DALL-E (Shut Down) Pricing
All plans and pricing as of 2026-05-13
DEPRECATED
- ✓OpenAI notified API developers on 2025-11-14
- ✓DALL-E 3 removed from ChatGPT December 2025 (replaced by native GPT Image inside GPT-5.x)
- ✓DALL-E 2 + DALL-E 3 API both shut down 2026-05-12
- ✓Deprecation reminder posted 2026-04-09 by OpenAI
Alternatives (recommended)
- ✓GPT Image (inside ChatGPT) -- OpenAI's direct replacement, already live
- ✓Nano Banana 2 -- best text-in-image (see /tools/nano-banana)
- ✓Midjourney -- best artistic quality (see /tools/midjourney)
- ✓FLUX.2 [klein] -- best open-weight, free to self-host (see /tools/flux)
- ✓Ideogram -- strong text rendering (see /tools/ideogram)
Is DALL-E (Shut Down) Worth the Price?
Value Score: 1/10
Overall Score: 5.0/10 · Historical context only. If you still have a DALL-E integration, it is failing now -- migrate immediately to GPT Image inside ChatGPT (direct replacement), Nano Banana 2 (best text-in-image), Midjourney (best artistic), FLUX.2 [klein] (best open-weight), or Ideogram (strong text).
DALL-E's shutdown on 2026-05-12 marks the end of the first wave of standalone AI image APIs. OpenAI quietly removed DALL-E 3 from ChatGPT in December 2025, folded image generation into GPT-5.x native multimodal as 'GPT Image', and ended both DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 APIs on the scheduled date. For developers caught with live DALL-E integrations, the cleanest in-ecosystem path is OpenAI's own gpt-image-1.5 / gpt-image-1-mini endpoints, but Nano Banana 2 (Google) and FLUX.2 [klein] (Black Forest Labs) are legitimately better on specific axes -- text-in-image and open-weight self-hosting respectively. For most consumer use, the in-ChatGPT GPT Image surface is already how OpenAI wants you to generate images.
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How DALL-E (Shut Down) Pricing Compares
| Tool | Free Tier | Starting Price | Value Score | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DALL-E (Shut Down)(this tool) | No | N/A | 1/10 | 5.0 |
| Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) | Yes | $0 | 8.5/10 | 8.9 |
| Leonardo AI | Yes | $0 | 9/10 | 8.3 |
| Stable Diffusion | Yes | $0 | 10/10 | 8.0 |
| Midjourney | No | $10/month | 7/10 | 7.8 |
| Ideogram | Yes | $0 | 8/10 | 7.8 |