Three unannounced OpenAI models called aurora red, green and blue alpha appear in OpenAI's API

Context

Andrew Curran is reporting what he saw in OpenAI's API model list, and OpenAI has not announced, documented or priced the models. CellCog said its own check of the list confirmed the three names, which OpenAI's records show were created in the early hours of October 17 UTC.

Deep dive

Late on October 17, Andrew Curran posted that three mysterious new models had just shown up in the OpenAI API, named aurora red alpha, aurora green alpha and aurora blue alpha.

Minutes later, the account Chetaslua posted the same three names with a screenshot from a Discord alert service called Dev Mode. The screenshot also shows a model testing panel in which a call to aurora red alpha returned a 503 error saying no capacity was available, and calls to the other two returned 404 errors saying the model does not exist or the user lacks access.

CellCog, a developer blog, wrote that an authenticated call to OpenAI's model list on October 18 returned all three names, and that OpenAI's records show they were created between 01:13 and 01:15 UTC on October 17, a little more than a day before Curran's post. It said OpenAI's changelog and models page did not mention them and that it did not call the models, so it could not say what they do.

The name has appeared before. In February, OpenRouter listed an unattributed model called Aurora Alpha, which some people linked to a fast OpenAI coding model released days later, though neither company confirmed that. Guesses about what the new models are, including a coming launch, have no support from OpenAI.

What to expect next

Watch for any OpenAI announcement, documentation or pricing for the aurora models, and whether they become callable for developers.

Also watch whether the models appear on third party platforms such as OpenRouter, as the earlier Aurora Alpha did, which could give testers a way to measure their speed and quality. The names alone do not show whether a launch is near.