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Lesson 13 of 17 · Custom GPTs, Plugins and Skills

Monetizing Your Expertise After GPTs

Lesson 13 of 17 Updated November 5, 2026 Intermediate
On this page
  1. Turning the Page
  2. Taking Stock of Your GPTs
  3. Three Outlets for Your Expertise
  4. What Hasn’t Changed
  5. Your Turn
  6. Key Takeaways

Turning the Page

Since its launch, publishing a GPT to the GPT Store has been a primary way for many creators to showcase and monetize their expertise. That path is now closing: OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on December 11, 2026. Personal accounts can no longer publish new GPTs, and on the retirement date, existing GPTs and their pages will become inaccessible. Consequently, a revenue strategy based on the audience of a public GPT has no future. This lesson helps you decide what to do with what you’ve built and identifies the paths that remain open.

Taking Stock of Your GPTs

Start by listing the GPTs you have created. For each one, ask three questions. Who actually uses it: just you, your team, clients, or the general public? What would be lost if it disappeared: internal time savings, a client service, or a showcase? What does it contain: instructions and files that are easy to migrate, or actions connecting to APIs that will need to be rebuilt? Note that your conversations with a GPT will remain accessible after its retirement; only the tool itself is disappearing.

Three Outlets for Your Expertise Three tiles. Internal plugin: migrate or recreate the GPT, share within the workspace. Services: sell expertise, plugins for clients, migration, training. Public plugin: submit to the directory with external payment, currently approved for physical goods. AFTER GPTS Three Outlets for Your Expertise 1 Internal Plugin Migrate or recreate, share within the workspace. Migrate to plugin Plugin Creator 2 Services Plugins for clients, migration, training. Consulting Training 3 Public Plugin Submitted to directory, reviewed by OpenAI. External Payment Physical Goods First step: take stock of your GPTs, their audience, value, and content.
Based on the OpenAI Help Center and developer documentation on plugin monetization (November 2026).

Three Outlets for Your Expertise

The first is internal use. A GPT that saves your team time can be migrated to a plugin using the Migrate to plugin option in My GPTs (where available) or rebuilt using Plugin Creator. The plugin starts as private; you can then share it with specific individuals via a link or, within a workspace, through the workspace directory. Here, value is measured in hours saved, not direct revenue.

The second is consulting services. For consultants or trainers, a GPT often served as a demonstration or a deliverable. That same expertise can now be sold as plugins or skills designed for a client’s workspace, as assistance with migrating their own GPTs, or as training services. This is often the most profitable path because it bills for expertise rather than audience size.

The third is public plugins. To reach all ChatGPT users, a plugin can be submitted to the public directory: a ZIP package, automated checks, review by OpenAI, verified developer identity, and publication at your chosen time. Regarding revenue, OpenAI’s documentation is clear on the current state: each developer chooses their model; the recommended and available path is external payment via your own website, and approval is currently limited to plugins selling physical goods. Integrated payments using ChatGPT’s checkout are reserved for specific marketplaces and are currently in beta.

What Hasn’t Changed

Regardless of the path you choose, the rules that made a good GPT apply to plugins: solve a specific, recurring problem, structure a process, rely on high-quality sources, and plan for fallback behavior. Caution is also key: do not promise revenue based on a platform whose rules evolve rapidly, and always verify conditions in the latest documentation.

Your Turn

Your transition plan. Take stock of your GPTs, or if you don’t have any, identify two GPTs you use. For each, note its audience, value, and content, then choose an outlet: migrate to an internal plugin, transform into a service offering, aim for the public directory, or let it go. Set a deadline before December 11, 2026, for each migration, allowing time to test the resulting plugin.

Official sources: Custom GPT retirement and migration FAQ (OpenAI Help Center: dates, migration, conversation retention, inaccessible pages) · Sharing and publishing GPTs (no more publishing on personal accounts) · Plugins in ChatGPT (Plugin Creator, sharing) · Monetization and Submission (OpenAI developer documentation: external payment, public directory)

Key Takeaways

  • GPTs and their pages disappear on December 11, 2026: strategies based on public GPT audiences are ending
  • Take stock: identify who uses each GPT, what value it provides, and what it contains
  • Three outlets: internal plugins, client services, and public directory submissions
  • For public plugins, external payment is the recommended path, currently approved for physical goods
  • Migrate and test before the retirement date; your conversations with GPTs remain accessible
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