What are apps in ChatGPT?

A ChatGPT App is an interactive experience that lives inside a ChatGPT conversation, responds to natural language, and can show its own interface elements like maps, playlists, or forms right in the chat window.

OpenAI introduced apps in ChatGPT as a new way to bring external products and services directly into the flow of conversation. Apps are powered by the Apps SDK, which is built on the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting ChatGPT to external tools and data.

Instead of sending you off to another website, a ChatGPT app can appear in the thread when you ask for something that fits its capabilities. You continue chatting as usual, while the app provides richer interactions inside the same conversation.

How do apps show up inside a ChatGPT conversation?

From a user perspective, apps are designed to feel like a natural extension of chat.

You can trigger an app in a few ways. The simplest one is to start your message with the app name, for example: “Spotify, make a playlist for my party this Friday.” ChatGPT recognizes that pattern, surfaces the Spotify app, and uses context from your conversation to build a playlist. You can also open apps from the composer, for example by choosing one from the tools menu or using the slash prefix.

ChatGPT can also suggest apps automatically. If you are chatting about buying a home, ChatGPT might suggest the Zillow app so you can browse listings in an interactive map inside the conversation. If you are talking about a presentation, it might suggest Canva so you can turn an outline into slides without leaving ChatGPT.

The key idea is that discovery happens in context. You do not need to think “I should open a separate app now”. Instead, ChatGPT can propose the right app when it seems helpful, and you can call specific apps directly when you already know what you want.

What can I actually do with apps in ChatGPT today?

At launch, OpenAI worked with a curated set of partners to demonstrate what apps can do in practice. Examples include:

Booking.com for planning trips and finding hotels

Canva for turning an outline into a slide deck

Coursera for asking questions about a course while you watch

Expedia for organizing travel
Figma for turning ideas into diagrams
Spotify for building playlists
Zillow for exploring homes on an interactive map

In day to day use, that translates into tasks like:

Planning a weekend trip with Booking.com while ChatGPT helps adjust dates, budget, and preferences.
Generating a presentation in Canva by asking ChatGPT to convert an existing outline.
Watching a Coursera lecture and pausing to ask ChatGPT to clarify a concept using the app’s context.
Brainstorming a mood board in Figma from a rough text description.

As the Apps SDK opens to more developers, this list will expand beyond the initial partners, and later there will be a directory where users can browse and search available apps directly inside ChatGPT.

How are ChatGPT apps different from plugins, GPTs, or integrations?

If you used earlier versions of ChatGPT, you might remember plugins and custom GPTs. Apps continue this direction but with a clearer model for both interaction and interface.

Earlier plugins mostly acted like background tools that ChatGPT could call to fetch data or perform actions. Apps still integrate external capabilities, but they also bring their own user interface: cards, maps, tables, views, and other components rendered directly in the chat.

Custom GPTs let you specialize the model for a particular use case by combining instructions, knowledge, and tools. Apps focus instead on how a specific product or service shows up in the ChatGPT experience. In practice, you can think of a ChatGPT app as:

A set of capabilities exposed through the Model Context Protocol
A piece of UI rendered as a web component inside ChatGPT
Logic that coordinates between user input, ChatGPT, and your backend

Where custom GPTs are like custom assistants, apps are more like embedded products that collaborate with ChatGPT inside one conversation.

How does a ChatGPT app work technically?

Under the hood, apps in ChatGPT are powered by the Apps SDK. The SDK builds on the Model Context Protocol, which defines how ChatGPT connects to external tools and data sources.

To build a ChatGPT app with the Apps SDK, developers typically provide two main parts:

A web component that defines the app’s user interface. This is a small web application that can be rendered in an iframe inside ChatGPT. It can be written in the framework of your choice, such as a single HTML file or a modern React component.

An MCP server that exposes the app’s capabilities as tools. This server describes what the app can do, how ChatGPT should call those tools, and how to exchange data between the model, your UI, and your backend systems.

The Apps SDK itself is open source, which means the same standard can be adopted beyond ChatGPT. Developers can connect existing backends, authenticate their users, and reuse their existing business logic while letting ChatGPT handle conversation and reasoning.

Where are apps in ChatGPT available?

OpenAI is rolling out apps in stages.

Apps became available to all logged in ChatGPT users outside the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans starting October 6, 2025.

Within organizations, admins can control app availability through workspace settings, and users may need to explicitly enable apps and complete authentication before they can be used in chat.

What happens with my data when I use a ChatGPT app?

