I don’t think the problem with retiring Custom GPTs is that Plugins and Skills can’t replace them.
They probably can — and can do much more.
What I worry about losing is the simplicity of the Custom GPT builder.
With a Custom GPT, almost anyone can start building.
You describe what you want.
You add instructions.
You upload some knowledge.
You test it immediately in the same conversation.
Then you keep improving it.
There is almost no distance between having an idea and experimenting with it.
That matters more than I initially realized.
I started with Custom GPTs and gradually found myself building increasingly specialized tools. That led me to Python and to an interesting realization about AI applications.
Take something simple like invoicing.
You can tell AI:
“John’s invoice is $1,200. He paid $700. Record the payment and create a receipt.”
AI is excellent at understanding the request.
But a tiny piece of code can calculate the $500 balance exactly and cheaply. AI doesn’t need to spend tokens reasoning through every deterministic operation.
That combination — AI understanding what we want, with small specialized tools doing exact work — could become a very important way of building efficient AI applications.
And Custom GPTs are an incredibly easy environment for discovering ideas like this.
So my concern isn’t:
“Please keep Custom GPTs because Plugins are too difficult.”
Plugins and Skills may become very easy.
My question is:
Will building them be as simple as building a Custom GPT?
If Plugins are the future, I would love to see the simplicity of the Custom GPT builder brought into Plugins.
What made the GPT Builder accessible wasn’t just that you could talk to it. For me, the most useful part was the Configure page: I could write my instructions, upload knowledge files, choose capabilities, save, test, and keep improving the GPT without needing a traditional development environment.
Imagine a similarly simple Plugin builder.
You could start with instructions and knowledge files, add more knowledge files as your idea develops, configure what the Plugin can do, and test everything from one simple interface.
More advanced options could still exist for developers who need them, without making everyone start there.
Plugins may be the more powerful architecture. I just hope building one can remain as simple and approachable as configuring a Custom GPT.