Custom GPT Retirement: Dates, Plans and What Migrates

Last verified against OpenAI's documentation: October 8, 2026. OpenAI says the dates are subject to change, and this page will be updated when they move.

The first custom GPT I ever built was for podcast prep. I'd been spending about two hours per show researching guests, writing questions and putting together pre-show docs, and I dreaded it every week. Once that GPT was configured and refined, the same prep took about 20 minutes. I've written a fair number of posts on this site teaching people to build GPTs of their own.

So when OpenAI announced it was retiring custom GPTs, I paid attention, and I suspect a lot of agencies that took my advice did too. This page is the record, kept as plain as I can make it: what OpenAI has announced, which plans it covers, and what moves over when you migrate.

The short version

OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs across every ChatGPT plan. The standard retirement date is December 11, 2026, when GPTs and their pages stop being accessible. The replacement is plugins: a migration tool turns a GPT's instructions into a skill inside a plugin, copies its knowledge files across, and carries its connected apps. Custom actions, the model setting, your conversation history and your sharing settings don't come with it.

The dates

OpenAI's retirement and migration FAQ publishes this timeline. The milestones before December are Enterprise targets.

September 11, 2026: admin notice to Enterprise workspaces.
September 22, 2026: target for the migration experience and a user banner.
October 1, 2026: target for rolling out a delayed-migration banner.
October 26, 2026: creation of new custom GPTs ends.
December 11, 2026: standard retirement.
February 11, 2027: retirement for Enterprise workspaces with an approved deferral, and only those.

The September and October 1 targets have passed. If you don't see Migrate to plugin yet, it hasn't reached your account. OpenAI's general GPTs in ChatGPT page, updated earlier than the FAQ, still gives September 17 as the migration target. The FAQ is the newer document, so I've used its dates.

Which plans are affected

All of them. The FAQ says plainly that "the transition affects all ChatGPT plans," and adds that migration and plugin access may differ by account or workspace.

If you're on a personal account (Free, Go, Plus or Pro), one part of this has already happened. New GPT creation and publishing aren't available on personal accounts. The GPTs you already have still work, and editing one still requires an eligible subscription. The FAQ doesn't publish a separate schedule for personal or Business plans, and OpenAI's older GPT help pages still describe December 11 as the Enterprise date, with other plans expected to follow. Treat December 11 as the working date, and go by the notice on your own account if it says something different.

On Business and Edu, creating, editing and publishing GPTs depends on your workspace settings and permissions.

There's one detail that matters more to agencies than the headline date. Public GPTs created in an affected Enterprise workspace follow the Enterprise transition "even if you access them from a personal account or another workspace." If your team leans on a public GPT that a carrier, an FMO or a vendor built in its own Enterprise workspace, it runs on their timeline, and you can't migrate it yourself.

What carries over when you migrate

Where your account has it, migration is available to a GPT's creator or a workspace admin. From My GPTs, you choose Migrate to plugin. The GPT has to be published, and the tool uses its latest published version.

What moves:

The GPT's instructions become a skill inside the new plugin.
Its knowledge files are copied into the plugin's reference files.
Any connected apps are added to the plugin as apps.

What doesn't:

Custom actions. Anything your GPT did through an API connection has to be rebuilt.
The selected model.
Existing conversations with the GPT.
Sharing settings.
Unpublished drafts. Only the published version migrates.

After migration, the original GPT stays usable until retirement but becomes read-only, and its creator can't delete it. The new plugin starts out private.

What changed since April

In April, when OpenAI introduced workspace agents, it said GPTs "will remain available while teams test workspace agents." If you took that to mean your GPTs were safe, the September documentation replaced it. Retirement now applies to every plan.

One thing I couldn't find anywhere in OpenAI's documentation is what happens to GPT Store earnings or the builder revenue program. I'm leaving that off the record until OpenAI says something.

What to do this month

Make a list of every GPT your agency depends on, and split it into two columns: the ones somebody on your team built, and the ones you use but didn't build. The first column you can migrate yourselves, as long as the person who built each one still has access to the account it lives in. The second column is out of your hands, so find out now whether the carrier or vendor behind each one has a plan.

For the GPTs you own, look at what won't transfer. A GPT that only has instructions and a few reference files will come through largely intact. One that calls an outside system through a custom action will lose that connection, and somebody needs to decide whether it's worth rebuilding.

If you'd like a sense of where your agency stands with AI before you start rebuilding assistants, the AI Adoption Reality Check takes about five minutes. I read every one and write back within two days.

Frequently asked questions

Will my custom GPTs stop working before December 11? Existing GPTs keep working until retirement. What's already gone on personal plans is the ability to create and publish new ones, and OpenAI plans to end new GPT creation in Enterprise workspaces on October 26.

Can I migrate a GPT someone else built? Only its creator or a workspace admin can. If the person who built a GPT your team relies on has left, talk to your workspace admin now, or plan to rebuild it before December 11.

Does migrating delete the original GPT? No. It becomes read-only and stays usable until retirement, and the creator can't delete it afterward.

What happens to my conversation history with a GPT? It doesn't move into the plugin, but OpenAI's FAQ says existing conversations with custom GPTs remain accessible after retirement, and you don't need to do anything to preserve them.