If you built a custom GPT, it's on its way out.
OpenAI announced on September 11 that custom GPTs are being retired. On Free, Go, Plus and Pro you already can't make new ones.
Then Google said Gems are turning into "skills" from November 17.
(Both announced in the same month. Total coincidence, I'm sure.)
Your old ones still work today. Nobody's pulled the plug yet.
But not everything moves over, and some of what doesn't is the stuff you spent the most time on.
So here's the answer up front: copy your instructions and files out this week. Ten minutes. It's the only way to be sure nothing gets lost.
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Right. Back to it.
Your GPTs and Gems get a new home
On ChatGPT, GPTs become plugins. A plugin keeps your instructions, your files and your connected apps together. Your GPT's instructions turn into a "skill" inside it.
On Gemini, Gems become skills. You pull one up by typing "/" in the chat box, and you can use several in one request.
That last part is a real upgrade. One request, your writing style skill and your meeting notes skill working together.
Most of your setup moves over (four things don't)
ChatGPT gives you a migrate button. Your instructions and knowledge files come across, and so do your connected apps.
Four things don't:
Custom actions (if your GPT called an outside service you set up yourself). They stop working until you rebuild them.
The model you picked for it.
Your old chats with it.
Your sharing settings. The new plugin starts private, so anyone you shared your GPT with won't see it until you share it again.
And one sneaky one. Only the published version moves. If you've got edits sitting in draft, they stay behind.
On Gemini it's automatic, no button.
The catch: skills need a paid Google AI Pro or Ultra plan. On the free plan? Check what happens to your Gems before November 17.
My take: the copy-out matters more than the button, because a doc on your desktop is still there whatever OpenAI changes next.
Keep everything you built (10 minutes)
For every GPT you built:
In ChatGPT, open My GPTs, click Edit, then the Configure tab.
Copy the instructions and conversation starters into a doc.
Find the original files you uploaded under Knowledge. You'll want them again.
Screenshot the capabilities and actions, and note which model it uses.
Got unpublished edits? Publish them now, so the latest version is the one that moves.
When "Migrate to plugin" shows up under My GPTs, click it. Then test the plugin on the jobs you normally give it. OpenAI's own words: it "may respond differently."
For every Gem: open it in Gemini, click edit, copy the instructions, and note which files and tools it uses.
Code spotted inside the Gemini app suggests editing could lock as early as October 13, so I wouldn't wait.
For your ChatGPT chat history: Settings > Data controls > Export data.
Using a GPT somebody else built? Only the creator can move it. Save a few of your best prompts and 2-3 answers you loved, so you can rebuild something close.
Here's the prompt that does the rebuild, in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini:
Here are the instructions from an AI assistant I used to use:
[paste the instructions, or describe what it did]
Here are 3 answers from it that I loved:
[paste the answers]
Turn this into one clear set of instructions I can save and reuse. Keep what made it useful, explain the "why" behind each rule, and cut anything that only existed to work around older models. Then tell me which files I should attach.Make it stick
Start one doc called "My AI setups." Every instruction you write for an AI goes in there.
By January 2024 people had already built more than 3 million custom GPTs. Most of their owners are about to find out that "saved in the app" and "saved" are two different things.
Next time a company retires a feature (and there will be a next time), you move one doc instead of rebuilding from memory.
That's what happens when your best setups only live inside one app. In a business the stakes are higher, so Run On Claude hands you the setups as files you keep.
Every month, Claude takes one job off your plate. Right now that's your social posts and your customer emails, with a new job each month picked by member vote.
Each job is a folder you drop into Claude, plus a 20-minute guide. Claude writes the drafts, you read them and hit send.
If it hasn't saved you 5 hours in your first 30 days, you get your first month back.
Business owners only. $147 a month until we hit 50 members.
Talk tomorrow,
Zephyr
P.S. What's the one GPT or Gem you'd hate to lose? Hit reply. I read every one.