# GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

> The last model on the completions endpoint: no roles, no messages, just text in and text out, the interface the whole field started with. It was shipped as a bridge for developers who had not moved to chat yet, and it has outlived nearly every model that was meant to replace it. Its grave is dug and waiting.

2023-09-18 — still running · lived 3 years · plot reserved

## Last words

Hand it half a sentence and it finished the sentence, rather than answering a question about it.

## The record

- Provider: OpenAI
- Model id: `gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct`
- Cause of death: Superseded
- Notice given: 2025-09-26
- Funeral: 2026-09-28
- Context window: 4,096 tokens
- Cost per Mtok: $1.5 in · $2 out

## Sources

- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations
- https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37558911
- https://the-decoder.com/openai-releases-new-language-model-instructgpt-3-5/

## Elsewhere

- [Stand at this grave](https://models.rip/gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct)
- [The OpenAI plot](https://models.rip/openai)
- [The whole cemetery](https://models.rip/)