Every app must follow OpenAI’s platform policies, be appropriate for all audiences, and comply with rules from any third party services it connects to. Apps are also required to include a clear privacy policy and collect only the minimum data they need.

When you use an app for the first time, ChatGPT shows what types of data may be shared with that app. You need to connect the app explicitly so you see the permissions before anything is sent.

Once an app is connected, it may receive context from your conversation so it can respond more effectively. For example, if you ask Canva to create a flyer, the app may use relevant text you already discussed in the same chat. If you have ChatGPT Memory turned on, apps can also use relevant memories to personalize results, such as remembering that you run a specific kind of business when creating materials.

OpenAI has also published draft developer guidelines that explain the criteria apps must meet to be listed and potentially featured inside future app directories.

What are the benefits of apps for users and developers?

For users, the main benefit is continuity. Instead of switching between browser tabs and separate apps, you can stay in a single ChatGPT conversation while:

Calling specialized services at the right time
Viewing rich interfaces like maps, cards, or playlists
Iterating in conversation with both ChatGPT and the app

The model handles language, reasoning, and orchestration, while the app handles domain specific features like booking flows or content editing.

For developers, apps provide a structured way to reach ChatGPT’s user base from inside the product. Building on the Apps SDK means you can:

Define clear capabilities aligned with your product strengths
Bring your own UI instead of relying only on text responses
Connect directly to your backend and existing auth
Benefit from models that understand when to call your app

Later, developers will be able to submit their apps for review, publish them in ChatGPT, and participate in future monetization options that OpenAI plans to introduce.

How can a team get started building a ChatGPT app?

If your team is thinking about its first ChatGPT app, a practical sequence might look like this:

Clarify the jobs where your product can help inside a conversation. The best apps focus on specific, repeatable workflows such as “plan a trip”, “create a lesson plan”, or “generate marketing assets” rather than trying to recreate every feature from your existing interface.

Map those workflows to a small set of tools in your MCP server. Each tool should represent a capability that ChatGPT can invoke at the right time, with clear inputs and outputs.

Design a compact UI that fits naturally inside a chat. The Apps SDK lets you build this as a web component, so you can use your usual frontend stack while following OpenAI’s UX and UI guidelines.

Test in Developer Mode in ChatGPT. This is where you refine prompts, tool definitions, and UI details based on real conversation transcripts.

Yavio can help you experiment quickly by structuring your use cases, prompts, and tool definitions in a consistent way.

What does this mean for internal tools and AI products?

Apps in ChatGPT are not only about consumer services. For many teams, they open a path to bring internal systems and workflows into the same conversational space employees already use.

Examples include:

A support app that surfaces tickets from your helpdesk and lets agents respond with AI assistance.
A data exploration app that lets analysts query internal metrics with natural language and see visualizations inline.
A learning app that connects your corporate training content to ChatGPT and tracks progress.

Because the Apps SDK and Model Context Protocol are open standards, the same architecture can be reused across environments. You might start by building a public app for your main product, then create a private variant tailored to internal processes.

If you are already using Yavio to define prompts, workflows, and context for ChatGPT, you can treat those designs as a blueprint for the tools and interactions your app will eventually expose.

Key points to remember?

A ChatGPT app is an interactive experience that lives inside a conversation, powered by the Apps SDK on top of the Model Context Protocol.
Apps can be called by name or suggested automatically when they are relevant to your current task.
The Apps SDK combines a web based UI component with an MCP server that defines tools ChatGPT can use.
Apps are rolling out across ChatGPT plans, with controls for business and education admins and clear privacy requirements for developers.
For teams building on AI, apps provide a structured way to embed their product into ChatGPT and reach users directly in the chat interface.

What is the future of apps in ChatGPT?

OpenAI has signaled that apps are just the starting point for a broader ecosystem of conversational software. Upcoming pieces include:

A directory where users can browse and search apps
Review and publication flows for developer submitted apps
Monetization models and support for standards like the Agentic Commerce Protocol for instant checkout inside ChatGPT

As ChatGPT evolves with agents, proactive research features like Pulse, and new interfaces such as ChatGPT Atlas, apps are likely to become one of the main ways products participate in this environment.

For teams working with AI, the practical takeaway is simple: start small, choose one or two concrete workflows, and design an app that makes those workflows easier inside a ChatGPT conversation. You can refine and expand from there.

If you want to explore this direction in your own work, you can try Yavio to build your own app inside ChatGPT in minutes.