Deep Dive

OpenAI Just Launched an App Store Inside ChatGPT

Developers can now submit apps for 800 million users. The Apps SDK is built on MCP, the open standard that's becoming the USB port for AI.

7 min read

OpenAI opened app submissions for ChatGPT yesterday. That sentence doesn't sound revolutionary until you realize what it means: ChatGPT is no longer just a chatbot. It's becoming a platform.

Starting now, any developer can submit apps for review and publication. Once approved, apps appear in a new directory at chatgpt.com/apps—discoverable by ChatGPT's 800 million weekly active users. The first batch of approved apps will roll out in the new year.

This is the culmination of work that started at DevDay in October, where OpenAI introduced apps with pilot partners like Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow. Now the doors are open to everyone.

What ChatGPT Apps Actually Do

Apps extend conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take real-world actions without leaving the chat. The key insight: conversations naturally lead to actions, and apps let those actions happen inline.

New apps announced with this launch include Apple Music (find music, create playlists, manage libraries), DoorDash (transform meal planning into actionable shopping carts), and Dropbox (gather insights, prepare briefs, summarize documents).

Once you connect an app, you can trigger it by @mentioning the app name or selecting it from the tools menu. OpenAI is also experimenting with automatically surfacing relevant apps during conversations based on context, usage patterns, and user preferences.

The Technical Foundation: MCP + Apps SDK

Here's where it gets interesting for developers. The Apps SDK is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—the open standard that Anthropic introduced in November 2024 and that OpenAI officially adopted in March 2025.

MCP is becoming the "USB port for AI"—a universal interface that works across ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI systems. In December 2025, Anthropic donated MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, co-founded by Anthropic, Block, and OpenAI, with support from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare, and Bloomberg.

The Apps SDK extends MCP by adding UI capabilities. Your MCP server returns both structured data and interface metadata, letting you render rich interactive components directly in the chat—maps, carousels, checkout flows, whatever your app needs.

The Submission Process

Apps are submitted through the OpenAI Developer Platform. The submission includes MCP connectivity details, testing guidelines, directory metadata (name, description, icon), and country availability settings.

Apps that meet quality and safety standards get published to the directory. Apps that resonate with users may be featured more prominently or recommended by ChatGPT during conversations.

Monetization (The Elephant in the Room)

OpenAI hasn't fully outlined monetization yet. For now, developers can link out from their ChatGPT apps to their own websites or native apps to complete transactions for physical goods.

The company says it's exploring additional options, including digital goods, and will share more as they learn from developer and user engagement. Support is also planned for the Agentic Commerce Protocol—an open standard for instant checkout in ChatGPT.

Translation: OpenAI is building toward an app economy but hasn't committed to a revenue share model yet. Early movers get distribution, but the business model is TBD.

Privacy and Safety Model

When users connect to a new app, ChatGPT discloses what data may be shared and provides the app's privacy policy. Users can unlink at any time—once unlinked, the app immediately loses data access.

For write actions (creating, modifying, or deleting data), ChatGPT displays explicit confirmation modals before executing. This is particularly important for Business and Enterprise deployments where apps might interact with internal systems.

OpenAI's documentation explicitly warns about prompt injection risks—malicious content that could trick ChatGPT into performing unintended actions. Developers are responsible for vetting MCP servers before deployment.

Availability

The app directory is accessible from the tools menu inside ChatGPT or directly at chatgpt.com/apps. Developers can use deep links to send users directly to their app page.

What This Means for Developers

The strategic positioning is clear: OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be the surface where AI applications run. Not a chatbot you visit for answers—a platform where you do work.

OpenAI's guidance for building great apps emphasizes three principles:

• Tightly scoped — Do one thing well rather than everything poorly
• Intuitive in chat — Natural language should feel natural
• Clear value — Either complete real-world workflows or enable AI-native experiences that couldn't exist elsewhere

The fact that this is built on MCP—an open standard—matters. Apps you build for ChatGPT can theoretically run anywhere that adopts MCP. You're not locked into OpenAI's ecosystem.

As OpenAI put it: "Over time, we want apps in ChatGPT to feel like a natural extension of the conversation, helping people move from ideas to action, while building a thriving ecosystem for developers."

The app store wars just came to AI.

Resources

• OpenAI Announcement
• ChatGPT App Directory
• Apps SDK Documentation
• Example Apps (GitHub)
• Build with Apps SDK Guide

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