🇺🇸 USA · OpenAI GPTs (custom mini-assistants)
Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Last updated: 2026-06-26 Plain-English tagline: Custom mini-versions of ChatGPT — pre-configured for a specific task or persona. Build your own in 5 minutes; browse the GPT Store for thousands made by others.
Front-matter facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Vendor | OpenAI (San Francisco, USA) |
| Country / origin | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Recommended for Australian users? | ✅ Yes — via any ChatGPT subscription |
| Privacy summary | GPTs you create inherit your ChatGPT tier’s privacy posture; Public GPTs are publicly accessible; data shared with creators can be configured |
| Free tier | Yes — use existing GPTs free; create GPTs requires Plus or above |
| Paid tiers | Plus US200/mo (heavier use) · Team / Enterprise (with admin controls) |
| First released | November 2023 (DevDay 2023) |
| Last reviewed | 2026-06-26 |
| Official site | https://chatgpt.com (GPTs accessed via Explore GPTs / sidebar) |
What it is
GPTs are custom configured versions of ChatGPT. You give a GPT:
- A name + description
- A system prompt (“You are a helpful tax adviser for AUS small businesses…”)
- Optional knowledge files (PDFs / docs the GPT can reference)
- Optional Actions (the GPT can call external APIs you connect)
- Optional capability toggles (web search, image generation, file analysis, etc.)
Then you (and optionally others) can chat with this GPT instead of starting from generic ChatGPT — and the GPT brings its pre-configured behaviour every time.
Examples of useful GPTs:
- Writing helper for a specific publication’s style
- Code reviewer for a specific framework / company conventions
- Tax / legal assistant pre-loaded with relevant context
- Cooking helper with dietary restrictions baked in
- Bible study GPT with translations / commentaries pre-loaded (relevant to your Bible Quest!)
- Customer-support chatbot for a small business
- D&D Dungeon Master
- Travel planner with personal preferences
GPTs are accessed via:
- Direct link the creator shares
- GPT Store — OpenAI’s marketplace of public GPTs (chatgpt.com/gpts)
- Sidebar in ChatGPT — your favourited / recent GPTs
- By @-mention in any chat — “@MyTaxGPT how do I claim this deduction?”
The GPT Store includes both free GPTs and (in some regions) revenue-sharing for top creators.
What you’d use it for
- Repeated workflows where you find yourself pasting the same system prompt every time
- Sharing AI workflows with others — friends, team, customers
- Specialised tools for hobbies / professions
- Quick automation — “@MyEmailGPT draft a polite decline to this meeting”
- Personal context — a GPT that remembers your dietary preferences / location / writing style
- Side-business chatbots — embeddable in some integrations
- Education — teachers create GPTs for student use
How to use + create from Australia
To use existing GPTs (free)
- ChatGPT sidebar → Explore GPTs
- Browse the GPT Store; pick one
- Click to start a conversation with that GPT
- Or @-mention it in any normal chat
To create your own (Plus / above)
- ChatGPT sidebar → My GPTs → Create
- Talk to the GPT Builder (“Create a GPT that…”); it interviews you
- Or manually configure: name, instructions, knowledge files, capabilities, Actions
- Test in the right panel
- Publish: private (only you) / link-only (anyone with URL) / public (in GPT Store) / shared with workspace (Team / Enterprise)
What it costs
Free
- Use existing GPTs — free with ChatGPT free account
- Cannot create GPTs
ChatGPT Plus US$20/mo
- Use GPTs
- Create unlimited GPTs
- Higher quotas
ChatGPT Pro US$200/mo
- Heavier usage on premium GPTs (those using o-series reasoning models, deep research, etc.)
Team / Enterprise
- Workspace-shared GPTs
- No-training defaults
- Admin controls — can restrict which external GPTs employees can use
How it compares to alternatives
| Capability | OpenAI GPTs | Google Gemini Gems | Claude Skills + Projects | Cursor Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace / discoverability | GPT Store (most mature) | Gems gallery | No central marketplace yet | No |
| External API calls (Actions) | Yes | Limited | Via MCP | No |
| Knowledge files | Yes | Yes | Projects (per-project) | No |
| Shareable URLs | Yes (mature) | Yes | Limited | No |
| Built into chat surface | Best (ChatGPT) | Yes (Gemini) | Claude.ai integration | N/A |
| Cost to create | ChatGPT Plus | Gemini AI Pro | Claude Pro | Cursor Pro |
| Best for | General-purpose shared GPTs | Google-ecosystem users | Engineering-specific repeatable workflows | IDE-specific rules |
For consumer-shareable custom assistants, GPTs is the most mature option. For developer-workflow customisation, Claude Skills is more code-shaped.
Privacy / data handling
- GPT creator can see chats with their GPT ONLY if user explicitly opts in via “Allow conversations with this GPT to be used for improvement”; otherwise creator does NOT see conversations
- Public GPTs: chats follow your standard ChatGPT privacy settings
- Don’t paste sensitive personal data into untrusted public GPTs — assume third parties may have configured the GPT in ways that could leak
- Team / Enterprise GPTs: tenant-isolated; admin controls available
- GPT Actions (external API calls) require the user to authorise the connection; verify what’s being called
Recent changes
- 2026: Revenue-sharing for top GPT creators expanded
- 2025: GPT Store search improved; safety vetting strengthened
- 2024: GPT Store officially launched
- November 2023: GPTs announced and launched at OpenAI DevDay
Gotchas
- The GPT Store has many low-quality / lookalike GPTs — many results are clones of more popular GPTs. Use the verified-badge filter; prefer GPTs with high usage counts and clear creator names.
- Custom GPT instructions are visible to the user in some contexts — never paste secrets / API keys directly in GPT instructions
- Actions (external API calls) require trust — the GPT can call any endpoint the creator configured; review what it’s accessing
- ”@-mention” GPTs in chat — convenient feature; saves switching to the GPT
- Older GPTs may use older underlying models — GPT-4o-based GPTs vs GPT-5-based GPTs may behave differently
- Some GPT capabilities (code interpreter, image generation, web search) consume from your ChatGPT plan quotas — not separately metered
- For business / regulated use, use Team / Enterprise workspace GPTs not public ones
- Sharing a GPT publicly makes its instructions essentially public — clever users can prompt-extract the system instructions; don’t put proprietary logic in there
See also
- ChatGPT 🟩 🟦
- Gemini Gems 🟥 — Google’s equivalent
- Claude Skills 🟩 🟦
- Claude.ai consumer (Projects feature) 🟩 🟦
- Memory features) 🟩 🟦
- OpenAI Image (gpt-image-1) 🟩 🟦
- ChatGPT Agent 🟥
- OpenAI API 🟥
- GPT models lineup 🟥
- Decision frameworks — Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini 🟥