diff --git a/src/__tests__/drift/model-registry.ts b/src/__tests__/drift/model-registry.ts
index b946bbe2..212f2463 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/drift/model-registry.ts
+++ b/src/__tests__/drift/model-registry.ts
@@ -176,6 +176,9 @@ export const excludeFamilies: Record<Provider, Set<string>> = {
     "gpt-image-1.5",
     "gpt-image-2",
     "chatgpt-image-latest",
+    // Bare chat alias — a moving alias (not a stable mocked family); matches the
+    // *-latest exclude policy (chatgpt-image-latest, omni-moderation-latest, etc.)
+    "chat-latest",
     // Video generation (non-text)
     "sora-2",
     "sora-2-pro",
diff --git a/src/__tests__/drift/models.drift.ts b/src/__tests__/drift/models.drift.ts
index 872b5c73..b3da9f2c 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/drift/models.drift.ts
+++ b/src/__tests__/drift/models.drift.ts
@@ -266,6 +266,9 @@ describe("full live /models wave is fully classified (2026-07-16 drift)", () =>
       "sora-2-pro",
       "omni-moderation",
       "omni-moderation-latest",
+      // bare chat alias (fixture-vs-live gap: present in live /models, was absent
+      // from the static wave — this is the 2026-07-18 canary residual)
+      "chat-latest",
     ];
     expect(unclassifiedFamilies(openaiLive, "openai")).toEqual([]);
   });