OpenAI is simplifying ChatGPT’s voice options. On December 11, 2026, the company will retire Advanced voice and Standard voice, the two older voice modes, and move everyone to Live voice, which runs on its newer GPT-Live model. If you use ChatGPT by talking to it, here’s what changes, what stays, and what happens to your old conversations.
What’s changing and when
OpenAI announced the change on November 10 in its ChatGPT release notes. Until December 11, you can keep using Advanced or Standard voice as usual. After that date, they disappear from the voice model picker in Settings > Voice, and anyone who had picked one of them will be switched to Live voice automatically.
According to OpenAI, voice usage in ChatGPT has nearly doubled since it introduced GPT-Live in July, and virtually everyone who uses voice in ChatGPT now uses it. The company says retiring the older modes lets it simplify the voice experience and focus on improving GPT-Live.
Live, Advanced and Standard voice: what’s the difference?
- Live voice (GPT-Live): a “full-duplex” model, which means it can listen and speak at the same time. It can say things like “mhmm” to show it’s listening, handle quick back-and-forth, or stay quiet while you think. It can also hand complex questions or tasks to OpenAI’s text models in the background while the conversation keeps going.
- Advanced voice: OpenAI’s previous voice model. It worked with audio directly, but it had to wait for you to stop talking before answering, which made conversations feel more rigid.
- Standard voice: the original voice mode. It chained three models together: one to turn your speech into text, a language model to write the answer, and one to read it back. OpenAI says that made responses slow and lost information between voice and text.
What stays the same
- Live video and screen sharing will keep running on Advanced voice until GPT-Live supports them. OpenAI hasn’t said when that will happen.
- Your conversations stay in your ChatGPT history, and you can continue them in text or voice. Voice simply defaults to GPT-Live after December 11.
- Exporting your data is still possible through ChatGPT’s data export option if you want a copy of your chats.
Custom GPTs are going away too
There’s one more date to note. OpenAI says voice conversations with custom GPTs will keep using Advanced voice until custom GPTs themselves are deprecated, also on December 11, 2026. If you rely on a custom GPT, now is a good time to check OpenAI’s guidance on that change.
What you should do
For most people, nothing: if you already use Live voice, you won’t notice a difference. If you prefer Advanced or Standard voice’s style, OpenAI acknowledges that model changes can be an adjustment and says it is bringing what it learned from the older modes into GPT-Live, including more detailed responses, better continuity across conversations and better personalization. You can try Live voice now in Settings > Voice before the switch is automatic.
OpenAI has been changing ChatGPT quickly this fall: it recently doubled usage limits and added iCloud Mail and Calendar plugins.
Sources: OpenAI Help Center: Retiring Advanced and Standard Voice, OpenAI: ChatGPT release notes, Android Authority
