OpenAI Plans Custom GPTs Retirement for December 11, 2026

Retirement with a migration path

OpenAI's ChatGPT release notes for September 11, 2026 announced a plan to retire custom GPTs across ChatGPT plans and provide a migration path to plugins, which combine reusable instructions with connected apps. Existing GPTs keep working until the retirement date that applies to each account. GPTs had been introduced in November 2023. [1]

OpenAI's migration FAQ schedules the retirement for December 11, 2026, when GPTs stop running and leave the GPT directory. Migration turns a GPT's instructions into a skill, copies its knowledge files into reference files and adds its connected apps. The selected model, custom actions, existing conversations and sharing settings do not carry over, and a migrated GPT becomes read-only. [2]

Personal accounts, including Free, Go, Plus and Pro, can no longer create or publish new GPTs. For Enterprise workspaces OpenAI lists an admin notice on September 11, a target of September 22 for the migration experience and a planned end to creating new GPTs on October 26, all subject to change, and says other plans are expected to follow the same timeline. [2][4]

A schedule already in motion

PCWorld, writing on September 18, reported a September 25 cutoff for Enterprise workspaces to create new custom GPTs. By September 22, OpenAI's FAQ gave October 26 for that cutoff and September 22 for the migration experience, while its GPTs help page still targeted September 17 for migration. [3][2][4]

Atlas interpretation: Only the December 11 retirement date has held across OpenAI's notices and outside coverage. The hardest part for creators is custom actions, which do not transfer and which OpenAI says may need a custom MCP server to rebuild. Because retired GPTs leave the directory, the public catalog of third-party GPTs goes with them. [2][3]