platform updates · September 20, 2026

OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs — plugins are the exit ramp

OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs and replacing them with plugins. The company announced the phase-out on September 11, 2026: personal ChatGPT accounts (Free, Go, Plus, and Pro) already lost the ability to create or publish new GPTs in mid-August, while enterprise workspaces lose new-GPT creation on September 25 — and all existing custom GPTs are scheduled to stop running on December 11, 2026.

A migration experience targeted for September 17 carries the workflow across but not the wrapper: a GPT’s instructions become a reusable skill inside a plugin, and its connected apps carry over — but custom actions and the selected model do not transfer and must be rebuilt. Only the GPT’s creator or a workspace admin can migrate it, the GPT must be published first, and the replacement plugin starts private, so sharing has to be reconfigured. Migrating makes the original GPT read-only; at retirement, old GPT links are planned to redirect eligible users to their replacements.

The move closes a loop. Custom GPTs launched in November 2023 and let anyone build a specialized assistant without code, while the original ChatGPT plugins were deprecated in early 2024. Now plugins return as the replacement system — built around reusable instructions plus connected apps, so workflows can be invoked across ChatGPT instead of living inside a standalone chatbot. Personal users should follow in-product notices rather than assuming the enterprise dates apply to them.

Why it matters

If you or your team depend on a custom GPT — for brand-voice drafts, client onboarding, research templates — it has an expiration date now. Builders whose GPTs use custom actions face the most work, since API integrations don’t survive the migration and must be rebuilt before December 11.

Key facts

Retirement announced September 11, 2026; enterprise admin notice sent the same day
Personal accounts (Free, Go, Plus, Pro): new GPT creation and publishing already unavailable since mid-August 2026
Enterprise schedule: migration tooling targeted September 17, new creation ends September 25, GPTs stop running December 11, 2026
What migrates: instructions become a reusable skill, connected apps carry over. What doesn’t: custom actions, the selected model
Only the creator or an admin can migrate a GPT, and only if it’s published; the replacement plugin starts private
Custom GPTs launched November 2023; the original plugins were deprecated in early 2024 and now return as the replacement

Sources

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