Custom GPTs Are Retiring December 11: Your Migration Options
OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on 11 December 2026. Timeline, what plugins actually replace, and where each kind of GPT should go instead.
The timeline, confirmed
From OpenAI's own retirement FAQ and migration guide:
- 11 September 2026: admin notice goes out to affected workspaces.
- 25 September 2026: creating new custom GPTs ends for those workspaces. Already passed.
- 11 December 2026: scheduled retirement. Custom GPTs stop running entirely.
The published dates currently describe the Enterprise transition, and OpenAI says other plans "may follow the same transition timeline." If you built or rely on GPTs on a personal plan, assume the same window and migrate before December rather than betting on an extension.
How big this actually is
OpenAI reported more than 3 million custom GPTs created within two months of the feature launching, and the GPT Store they launched onto in 2024 became the default way people shared them. In December, all of it goes: the personal helpers nobody ever shared, the workspace GPTs teams run their processes on, and the public store GPTs other people built and you rely on. Nobody's GPT is being individually deleted. The feature itself is being turned off.
Who this hits hardest
- The casual builder. Made a "meal planner" or "resume reviewer" GPT in 2024 and forgot about it. It will quietly stop working; the fix is a five-minute rebuild as a Persona or a saved prompt.
- The power user. Runs daily workflows through GPTs with uploaded files and actions. The highest-stakes migration, and the one most worth doing early rather than in the second week of December.
- The GPT publisher. Put a GPT on the store for others. There is no store to move it to; the audience and distribution simply end. Your options are rebuilding the workflow for your own use or finding a new home for the idea.
What disappears on 11 December
Worth being precise, because "retirement" covers more than the instructions:
- The GPTs themselves stop running: every configuration, instruction set and conversation starter.
- Your past conversations with them are not migrated anywhere.
- GPT Store listings and shareable links die with them.
- GPTs built by other people that you use vanish too, even though you never touched the Configure tab.
What OpenAI wants you to use instead
The replacement is plugins: reusable instructions bundled with connected apps and optional MCP tools, spanning ChatGPT and Codex. An official migration tool converts published GPTs to plugins for Enterprise workspaces, with admin controls for sharing and publishing to a workspace directory.
Three catches worth knowing before you rely on it:
- It is aimed at workspaces, not people. Migration tooling, directory publishing and sharing permissions are admin features. Individual users on personal plans may not get the same path.
- Plugins are a developer primitive. The architecture combines instructions with connected apps and MCP servers. Powerful, but closer to building a small integration than filling in a GPT's instruction box. OpenAI's own docs suggest Codex to help build them.
- Not everything transfers. Sharing settings, existing conversations and Custom Actions do not migrate automatically. Anything nonstandard in your GPT needs to be rebuilt and retested.
Where each kind of GPT should go
Most custom GPTs fall into one of three buckets. The right destination depends on which yours is:
| Your GPT does | Best destination | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Custom instructions + a consistent personality or role (writing coaches, tutors, code reviewers, personas) | Krater Personas | Same concept, saved instructions that start every chat, but runnable on 500+ models instead of OpenAI only, with image, video and voice in the same chat. Recreate in about 5 minutes. |
| Instructions + uploaded reference files | Krater Personas with Keep files, or Claude Projects | Attach your reference docs so the assistant reads them in every conversation. |
| Instructions + connected actions (reads/writes to Notion, Gmail, Slack, APIs) | Krater Personas with connected apps, or ChatGPT plugins | Krater connects Notion, Gmail, Google Docs, Slack and more via one OAuth step, no code. Plugins are the developer-grade option for custom APIs. |
| A GPT other people use that you did not create | Ask the creator, then pick any of the above | Only the creator (or a workspace admin) can migrate a published GPT. If it never gets migrated, rebuild the workflow yourself: most popular GPTs are a paragraph of instructions. |
Your migration checklist
Whatever destination you choose, do this before 11 December:
- Export your instructions now. Open each GPT's configuration and copy the instruction text, name, and conversation starters somewhere safe. Once a GPT is migrated it becomes read-only; once retired it is gone.
- List the GPTs you actually use. Most people have 3-5 that matter and a dozen experiments. Migrate the ones that matter.
- Note connected apps and files. Write down which GPTs use uploads or actions so nothing is silently dropped.
- Rebuild and test in the replacement. Run your five most common prompts side by side before the cutoff.
If your GPT was "a role with instructions"
This is the most common kind: a copy editor, a Spanish tutor, a D&D dungeon master, a stern code reviewer. On Krater this is a Persona: a chat that starts from your saved instructions, mentionable with @ in any conversation, schedulable for recurring work, and runnable on whatever model is best for each message (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, or 500+ others). Your GPT is not locked to one lab's good days anymore.
The differences that matter: a Persona can generate images, video and music inside the same chat where a GPT stopped at text and DALL-E pictures; it can read your Keep files and connected apps (Notion, Gmail, Slack, Docs) rather than uploads frozen at creation time; and it costs nothing extra, since Personas are part of every Krater plan.
FAQ
When do custom GPTs actually stop working? 11 December 2026 for affected Enterprise workspaces; OpenAI says other plans may follow the same timeline. Treat it as the real date.
Can I still create a custom GPT? No for affected workspaces; creation ended 25 September 2026. If your account still shows the option, assume it is temporary.
Will my GPT transfer to a plugin automatically? No. Migration is a manual, admin-driven process for published GPTs in workspaces. Personal accounts and third-party GPTs you merely use may never be migrated.
What happens to GPTs I use but did not create? They stop working on the retirement date unless the creator migrates them. Rebuild the workflow yourself: most are a short instruction set you can recreate as a Persona in minutes.
Do I keep my old conversations? Existing chats are not migrated. Save anything you need from them now.
My GPT is already gone. What now? Read why your custom GPT disappeared for the state-by-state recovery path.
Is there a like-for-like alternative that is not plugins? For instruction-based GPTs, Krater Personas are the direct equivalent: saved custom instructions plus a persistent assistant, on any model, with connected apps and file knowledge. See how Personas work or read our 5-minute rebuild guide.
Dates and details from OpenAI's retirement FAQ and migration guide, checked 1 October 2026. Plan-specific timing may vary. Watch for in-product notices on your own account.