OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs, here's what carries over to plugins

OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs, the build-your-own ChatGPT assistants it introduced in November 2023, but the date that applies to you depends on where a GPT was made. OpenAI's ChatGPT release notes for September 11 say it plans "to retire custom GPTs across ChatGPT plans" and offer a migration path to plugins, which combine reusable instructions with connected apps.

OpenAI's artwork for GPT-6 Astra. A GPT's selected model does not carry over to its replacement plugin. Image: OpenAI

Existing GPTs keep working until their retirement date. What changes first is how you build them, and what survives the move.

OpenAI sets firm dates only for Enterprise

OpenAI's migration FAQ gives a timeline for Enterprise workspaces: an admin notice on September 11, a migration experience targeted for September 17, an end to new custom GPTs on September 25 and a scheduled retirement on December 11, when "custom GPTs stop running". OpenAI says the dates are subject to change, and calls September 17 "a target, not a guarantee that the option is available in every workspace."

For Free, Plus and Pro, the wording is looser. The other plans "may follow the same transition timeline", according to the FAQ, with in-product notices to announce it.

Personal accounts have lost part of the feature already. OpenAI's GPTs help page now says new GPT creation and publishing are not available on personal accounts, including Free, Go, Plus and Pro, while existing GPTs remain available. Editing one still requires an eligible subscription.

There is a wrinkle for people who rely on someone else's GPT. Public GPTs created in affected Enterprise workspaces follow the Enterprise transition even when you open them from a personal account, so a popular public GPT built by a company could stop on December 11 whatever plan you pay for. Access to a public GPT also does not guarantee access to its replacement plugin.

Custom actions have to be rebuilt by hand

Under the planned migration, a GPT's instructions become a skill inside a new plugin, and its connected apps are added to the plugin as apps. In the planned Enterprise workflow, only the GPT's creator or a workspace admin can migrate it, and it has to be published first, although it does not need to be public.

Not everything makes the trip. The FAQ says "GPT custom actions do not transfer through the migration workflow," so any GPT that called an external API needs that integration rebuilt through a supported connector or a custom MCP server.

Conversation starters and previous chats may not copy, and the GPT's selected model does not carry over. OpenAI also warns that a migrated plugin may respond differently, and suggests testing familiar prompts and at least one harder case before sharing it.

After migration, the original GPT stays usable until retirement but becomes read-only, and its creator can no longer delete it. At retirement, GPTs are scheduled to leave the GPT directory, and migrated links should redirect to the replacement plugin for people who have access to it.

Plugins replaced ChatGPT's app directory in July

The retirement follows a summer of consolidation. OpenAI replaced the App Directory with a Plugin Directory on July 9, when it launched ChatGPT Work, and it has since retired the official DALL·E GPT, which its release notes scheduled for August 30. GPTs that users built with image generation were not affected. Plugins can package skills, apps and app templates, and they work across Chat, Work and Codex.

The model point matters less than it sounds. OpenAI has swapped ChatGPT's models several times since the run-up to GPT-5.6's public launch in July, and the GPTs help page says a GPT whose model is retired is switched to a similar current one anyway.

OpenAI's own advice for now is to list the GPTs you rely on and who made them, and to record their instructions, reference files, integrations and a few familiar prompts so the replacement can be tested. GPTs with custom actions need the most time.

For Enterprise, the clock runs out on December 11. For everyone else, the date will arrive in an in-product notice.