OpenAI will shut Custom GPTs in December and move them to plugins
Reviewed by Helen Jones
OpenAI said on 11 September 2026 that Custom GPTs will be retired across ChatGPT plans and replaced with plugins that bundle reusable instructions, reference files, and connected apps. Retirement is currently set for 11 December 2026. Enterprise workspaces are expected to lose the ability to create new Custom GPTs on 26 October 2026. Some Enterprise customers with approved deferrals may keep using them until 11 February 2027. An earlier cutoff of 25 September for new creation was later moved. Published GPT instructions become a skill in the plugin. Knowledge files copy into plugin reference files, and connected apps can carry over. Existing GPT conversations do not migrate, the chosen model does not carry over, and Custom Actions may need to be rebuilt. Sharing settings must be re-tested after the move.
For the last two years, Custom GPTs were the main no-code place to park a repeatable brief: the audience, the quality bar, and the files you were tired of pasting into a blank chat. Teams treated that container as the workflow itself, even when the real work still sat in human review. The plugin swap does not preserve the messy parts that made those assistants feel reliable in practice. Chat history, model choice, Custom Actions, and sharing all break or need a rebuild. If you only click migrate, you keep the label and lose the operating rules that made the output trustworthy.
Analysis
This is a change to act on, not a feature to wait for. Before 26 October, list every Custom GPT your team still uses, copy the instructions and files into a written brief with a named review step, then migrate only those and re-test who can open them.
Source note
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "OpenAI will shut Custom GPTs in December and move them to plugins", Collab365 Spaces. 3 sources referenced.