Selling Custom GPTs After the Retirement: What Still Earns

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If you built or sold custom GPTs, the ground has moved. On September 11, 2026, OpenAI announced in its ChatGPT release notes that it plans to retire custom GPTs across ChatGPT plans and offer a migration path to plugins. The retirement and migration FAQ sets the date: custom GPTs retire on December 11, 2026, and Enterprise workspaces with an approved deferral have until February 11, 2027. After that, custom GPTs and their GPT pages become inaccessible.

So the old question, "how do I make money in the GPT Store?", now has a short answer: not for much longer. The useful questions are what to do with the GPTs you already run, what the replacement allows you to sell, and where the money is now. This guide answers them from OpenAI's own help and developer pages, checked on October 7, 2026. OpenAI notes that its Enterprise dates are subject to change, so check the linked pages again before you commit to a plan.

What changed, and when

Three more facts matter if you sell anything built on GPTs:

• Personal accounts are already locked out of building. OpenAI's Creating and editing GPTs page states that new GPT creation and publishing are not available on personal ChatGPT accounts, including Free, Go, Plus and Pro. Users in Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces can still create and publish GPTs where their workspace settings allow it.
• Existing GPTs keep working until the retirement date, subject to their existing access and workspace permissions.
• Conversations survive. People's past conversations with custom GPTs remain accessible after retirement; the GPTs themselves do not.

OpenAI has not published a separate closing date for the GPT Store as a storefront. The only official statement is that GPT pages become inaccessible at retirement. Its notices also say other plans are expected to follow the same timeline, but there is no separately confirmed migration date for non-Enterprise plans yet.

What replaces GPTs: plugins

OpenAI's plugin architecture docs describe plugins as the packages people discover, install, share and publish in ChatGPT and Codex. A plugin can contain skills (reusable instructions and workflows), an MCP server that connects ChatGPT to an outside service, or both. Some plugins include only skills and need no app connection at all. ChatGPT and Codex share one plugin directory, so a public listing appears in both.

According to OpenAI's Plugins in ChatGPT help page, the plugin directory is available across ChatGPT plans, although whether someone can install or use a particular plugin depends on their plan, workspace, role and region. There are two ways to build one. You can install Plugin Creator and describe what you want to @plugin-creator in a chat, or you can package the plugin yourself with a plugin.json manifest, a skills/ folder and an mcp.json file.

For someone who sold GPTs, the practical difference is this: a GPT was a configuration that lived inside ChatGPT, while a plugin is a portable package that goes through review like a piece of software. That is a higher bar, and it changes what you can charge for.

Migrating a GPT you already have

OpenAI's FAQ lays out the migration in plain terms:

1. Start it from My GPTs. When migration becomes available for your account, open My GPTs and select Migrate to plugin for the GPT you want to move.
2. Publish the version you want first. Migration uses the GPT's latest published version, so drafts and unpublished edits do not transfer. Publishing a GPT does not require sharing it publicly.
3. Know what transfers. The GPT's instructions become a skill inside the new plugin, its knowledge files are copied into the plugin's reference files, and its connected apps are added as apps.
4. Know what doesn't. The selected model does not carry over, and neither do custom actions. OpenAI says rebuilding those connections may require a custom MCP server and technical setup.
5. Expect a read-only original. After migration, the original GPT stays usable until retirement but becomes read-only, and its creator cannot delete it.
6. Expect a private plugin. The plugin starts private. Migration doesn't install it for anyone or give other people access, and the GPT's sharing settings don't carry over.
7. Test before you switch people over. OpenAI warns that a migrated plugin may respond differently and suggests comparing familiar prompts plus at least one harder case.

One rule matters for anyone who built GPTs for clients: permission to use someone else's GPT does not give you permission to migrate it. The owner has to run the migration, or, in an Enterprise workspace, a workspace admin can.

The money question: what plugins may sell

This is where the old GPT business models run into trouble. OpenAI's plugin guidelines state:

"Currently, plugins may conduct commerce only for physical goods. Selling digital products or services—including subscriptions, digital content, tokens, or credits—is not allowed, whether offered directly or indirectly (for example, through freemium upsells)."

The same guidelines add several rules that affect anyone hoping to earn from a plugin:

• No new subscriptions or upgrades. Users may sign in to an existing paid account and use features that are already part of their subscription. The plugin must not display subscription plans, start new subscriptions or promote upgrades.
• No direct checkout links. A plugin may link to an informational page that describes plans, but not directly to a checkout or other transactional page.
• No ChatGPT surcharges. A plugin can't charge users extra for reaching a service through ChatGPT.
• No ads. Plugins must not serve advertisements and must not exist primarily as an advertising vehicle.
• No pricing in the listing. Listing copy can't advertise pricing, subscriptions, free trials, discounts or promotions.

For physical goods, OpenAI's checkout documentation names external checkout on your own domain as the recommended, generally available approach. Checkout with the ChatGPT payment sheet is limited to select marketplaces.

What about getting paid by OpenAI? When the GPT Store launched in January 2024, OpenAI announced a builder revenue program under which US builders would be paid based on user engagement. None of OpenAI's current plugin documentation describes a payout or revenue-share program for plugin builders. Plan as if there is none.

Going public: the submission bar

Publishing a GPT to the Store took a few clicks. Getting a plugin into the public directory is closer to an app-store review. According to the submission guide and the plugin guidelines:

• Submissions must come from verified individuals or organizations.
• You need a published privacy policy covering, at minimum, the categories of personal data you collect and what you use them for, along with customer support contact details.
• The review package includes five positive test cases, three negative test cases, a video walkthrough and release notes. You upload the plugin as a ZIP on the OpenAI Platform, resolve the automated findings and submit it for review. Once it is approved, you decide when to publish.
• Trial or demo plugins are not accepted, plugins must suit general audiences including users aged 13–17, and OpenAI won't approve plugins that mainly act as unofficial connectors to someone else's service.
• After launch, OpenAI scans your hosted MCP server daily, and plugins later found in violation of the rules may be removed.

