How to launch a custom chatbot on the OpenAI GPT Store
Get Ready to Share Your Own Custom Chatbot with a Global Audience
Prepare to share your own personalized chatbot with a global audience—or at least with other ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
OpenAI recently launched the GPT Store after delaying the project due to disruptions caused by the dismissal and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman at the end of 2023.
While OpenAI’s GPT Store shares some similarities with smartphone app marketplaces, it currently functions more like a vast directory of modified ChatGPTs. With OpenAI’s GPT-4 model and its web-browsing capabilities, only ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who pay $20 per month, can create and use “GPTs.” Although the acronym GPT in ChatGPT stands for “generative pretrained transformers,” in this context, it refers to a specific version of ChatGPT with additional settings and slightly more training data.
If you’re curious about sharing your AI creation on the marketplace, here’s how to make your GPT public, along with some tips to get started with the GPT Store.
How to List Your Own GPT
Before you can add a custom chatbot to the GPT Store, you need to create one. No specialized knowledge or complex programming language is required to get started.
Since this system will be accessible to all ChatGPT Plus subscribers, keep in mind that the custom data you upload may be exposed. Avoid uploading documents containing sensitive information.
When you're ready to publish your customized version of the popular chatbot, visit the ChatGPT homepage, select Explore GPTs on the left-hand side, and then choose My GPTs at the top right. Click the pencil icon to edit the GPT you wish to publish. After verifying the potential result in the Preview section, click Save in the top-right corner, set the visibility to Everyone, and click Confirm.
The basic rules that apply to ChatGPT, such as the prohibition of violent content, also apply to your GPT. Additional limitations exist as well. For example, creating GPTs for “romantic substitution” is explicitly prohibited, setting OpenAI apart from companies like Replika, which encourage intimate relationships between humans and AI.
It is also forbidden to create a GPT that impersonates a celebrity or business without their consent. Law enforcement agencies are not allowed to create GPTs that automate their decisions. Political campaign organizers for the 2024 U.S. elections cannot create GPTs to target more voters. Lastly, students are prohibited from listing GPTs designed to cheat. The full list of what is allowed and what is not can be found on OpenAI’s website.
Some Tips to Get Started
What makes a good GPT? Before adding your version of ChatGPT and making it public, think about the types of bots people might want to use.
Spend some time exploring the GPT Store to see what subscribers interact with the most.
When searching for a GPT, pay attention to the number next to the creator’s name. It shows how many times the customized chatbot has been used, which can help you gauge its popularity.
While most of the current popular options are utility-based—such as Grimoire and AI PDF for document searches—more whimsical applications are also possible, such as an adventure game like The Secret of Monkey Island: Amsterdam. Sam Altman highlighted the chatbot Everything Is Waifus on social media on the morning the GPT Store launched.
If you hope to create a side hustle through the GPT Store, two major hurdles might make you pause. First, this new feature is launching during uncertain times for OpenAI as the company faces a copyright lawsuit from The New York Times and U.S. Congressional hearings on data licensing for AI models like ChatGPT. The company may soon have to pay licensing fees and comply with additional regulations. These developments could affect access to your creations.
The second drawback, if you aim to monetize via the GPT Store, is the lack of detailed payment information currently available from OpenAI. All that’s known so far is that creator payments in the U.S. are expected to begin within the next two months and will be based on unspecified engagement metrics. It’s thus difficult to know how much money can realistically be made on OpenAI’s marketplace.
