Hey friend!
This banner showed up at the top of my ChatGPT account.
If your team built a custom GPT for volunteer FAQs or guest follow-up, it has an expiration date.
OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs. The replacement is called a plugin. The move takes a few clicks, and a few important pieces get left behind if you rush it.
Today I'll walk you through the full migration, step by step, so your team keeps working after December 11.
Let's dive in.
Your custom GPTs stop working on December 11.
OpenAI's help center says custom GPTs are scheduled to retire on December 11, 2026. After that, they stop running and leave the GPT directory.
This affects every ChatGPT plan. OpenAI also says to follow the notice in your own account, since some accounts get a different timeline.
Personal accounts (Free, Go, Plus, and Pro) already can't create or publish new GPTs. The GPTs you have keep working until retirement.
A plugin works inside your regular ChatGPT chats.
A custom GPT was a separate place you opened from the sidebar.
A plugin attaches to your normal chat. It can hold skills, which are reusable instructions. It can also hold connected apps, which link to outside accounts and tools.
You call a plugin with an @mention, or you open the + menu and pick More. ChatGPT can also use an installed skill on its own when it helps with your request. Plugins work in Codex too.
If your team also uses Claude, here is the quick translation. A custom GPT is close to a Claude Project. A ChatGPT skill is close to a Claude Skill.
Your instructions, files, and connected apps move over automatically.
Here is what the migration carries across:
- Your GPT's instructions become a skill inside the new plugin.
- Your knowledge files get copied into the plugin's reference files.
- Your connected apps get added to the plugin as apps. Each one still needs its own sign-in.
One catch. Migration uses your latest published version. Any unpublished edits sitting in draft are lost.
Custom actions, your model choice, old chats, and sharing settings stay behind.
These 4 things do not transfer:
- Custom actions. If your GPT talked to an outside system through an action, that connection breaks until you rebuild it.
- Your selected model. If your GPT was set to a specific model, that setting is gone.
- Your conversations. Chat history stays with the old GPT.
- Your sharing settings. Nobody keeps access automatically.
OpenAI's FAQ says nothing about conversation starters. Save them yourself.
After you migrate, the original GPT turns read-only. You can still use it until December 11. You can't edit it, and you can't delete it.
OpenAI also warns that a migrated plugin "may respond differently." So you have to test it.
Your new plugin starts private, so your team loses access until you share it.
Migration doesn't install the plugin for anyone. Your staff and volunteers who used the GPT won't see it.
In a workspace, you choose from 3 sharing levels:
- Only those invited. Specific people or groups.
- Anyone in this workspace with the link.
- Visible in workspace directory. Anyone eligible in your workspace can find and install it.
The workspace directory stays inside your workspace. A public listing takes a separate submission to OpenAI, with identity verification and a review. Plan for that early if your GPT was public.
Do 4 things before you click Migrate to plugin.
The old GPT locks after migration, so prep first.
- Finish your edits and publish. Publishing doesn't make a GPT public. It makes your latest version the one that migrates.
- Save copies of everything. Paste the instructions into a doc your church owns. Download every knowledge file.
- Write down what won't transfer. List your conversation starters, the model you picked, and every custom action. Note what each action connects to and what it's allowed to do. Then list who has access today.
- Save 5 to 10 test prompts with the GPT's current answers. Include one hard one. You will use these to check the plugin.
Click Migrate to plugin, review the details, then test before your team touches it.
Here is the full sequence.
- Sign in to the account or workspace where you built the GPT. That account's timeline and permissions are the ones that count.
- Click Migrate to plugin on the banner. You can also open My GPTs and select Migrate to plugin on the GPT you want to move.
- Read the migration details screen. It shows what is coming over. Fix a missing file now, before you continue.
- Follow the prompts to create the plugin.
- Go to Plugins, then the Skills tab. Read the skill built from your instructions. Check that your rules, examples, and formatting survived.
- Open the reference files. Confirm every file you saved is there.
- Rebuild any custom actions. First, look for an existing app that does the same job. If none exists, you need a custom MCP server, and that takes technical help.
- @mention the plugin and run your saved test prompts. OpenAI recommends 4 checks. Does it pick the right skill and follow your instructions? Does it use the right reference files? Are answers complete and in the right format? Does it have the tools the workflow needs?
- Share the plugin at the right level. Then tell your team exactly where to find it.
Don't see the button? Usually migration hasn't reached your account yet, your admin has plugins turned off, or you are signed in to the wrong account. Only the GPT's creator or a workspace admin can migrate it.
Now here are 2 prompts your team can use this week. The first is a GPT-to-skill converter that rewrites your GPT's instructions into a clean skill you can compare against the one migration built. The second is a test plan builder that writes 7 test prompts and a scorecard so you can check the plugin before your team switches over.
Grab both copy-paste prompts here ⤵️ ⤵️
