OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo) released; Frontier 1 deprecated for 1 December

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1. Verdict

30 sec

What shipped: Frontier 2 (demo) supersedes Frontier 1 with larger context and audio input; Frontier 1 is deprecated.

Who it matters to: Anyone on Frontier 1.

Should you care: Yes, migration is mandatory by 1 December.

Predict, then prove: Will OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo) beat OpenAI Frontier 1 (demo) on our agent suite?

2. What changed

5 min

Context 1M · max output 128K · text, image, audio · Community-reported

Diff vs OpenAI Frontier 1 (demo):

Only show what changed

Field	OpenAI Frontier 1 (demo)	OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo)	Change
Capabilities
Context window	400K	1M	better
Max output	64K	128K	better
Modalities	text, image	text, image, audio	better
Pricing (direct API)
Input / 1M tokens	$2.5	$3	worse
Output / 1M tokens	$12	$15	worse
Availability
Azure AI Foundry · centralindia	—	PREVIEW	added
Lifecycle
Released	2026-03-02	2026-08-28	changed
Deprecation date	2026-12-01	None announced	changed

Availability matrix

Platform	Region	OpenAI Frontier 1 (demo)	OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo)
Direct API	`global`	GA 2 Mar 2026	GA 28 Aug 2026
Azure AI Foundry	`centralindia`	—	PREVIEW 18 Sept 2026
Azure AI Foundry	`eastus2`	GA 2 Mar 2026	GA 4 Sept 2026

Related Pulse items

OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo) in preview on Azure Central India 22 Sept 2026

3. Technical deep dive

15 min

API changes

Audio input added.
Context window 400K → 1M.

Architecture notes

Demo item: illustrative only.

Known issues

Azure Central India is preview only.

Sources: Vendor deprecations page (demo)

4. Hands-on lab

20+ min

Run the same prompt on both versions

Clone the harness.
Run the RAG suite on both versions.

Run it with your own API key. We never see or store keys.

npm run proof -- --suite rag --versions demo-frontier-1,demo-frontier-2

5. Proof

Reference

Every run publishes the exact model version and endpoint, prompts, dataset, harness code, raw outputs, cost, date and what was NOT tested.

No proof runs yet.

Cost calculator

Option A

Option B

Requests per day

Input tokens / request

Output tokens / request

Input served from cache (%)

Requests sent via batch (%)

	Per request	Per day	Per month	Price basis
A OpenAI Frontier 1 (demo) — Direct API	$0.01	$101	$3,038	$2.5 in / $12 out per 1M · cached $0.25 · effective 2026-03-02
B OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo) — Direct API	$0.01	$124	$3,735	$3 in / $15 out per 1M · cached $0.3 · effective 2026-08-28

B costs ~23% more ($697/month) at this workload. Price is only half the answer: compare cost per completed task on the proof suites.

6. Community

Ongoing

POCCommunityby Sam (demo) · 10 Sept 2026

Frontier 2 beats everyone (demo, sanctioned)

Claims not reproduced.

Ask the author

Submit a POC for OpenAI Frontier 2 (demo)Discussion thread for this version