Naming matters too. The guidelines say not to append "MCP," "MCP Server" or "Plugin" to a product name, and OpenAI's brand guidelines do not permit the GPT brand in app, product, developer or company names. A product called "Something-GPT" needs a new name before it goes public.

Where the income still comes from

Here is how each of the familiar GPT business models fares after the change:

1. Client builds as private workspace plugins

This is the model that carries over most cleanly. Plugins in ChatGPT are not only public: OpenAI's packaging guide explains that workspace-published plugins stay inside the workspace and organization boundary, and only a workspace admin can publish a plugin to the workspace. Business and Enterprise users can share plugins with other members, and admins can upload a plugin ZIP or import a plugin marketplace from GitHub with daily sync.

For a consultant, that means the support assistant, proposal writer or onboarding guide you would once have built as a GPT can now be delivered as a private plugin for one company. The client pays you through an ordinary services contract for the build and its upkeep, which is outside the plugin itself. Part of the job is the setup: in Enterprise workspaces, the permissions to upload plugins and to create plugins with MCP servers are off by default, so the client's admin has to switch them on.

2. Migration and rebuild work

Every team that relied on custom GPTs now faces a deadline of December 11, 2026, or February 11, 2027 with an approved deferral. The easy part, moving instructions and knowledge files, is a button. The hard part is what the button leaves behind: custom actions, which OpenAI says may need a custom MCP server to rebuild, and testing to confirm that the plugin still behaves like the GPT people relied on. That is billable, time-bound work for anyone who can do it carefully.

3. A plugin that serves a business you already own

If you already sell software, a paid service or physical products, a plugin can be a useful front door. Existing customers can sign in and use what they have already paid for, and physical goods can be sold through external checkout on your own domain. What the plugin can't do is find and charge new customers for digital products. That still happens on your own site, so the plugin works as a service for your customers rather than as a shop.

4. Products you sell on your own site

Prompt packs, courses, templates and guides you sell on your own site are your products, sold under your own terms. The plugin guidelines don't govern them. The playbooks in Sell AI Prompt Packs and How to Productize a Prompt Into a Paid Tool still apply. The only change is that "comes with a custom GPT" stops being a selling point after retirement.

What to do this month if you run GPTs

1. List every GPT you own and mark the ones that use custom actions, because those need rebuilding rather than a one-click migration.
2. Keep your own copy of each GPT's instructions and knowledge files outside ChatGPT.
3. Publish the version you want migrated. Drafts don't transfer, and publishing doesn't have to mean sharing publicly.
4. Tell your users the date. Their past conversations stay accessible, but the GPT won't be.
5. Settle what you promised. If you sold access to a GPT or included one as a bonus, decide now how you will replace it or compensate buyers, before it stops working.
6. Decide each GPT's fate: migrate it to a private plugin, rebuild it for public submission, or let it retire.
7. Rename before going public. Drop "GPT" from product names if you plan to submit a public plugin.
8. Re-check the retirement FAQ before each step, since OpenAI says the planned dates may change.

The honest part

• The GPT Store never became a main income source for most builders, and now it has an end date.
• Plugins look more like software than GPTs did. Review, verification, a privacy policy and test cases raise the bar and thin out casual competition, but none of that creates a payout.
• The durable asset was never the GPT itself. What lasts is the expertise in the instructions and knowledge files, your client relationships and your audience. All three survive the migration.
• The rules say "currently" for a reason. The commerce restrictions and the timeline can change in either direction, so build on parts that don't depend on them.

The bottom line

Selling custom GPTs as a product is ending: personal accounts can't make new ones, and all of them retire on December 11, 2026, except in Enterprise workspaces with a deferral to February 11, 2027. The replacement, plugins, can't sell digital products or subscriptions and comes with no documented builder payout. What still earns is the work around these tools. That means building and maintaining private plugins for companies, rebuilding what migration leaves behind, and using a plugin to serve customers of a business you already run. If your GPT income depended on a listing, move the paid part to a site you control now, while your users can still reach you through the GPT.

👉 Next: turn the expertise inside your GPT into a product you own with How to Productize a Prompt Into a Paid Tool, or sell it directly with Sell AI Prompt Packs.

Sources and further reading

• Custom GPT retirement and migration FAQ: the retirement dates, the Enterprise milestones, what migration transfers and what it leaves behind. Read this one first. (OpenAI Help Center)
• ChatGPT release notes: the September 11, 2026 announcement of the planned retirement and the July 9, 2026 switch from the App Directory to the Plugin Directory. (OpenAI Help Center)
• Creating and editing GPTs: the retirement notice, plus confirmation that Free, Go, Plus and Pro accounts can no longer create or publish new GPTs. (OpenAI Help Center)
• Plugins in ChatGPT: what a plugin can include, how the directory works, and how workspaces share and publish plugins. (OpenAI Help Center)
• Plugin guidelines: the commerce rules (physical goods only, no digital sales or subscriptions, no ads) and the privacy, verification and quality requirements. (OpenAI Developers)
• Upload and submit your plugin: the review process, including the test cases and video walkthrough a public plugin needs. (OpenAI Developers)
• Checkout API reference: why external checkout is the generally available way to sell physical goods from a plugin. (OpenAI Developers)
• Introducing the GPT Store: the January 2024 launch post and its promised builder revenue program, useful as background for why so many people built GPTs in the first place. (OpenAI)