Custom GPTs retire December 11: what happens to your links

As of October 27, 2026, 03:26 JST (October 26, 18:26 UTC). The dates come from OpenAI's own help center, read in a browser at the times listed under Sources. OpenAI says its dates "are subject to change", so check the notice in your ChatGPT account too.

OpenAI's FAQ says "Custom GPTs are scheduled to retire on Dec 11, 2026", when "custom GPTs and their GPT pages become inaccessible". A shared GPT link opens that page, so it stops working that day. Only Enterprise workspaces with an approved deferral get until February 11, 2027.

OpenAI's replacement is a plugin, which starts private and still needs a ChatGPT account to use. If your GPT is a quiz, a calculator, or a class activity that people without ChatGPT should keep using, have ChatGPT rewrite it as one HTML file and publish that as a web page. Anyone can open the link, no account needed.

Below: the dates for each plan, what stops on December 11, what moves to a plugin and what doesn't, the ways to keep a tool public compared, the steps, and answers to the questions people ask.

Retirement dates by plan

The FAQ says "The transition affects all ChatGPT plans", and that "Restrictions on creating or publishing GPTs are separate from retirement of existing GPTs." The FAQ says the place a GPT was created decides its timeline: "What matters is where the GPT was created, not only your own plan." A public GPT made in an affected Enterprise workspace is part of the Enterprise transition, even for people who open it from a personal account.

Two OpenAI pages disagree on one Enterprise date. The FAQ puts the migration target at September 22, 2026. The banner on the GPTs page says September 17. This page uses the FAQ, which is the longer and more specific of the two.

What stops on December 11

• The GPT itself. In OpenAI's words, "custom GPTs and their GPT pages become inaccessible."
• Links you shared. A shared GPT link opens the GPT's page, so anyone who follows it after retirement can't reach the GPT. The FAQ doesn't describe what that page shows instead.
• The GPT Store listing. The FAQ doesn't name the GPT Store. A GPT published there has a GPT page like any other, so expect the listing to go with it. OpenAI's plugin directory has public plugins, but the FAQ says making a migrated plugin public "requires a separate plugin submission process."

What stays: "Your existing conversations with custom GPTs will remain accessible after retirement. You don't need to take any action to preserve them."

Until then, nothing has changed for the people using your GPT. OpenAI's answer to "Is my GPT already gone?" is "No. … Existing GPTs remain usable until the retirement date."

What moves to a plugin, and what doesn't

When migration is available for your account, go to My GPTs and select Migrate to plugin. The FAQ lists what carries over:

After you migrate, the original GPT stays usable until retirement but becomes read-only, and you can't delete it. Make essential edits first.

The people using your GPT get nothing automatically. The FAQ says "Access to the original GPT does not automatically give you access to a replacement plugin", and to use one they need "access to the replacement plugin and an account where plugins are available."

Ways to keep a GPT's tool public

A GPT already needs a ChatGPT account. OpenAI's GPTs page says "users must be signed in to start a conversation", and a public GPT page prompts visitors "to sign in before chatting." If some of your users never had an account, such as students, customers, or people you sent a link on social media, a plugin won't reach them either.

Which to pick depends on the GPT. If its value is the conversation, migrate it to a plugin. If its value is a fixed set of questions and answers, a web page keeps it open to everyone, including people who will never sign up for ChatGPT.

Convika is one place to publish that page. A page on Convika runs its own scripts, but it can't send a question to ChatGPT or another AI and show the answer. Everything the tool does has to live in the HTML file. On the Free plan the page is Public: search engines and Convika's gallery may list it, so leave out anything private. A small Convika bar shows at the bottom of a Free page. The Free plan keeps 1 published page live at a time, so if you made several GPTs, start with the one people use most.

Keep a public version of your GPT, step by step

1. Copy what your GPT knows

Open your GPT in the GPT editor and copy its instructions into a document. Note what its knowledge files contain: the question list, the scoring rules, the result texts. OpenAI's GPTs page says editing an existing GPT requires an eligible subscription, so if your plan no longer allows editing, use your own notes or the files you uploaded.

2. Ask ChatGPT for one HTML file

In a regular ChatGPT chat, paste the instructions and send something like this, changed to fit your tool:

Turn these GPT instructions into a single web page that works without ChatGPT. It's a quiz: 8 questions, one at a time, 3 or 4 answers each, and a result screen with the type's name, a 3-sentence description, and a "Try again" button. Each answer adds points to one type, and the type with the most points wins; on a tie, the type listed first wins. Put all CSS and JavaScript in one HTML file. Don't call any API or load files from other sites, and make it work on a phone held upright.

