OpenAI Apps SDK
Build apps that render natively inside ChatGPT — UI, auth, and distribution to hundreds of millions of users.
About
At DevDay on September 29, 2026, OpenAI turned ChatGPT into an app platform and released the Apps SDK so any developer can build for it. Third-party experiences from Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow now render natively inside the chat window, with eleven more brands (DoorDash, Uber, Target, Instacart, and others) following before year-end. A ChatGPT App Directory opened back in December 2025, and DevDay added plugin extensions that push apps into a persistent sidebar surface ChatGPT can suggest mid-conversation.
Two companion primitives shipped alongside: Sign in with ChatGPT (identity-only OAuth — no conversations or memory shared) and optional ChatGPT plan usage, letting Go, Plus, and Pro subscribers spend their existing allowance inside connected apps. Note the rough edges: apps launched without the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, and a March 2026 Bloomberg report found participating companies complaining about weak discovery, little referral traffic, and a slow approval process — OpenAI itself said the developer experience still needs work.
What it can do
- Apps that render natively inside the ChatGPT conversation
- App Directory distribution to ChatGPT's user base
- Sign in with ChatGPT identity OAuth (conversations and memory not shared)
- Optional ChatGPT plan usage (Go/Plus/Pro) inside your app
- Plugin extensions for persistent sidebar surfaces
Setup
- Read the Apps SDK documentation at developers.openai.com.
- Build your app's chat-native UI following the SDK's component model.
- Register the app and submit it for review.
- On approval it appears in the ChatGPT App Directory; optionally add Sign in with ChatGPT for identity and plan usage.
Prerequisites
An OpenAI developer account; an existing web app or service to embed; App Directory review before public distribution.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: OpenAI's own DevDay 2026 announcements corroborated by multiple independent outlets; the Apps SDK page is live on OpenAI's developer site. Strengths: first-party platform from the ChatGPT operator, real launch partners, documented identity and plan-usage primitives. Docked for: (1) closed platform — distribution, review, and revenue terms are entirely OpenAI's call; (2) Bloomberg's March 2026 reporting documents genuine developer-experience problems (discovery, traffic, slow approvals) that OpenAI has acknowledged; (3) no EEA/Switzerland/UK availability at launch. License: closed platform.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 10.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 3.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · DevDay Sept 29 2026 launch; ChatGPT app platform with App Directory (opened Dec 2025) and plugin extensions — corroborated by OpenAI's own pages and multiple independent outlets
- · Apps SDK page live on developers.openai.com; launch partners (Booking.com, Canva, Figma, Spotify, Zillow) + 11 more brands before year-end — provider-announced
- · Sign in with ChatGPT is identity-only OAuth; plan usage (Go/Plus/Pro) lets users spend allowance in connected apps — verified via OpenAI help center coverage
- · manual review: Bloomberg Mar 2026 documents real developer-experience problems (discovery, traffic, slow approvals) acknowledged by OpenAI; no EEA/Switzerland/UK at launch; distribution and revenue terms entirely OpenAI's call
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.