Custom GPTs are shutting down. What should you do?

On December 11, 2026, OpenAI retires custom GPTs on every ChatGPT plan (OpenAI). If your business leans on one — you built it, you bought it from a consultant, or you use a link someone shared — it’s going away, and you have about two months to decide what replaces it.

The good news: a GPT was never magic. Behind the scenes it was a folder and a set of instructions. If you can get those back, you can own the solution outright.

What exactly is happening to custom GPTs?

According to OpenAI’s own retirement FAQ:

• Custom GPTs are scheduled to retire on December 11, 2026. The change affects all ChatGPT plans. Enterprise workspaces with an approved deferral get until February 11, 2027.
• You may already be unable to build new ones. Personal ChatGPT accounts can no longer create or publish GPTs (OpenAI).
• Plugins replace them. A plugin bundles “reusable instructions, reference files, and connected apps” (OpenAI).
• Your old chats stay. Conversations remain readable after the retirement date.
• The GPTs themselves don’t. On the retirement date, GPTs and their pages become inaccessible.

You’ll find other dates floating around online. This follows OpenAI’s current FAQ, which is the one to trust.

What carries over to plugins — and what doesn’t?

Most of it carries over, but not all of it. When a GPT’s owner clicks Migrate to plugin, its instructions become a “skill,” its knowledge files are copied in, and its connected apps come along.

What doesn’t make the trip: custom actions, the model it was set to use, drafts, sharing settings, and other people’s access. The new plugin starts out private. And OpenAI warns that a migrated plugin “may respond differently” than the GPT did.

There’s no export button. Migrating inside ChatGPT is the only route OpenAI offers.

What if you use a GPT someone else built?

Then this is where it hurts most. I know consultants who sold GPTs behind paywalls, and plenty of people shared theirs with a free link. Many of those makers won’t have their eye on the ball. Even the ones who migrate end up with a plugin that starts private — so everyone using it loses access unless the maker shares it all over again.

And a maker who handed out a public link often doesn’t even know who’s using it. A lot of people are about to be left in the wind.

What should you do before December 11?

Start with what the GPT was actually doing for you, not with the tool.

1. Go back over your sessions. What was it providing? What was the goal, the outcome you counted on?
2. Gather the inputs. If you fed it documents, templates, or examples, make sure you still have your own copies.
3. Ask the maker. Request the instructions, or at least a written summary of how it works.
4. Ask the GPT itself while it still works. Have it describe what it does, step by step, and what it needs from you. Save the answer.

If you can answer those questions, you can rebuild it — on your own, in any AI tool, or with help.

Isn’t clicking “Migrate to plugin” enough?

It works — for now. But jumping off GPTs only to jump into the next wrapped-up feature, when you don’t have to, is kicking the can down the road. This industry changes fast, and there’s a very good chance plugins get replaced too.

Migrating is fine if you also keep your own copy of everything. Just don’t let the plugin become the only place your process lives. Vendor lock-in should be a thing of the past.

What does owning it actually look like?

It means having the original instructions and files that produce the outcome, somewhere you control: a folder on your computer, or a shared drive your team can reach.

Here’s what makes this easier than it sounds: the instructions are just English. The same document works in a ChatGPT plugin, a Claude Project, a Gemini Gem, or a Microsoft Copilot agent. You paste the instructions in and upload the files. That’s the move.

If there was custom code involved, you don’t need to read it. Ask an AI to explain what it does, how it’s being used, and whether it’s secure.

Did you sell or share GPTs?

Then your people need to hear from you before December 11. Reach out to everyone you gave a GPT to, paid or not. Ideally, hand them a working alternative. If you can’t, give them a summary and a brief — even a spec — so they have everything they need to rebuild it themselves.

That’s how you keep their trust when the platform moves out from under both of you.

The best time was yesterday

The next best time is today. Pull your instructions and files out while the GPT still works, and put them somewhere you control. If you’d rather not rebuild it yourself, that’s work we do — and when we’re done, the files are yours.