OpenAI GPT Store launching next week

OpenAI appears to be ready to kick off the year 2024 with a bang.

The company behind ChatGPT and arguably the one most responsible for bringing generative AI to the masses is gearing up to launch its GPT Store, where creators of third-party customized GPTs built with OpenAI’s new GPT Builder can sell and monetize their creations, next week — January 8-13, 2024.

OpenAI sent out an email today to those who have already created and launched custom GPTs through the GPT Builder, including this author. The email text reads as follows:

Dear GPT Builder,

We want to let you know that we will launch the GPT Store next week. If you’re interested in sharing your GPT in the store, you’ll need to:

• Review our updated usage policies and GPT brand guidelines to ensure that your GPT is compliant
• Verify your Builder Profile (settings > builder profile > enable your name or a verified website) 
• Publish your GPT as ‘Public’ (GPT’s with ‘Anyone with a link’ selected will not be shown in the store)

Thank you for investing time to build a GPT.

– ChatGPT Team 

An exact launch date, time, region and user availability were not given, and a spokesperson for OpenAI simply responded to our inquiry with: “Thanks for reaching out. We’ll have more to share here next week.”

What is the GPT Store and why is it so hyped?

First unveiled by OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman and his compatriots at OpenAI’s DevDay developer conference in November, the GPT Store was introduced as a place on the ChatGPT website for those who build with OpenAI’s tools to make cash while sharing their creations with a large audience.

You need to use OpenAI’s GPT Builder to build customized GPTs atop OpenAI’s underlying, powerful large language model (LLM) GPT-4, but doing so is relatively simple and straightforward, especially compared to programming other software.

OpenAI’s GPT Builder lets you type the capabilities you want your GPT to offer in plain language, and it will try to make a simplified version of ChatGPT designed to perform those on behalf of you or any other users you share your GPT with. This can be done using a share link or the forthcoming store.

It immediately calls to mind Apple’s success with the App Store for the iPhone launched in the summer of 2008, and subsequently, iPad and Mac devices — which has resulted in trillions in annual revenue for third-party developers and of course, Apple itself, which takes a 30% cut on all sales. It has also been the target of antitrust lawsuits from the likes of Epic Games, though so far, it has largely withstood those.

Yet, like the Apple App Store, OpenAI’s GPT Store is not without controversy.

OpenAI initially promised to launch it in late 2023 but incurred massive drama after the former board of directors of its holding nonprofit fired Altman briefly before ultimately re-hiring him and stepping down themselves.

All that commotion — and the outsized attention toward the GPT Builder, as well as a reported distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on OpenAI’s servers, likely slowed the launch of the GPT Store.

Critical questions remain

But when the OpenAI GPT Store finally does launch, the key question will be: how much will OpenAI take for its cut of custom GPT sales/subscriptions?

Also important: what pricing options and mechanisms will they allow, how much will developers be able to charge and will it become the App Store of the AI age?

Already, the OpenAI GPT Store has one advantage to other third-party software stores: it doesn’t require a developer account or any software experience to participate. All it requires is an idea and a way to type it into the ChatGPT Builder, and of course, a subscription to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise, which starts at $20 per month USD.