Custom GPTs disappear on 11 December. What creators should do now.

On 11 September 2026 OpenAI announced it will retire custom GPTs across all ChatGPT plans. The standard date is 11 December 2026; qualifying Enterprise customers can defer to 11 February 2027. GPTs are replaced by "plugins" — a combination of skills, apps or MCP connections and templates — in a shared directory for ChatGPT and Codex that has existed since 9 July 2026.

What this means for creators

If you built a GPT, you lose not only the work but also its visibility in the GPT Store. A creator payment model never existed at scale: the revenue programme announced in 2024 remained a small US pilot.

There is also a pattern worth taking seriously. Names and formats changed in quick succession: plugins (2023), GPTs (2024), connectors and "apps" (December 2025), plugins again (July 2026) and now the end of GPTs. Each change costs creators work and reach.

Three steps before December

1. Back up. Export your GPT's instructions, knowledge files and examples. They are the real value — the format is replaceable.
2. Port. A GPT most easily becomes a skill (instructions plus files) or a prompt pack. Both run not only in ChatGPT but also in Claude, Cursor and other tools.
3. Become independent. Give your work a home that does not depend on the next platform change: your own page, your own list of interested people and a marketplace that lists your work vendor-neutrally.

How HALO helps

On HALO you can list skills, prompts and agents for free, connect them to your identity and — if you want — sell them. Fees only apply when you earn: 4% via your own link, 7% when HALO brings you the buyers. Every work gets a public verification report so buyers know what they get.

A good work should survive a platform change.

Research desk assessment: The shutdown is not a one-off; it reflects how the large providers rebuild their ecosystems month by month. Creators who bet on open formats and their own channels now will not be hit again by the next change.