OpenAI announced it’d let anyone create custom ChatGPT a couple of months ago, a feature no other generative AI software developers offer. These custom GPTs would be available in the GPT Store, which should have launched soon after the DevDay event in November. The debut of the marketplace was delayed to December and then January. A recent report claimed the store’s arrival was imminent, and OpenAI delivered it this week.
OpenAI on Wednesday announced the launch of the GPT Store, which is available online as of this writing. While it has been experiencing some hiccups since early Thursday morning, you can interact with custom GPTs if you have access. Unfortunately, the GPT Store isn’t open to all. You must be a paying ChatGPT customer via the Plus or Enterprise subscriptions, or the brand-new Teams tier.
What is ChatGPT Team?
OpenAI announced the new premium ChatGPT subscription service that targets businesses on Wednesday. Pricing starts at $25 per user per month. That’s $5 more expensive than the Plus tier that’s been around since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the world. Unlike the Plus subscription, the team will require an annual commitment.
For that extra $5 per month, you get higher message caps for GPT-4 and other OpenAI tools, custom GPTs for your workspace, an admin console for workspace management, and no training on your data.
Also, like Plus, ChatGPT Team gets you access to the GPT Store.
What’s in the GPT Store?
Head to this link, and you can inspect the GPT Store right now, even without an account. You can’t interact with any of the custom chatbots, however. You need to sign in for that. Once you do, you’ll need a Plus, Team, or Enterprise subscription to get access to the custom bots.
I’d have expected the GPT Store to open to all ChatGPT users, not just those on premium plans. That’s the best way to make the most of an app store and release it to as many users as possible. It’s not the case, unfortunately. However, I still expect the GPT Store to be available to free ChatGPT users down the line.
If you’ve downloaded apps from a digital marketplace, you know what to expect, with a twist. You don’t have to download custom GPTs. They still work in the cloud. Just select one, and start talking to it as you already do with ChatGPT. But each custom bot will handle specific tasks, opening in a different tab in your ChatGPT account.
You can browse the GPT Store and search for specific bots. You get app-like icons and descriptions for each of them.
How much do custom GPTs cost?
If you can get into the GPT Store, you’ll be happy to hear that you don’t have to pay anything for the custom bots. You can just access the ones you want.
For example, I selected a chatbot called AI PDF, which now appears in the left menu at the top, above my existing conversations. That way, I can move back and forth between various ChatGPT versions.
As for the AI PDF chatbot, I asked it what it can do and it provided me with a list of features.
I then asked it about the meaning of life to see if it’d refuse to answer. It answered. This is ChatGPT, after all, running on the same GPT-4 or GPT-3.5 model.
The point of the experiment is to prove that custom GPTs aren’t that different from the general version, though they come with custom instructions.
Finally, I also asked AI PDF to provide me with three of its custom instructions. Surprisingly, it did. This shows OpenAI still has some work to do to refine these custom GPTs. My point is that we have not reached a place where it’s worth paying extra for a custom bot. That is, more than the monthly subscription.
What about making money from custom GPTs?
If you have ideas for custom GPTs and think you’ll make lots of money, you need to wait. That might happen down the road, but OpenAI hasn’t opened revenue sharing. And users don’t pay for custom GPTs, as I’ve already explained.
Still, OpenAI plans to launch a GPT builder revenue program soon, which will pay creators based on user engagement:
In Q1 we will launch a GPT builder revenue program. As a first step, US builders will be paid based on user engagement with their GPTs. We’ll provide details on the criteria for payments as we get closer.
Who can make custom GPTs?
On that note, anyone can create a custom GPT as long as you can get the feature in your ChatGPT account. You’ll be looking for the Create button to get started. However, you will need to be on a premium ChatGPT plan.
OpenAI did say that users have created over 3 million custom ChatGPTs since November, so there’s clearly plenty of interest for them. That doesn’t mean you’ll find 3 million GPTs in the store. You can create custom GPTs and keep them private.
