OpenAI’s GPTs are custom versions of ChatGPT designed for specific purposes. The company said people would be able to create them without coding, then share them through a GPT Store where users could discover and use other builders’ work.
The announcement points toward a marketplace built around specialized AI assistants. It also raises practical questions about how creators will be paid, how outside services may handle user data, and how the store could fit alongside existing software platforms.
Custom assistants built through conversation
A GPT can be tailored to a particular collection of information or task. OpenAI’s examples included a bot that answers questions about a recipe collection, one that helps readers navigate a sprawling fantasy series, and a tool that checks code against a company’s style.
Creating one was presented as a conversational process. A user could explain the intended purpose to ChatGPT, provide material such as a lecture, and specify how the assistant should respond. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman demonstrated a draft GPT intended to advise startup founders, asking it to be concise and constructive.
This approach could make customization available to people who do not write code. Instead of building software through a programming interface, a creator describes the desired behavior and supplies relevant information. The complexity can vary with the task, but the basic idea is to shape a general assistant around a narrower use.
OpenAI also said builders could connect outside services. One example was sending an unsupported language to a translation API. Users would be able to choose whether their data could be handled through such a service, making data choices part of how these GPTs work.
A store for discovering GPTs
The GPT Store was announced as a place to distribute these custom assistants. OpenAI said it planned to launch the store later that month with creations from verified builders. GPTs would be searchable, could rise on leaderboards, and might be featured in areas such as productivity, education, and “just for fun”.
That structure gives the marketplace a role beyond hosting. Search, rankings, and featured categories could influence which GPTs users encounter and how often a creator’s work is used. OpenAI described the store as a channel for both distributing and promoting custom assistants.
The announcement included examples built by Code.org, TripAdvisor and Canva. It was not clear who would qualify as a verified builder, or whether the early store would emphasize official offerings over individual experiments. Verification was described as a way to keep low-effort or scammy submissions from appearing.
Creator payments remain unsettled
OpenAI said creators of the most-used and most-useful GPTs would receive a portion of its revenue. Altman said the company expected to share more information later. The announcement did not specify the size of that share or exactly how payments would be calculated.
It was also unclear whether builders would be able to set a direct price for a GPT. Altman said the approach might develop over time: the initial plan was a straight revenue share, with the possibility of subscriptions to individual GPTs later if there was demand.
Those open questions matter to anyone considering building for the store. A creator could make an assistant for a personal project or a business use, but the announcement left the financial model in development. For now, the store’s proposed value to builders rests on discoverability and a potential share of revenue rather than a defined price-setting system.
Platform ambitions and unanswered questions
By bringing creation, distribution, promotion, and possible payments together, OpenAI is positioning itself as a platform for other people’s AI tools. The article compared that approach with the App Store model, while noting that an AI marketplace could intersect with companies that already control software distribution or offer their own assistants.
Apple could object to GPT monetization that bypasses its App Store, while Microsoft was preparing Copilot models for tasks such as working with Office tools. The article also described uncertainty about how OpenAI’s growing platform ambitions might affect its relationship with Microsoft, even as Satya Nadella appeared onstage to affirm enthusiasm for the partnership.
At launch, the GPT Store’s rules, payments, and selection process were still taking shape. The larger idea was clearer: people would be able to customize ChatGPT for focused jobs, and OpenAI hoped to create a place where those tools could find an audience. Whether that becomes a broad marketplace depends on details the company had yet to settle.