If the GPT answered open-ended questions, pick the questions people asked it most and have ChatGPT write those answers into the page, or turn the tool into a calculator or a checklist with fixed outputs. The guide to publishing an HTML page from ChatGPT covers getting the file out of the chat, and the personality quiz guide has a fuller prompt for a quiz with share links per result.

3. Check it in a preview

Drop the file, or paste the code, into Convika's free HTML publishing tool. It gives you a private preview link without an account, and that preview turns scripts off, so the first screen shows but the buttons don't work yet. To try the quiz itself, click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up. The page moves into your account, and the dashboard's preview runs its scripts. Open it on your phone and answer the questions until every result has come up once.

4. Publish it

Click Publish page, choose Public under "Who can open this page?", and click Next. The first time, click Publish free. The page goes live at once with the Convika bar at the bottom, at an address like yourpage.convika.page.

5. Put the new link where the old one was

Replace the GPT link in your posts, bio, slides, and class materials. While your GPT still works and your plan allows editing, add the new link to its description so people who open it before December 11 find the page. Convika's analytics then show how many people opened the page and where they came from, not who they are.

Publish my GPT's tool as a page

Frequently asked questions

When do custom GPTs stop working?

On December 11, 2026, for every plan, per OpenAI's FAQ. Enterprise workspaces with a "qualified, approved deferral" retire them on February 11, 2027. OpenAI says the dates are subject to change and to follow the notice in your account.

Will my shared GPT link still work after December 11?

No. OpenAI says "custom GPTs and their GPT pages become inaccessible" at retirement, and a shared link opens the GPT's page. Migrating to a plugin doesn't keep the link either: the plugin starts private, with none of the GPT's sharing settings.

Is the GPT Store shutting down?

OpenAI's retirement FAQ doesn't mention the GPT Store by name. It does say GPT pages become inaccessible on December 11, and a GPT listed in the Store is a GPT with a page, so expect its listing to go with it. Public plugins are listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory, which takes a separate submission.

Can I still create a custom GPT?

Not on a personal account. OpenAI's GPTs page says "New GPT creation and publishing are not available on personal ChatGPT accounts, including Free, Go, Plus, and Pro." In Business, Enterprise, and Edu workspaces it depends on workspace settings, and Enterprise's planned cutoff for new GPTs was October 26, 2026.

Do I lose my conversations with GPTs?

No. The FAQ says "Your existing conversations with custom GPTs will remain accessible after retirement," with no action needed.

What happens to custom actions?

They don't transfer to the plugin. The FAQ says rebuilding the connection "may require a custom MCP server and technical setup," and that "A rebuilt integration should not be assumed to provide every capability of the original action."

I only use someone else's GPT. What should I do?

Check the notice on the GPT and ask its creator whether a replacement is coming. You can't migrate a GPT you only use, and having access to the GPT doesn't give you access to its plugin.

Can my GPT run on my own website instead?

Not as a GPT. OpenAI's GPTs page says "GPTs are designed to work in ChatGPT" and points to the API for an assistant inside a product. A page that needs no AI at run time, like a quiz with fixed results, can be published as plain HTML.

Is anything else from OpenAI retiring on December 11?

Yes, in the API: several GPT-5 and o3 snapshots retire the same day. That's a separate change for developers, listed with the other dates in AI model retirements, November 2026 to February 2027.

Sources

Read in Chrome on October 27, 2026; times are JST. OpenAI's help center answers automated fetches with 403, so each page was read in a browser.

• OpenAI: Custom GPT retirement and migration FAQ, shown as "Updated: 5 days ago" (03:22)
• OpenAI: GPTs in ChatGPT, shown as "Updated: 6 days ago" (03:25)
• OpenAI: Plugins in ChatGPT, shown as "Updated: 4 days ago" (03:23)
• OpenAI: Creating and using ChatGPT Sites, shown as "Updated: 4 hours ago" (03:24)
• GoMimic: Custom GPTs are retiring, October 2026, its OpenAI facts checked October 1 (03:25; secondary, used only to cross-check the dates above)

Update log

• October 27, 2026: Published. Sources read 03:22 to 03:26 JST.