Foundry Models lifecycle and support policy in Azure Government

Learn about the Microsoft Foundry Models lifecycle and support policy, including model deprecations and retirements in Azure Government. Explore how these changes affect your deployments.

Microsoft Foundry Models in Azure Government move through a predictable lifecycle - from preview to general availability (GA) to eventual retirement - giving you time to evaluate replacements and migrate workloads. This article explains each lifecycle stage, the overlap commitments Microsoft makes when a model retires, and how you’re notified in Azure Government. For specific retirement dates, see Model retirement schedule.

This article focuses on where there are differences from Commercial for Azure Government. For general information, see Foundry Models lifecycle and support policy.

How model lifecycle works

Microsoft Foundry continuously refreshes its model catalog with newer, more capable models. When a model is superseded, it moves through a predictable lifecycle that gives customers time to evaluate replacements and migrate. The lifecycle applies across Foundry Models in Azure Government sold by Azure.

Lifecycle stages

Since preview models aren’t delivered within Azure Government, every model in the Foundry catalog in Azure Government belongs to exactly one of four stages:

Stage	What it means	Can create new deployments?	Existing deployments work?
Generally Available (GA)	Production-ready. Weights and APIs are fixed. Runtime patches for security vulnerabilities don’t affect outputs. No label shown (default state).	Yes	Yes
Legacy	Newer, more capable models exist. You should plan on migrating workloads. This stage is optional - models might skip directly from GA to Deprecated.	Yes (until deprecation)	Yes
Deprecated	Existing customers can continue to create and manage deployments. No longer available to new customers - new customers can’t create deployments or access the model. “Existing customer” is determined at the subscription level: whether that Azure subscription ever deployed the specific model version. A new subscription under the same tenant doesn’t inherit access.	- Existing customers: Yes. - New customers: No	Yes
Retired	Removed from service. All inference requests return 410 Gone.	No	No

Model launch and availability

New models become available through deployment types in a predictable order:

Order	Deployment type	When available
1	Data Zone Standard	When first launched in Azure Government
2	Data Zone Provisioned	After Data Zone Standard - provides reserved throughput
3	Standard and Provisioned	Last - regional-only, as older models retire and capacity is reallocated

Availability rollout at a glance

Data Zone Standard  ──►  Data Zone Provisioned  ──►   Standard
                                                         and
    (at launch)        (expands to Provisioned)      Provisioned   
                                                     (as capacity
                                                       permits)

For a full comparison of deployment types, see Deployment type comparison.

Special considerations

Several factors affect how the standard lifecycle applies to your deployments, including the region you operate in, the type of deployment, and security requirements.

Regional availability

• Not all model and version combinations are available in all regions.
• Successive model versions might not be available in the same regions. A newer version can appear in some regions before upgrades are scheduled in others.

Generally available (GA) replacement model overlap commitments

Microsoft commits to meaningful overlap between a retiring GA model and its replacement so you can test, evaluate, and migrate with confidence. In Azure Government, this overlap relies on a two-step process that leverages the earlier availability in Commercial cloud.

Phase	Pattern
Azure Government launch	Each model launches per its own deployment type and region availability matrix. Microsoft sets the retirement date in Azure Government to match the Commercial Cloud date. You can find this date through the Models API.
Deprecated (existing customers only)	At 12 months from Commercial launch, existing customers can continue to create and manage deployments. New customers can’t access the model.
Replacement available in global standard	Customers can use and test the replacement model in global standard in Commercial Cloud approximately 90 days before retirement.
Replacement available in Azure Government	Replacement model becomes available to test in Azure Government where the predecessor is retiring approximately 30 days before retirement.
Model version retired	At 18 months from Commercial launch, all inference returns 410 Gone. If the Azure Government availability of the replacement is less than 30 days from this retirement date, the model’s retirement date is extended in Azure Government to allow at least 30 days of overlap in the Azure Government cloud.

Understanding automatic upgrades

For Data Zone Standard and Standard deployment types, Microsoft manages automatic upgrades when a model version is retired and the deployment type and region align:

• Auto-upgrades are scheduled on a rolling, region-by-region basis.
• Microsoft publishes the upgrade schedule in advance in the Model Retirement Schedule.
• If the upgrade target isn’t available in the same deployment type and region, Microsoft doesn’t perform a model upgrade.

Provisioned deployments aren’t auto-upgraded. Provisioned customers must manually migrate to the replacement model.

Use the Models API to programmatically check lifecycleStatus, deprecation, and per-SKU deprecationDate for any model at any time.

Example: gpt-4o-0513 → gpt-4.1 upgrade

When Microsoft retires gpt-4o version 2024-05-13 on 2026-03-31, the service auto-upgrades the model to gpt-4.1 on the Standard and DataZone SKU if there’s a matching offering.

Notifications

Microsoft sets the retirement date for GA models programmatically at commercial launch to 18 months out - there’s no separate “announcement.” Legacy and Deprecated transitions follow the published timeline and are visible in real time via the Models API.

When you receive active notifications

Event	Timing	Applies to
Azure Government model retirement notice	At least 60 days before retirement	All GA models. Sent to subscription owners with active deployments.
Azure Government model retirement warning	At least 30 days before retirement	All GA models. Sent to subscription owners with active deployments.

How you’re notified

Channel	Details
Email	Sent automatically to subscription owners with active deployments.
Azure Service Health	Health advisories appear for affected subscriptions. Go to Service Health > Health advisories, filter by Azure OpenAI Service, and create an alert rule for email, text messages, or webhook notifications.

Related content

• Model Retirement Schedule in Azure Government for specific dates for all current, deprecated, and retired models.
• Models API reference to programmatically query lifecycleStatus, deprecation, and per-SKU deprecationDate for any model
• Model versions in Microsoft Foundry Models in Azure Government for how version upgrades work.
• Getting started with model evaluation
• Managing models on provisioned deployment types
• Set up Service Health alerts