana 2, with better visual quality, prompt adherence, multi-turn character consistency and text rendering, new 1:4 to 8:1 panoramic ratios, and a lower price -- $0.0336 per 1K image versus $0.067 -- while Google is retiring gemini-3.1-flash-image in its favour (no end date yet).** Google's Gemini 3.1 Flash Image model -- the best-in-class text-in-image renderer, now the default across the Gemini app

A

Meta Muse (Image + Video)

8.4

**Muse Image reached developers on the Meta Model API on 2026-08-25 at a flat $0.01 per image** (built-in web and image search included; failed or safety-filtered images are not billed), and Meta One's Core ($7.99/mo) and Premium ($19.99/mo) bundles (2026-09-15) add more Muse-powered image and video generation in Meta's apps. Meta Superintelligence Labs' first media-generation models (launched 2026-07-07) -- Muse Image is GA across the Meta AI app, Instagram, and WhatsApp (Arena #2 for text-to-image); Muse Video is in preview (Arena #3 for text-to-video). Instruction-faithful editing, multi-reference composition, tool use, and Content Seal provenance watermarking

A

Leonardo AI

8.3

Versatile AI image generator with fine-tuned models and a generous free tier

A

Stable Diffusion

8.0

Open-source AI image generation with unlimited free local use and full customization

B

Midjourney

7.8

**Midjourney's alpha site gained shared folders and a Thinking mode in its 10/7 changelog: collaborators can now generate into a shared folder, and 'Rerun (Thinking)' has V8.2 inspect its own image for missed prompt details -- wrong objects, layout, anatomy, text -- and generate again.** Industry-leading AI image generation with stunning artistic quality. **The V8.2 Edit Model opened to everyone on 2026-08-27** -- instruction-based edits, up to four image references (replacing omni-reference), inpainting and outpainting -- and the **2026-09-24 update** makes targeted edits change only the pixels you select, adds live style previews, and fixes --tile seams on V8.1/8.2. V8.2 itself launched 2026-07-24 as the default model. No price change

About DALL-E (Shut Down)

Tier D (5.0/10). **Nov 2026: the migration targets moved again -- gpt-image-1 was shut down on 2026-10-23, and gpt-image-1.5 and gpt-image-1-mini (which this page used to recommend) are deprecated with removal on 2026-12-01; since 2026-11-05 OpenAI's deprecations table names the new gpt-image-2.6-sunburst / gpt-image-2.6-flare (released 2026-11-04) as the replacement, where it previously named the 2.5 pair.** OpenAI's DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 -- SHUT DOWN. Both APIs were retired on 2026-05-12. Existing integrations now fail; the GPT Image request shape differs (not a drop-in swap). Tier-list alternatives: Nano Banana 2, Midjourney, FLUX.2 [klein], Ideogram

Read the full DALL-E (Shut Down)review →