If your app isn’t inside the tool where your users already spend their day, a competitor’s will be.

Developers were building for ChatGPT without a front door

Until now, developers building on top of ChatGPT had no official channel to get their work in front of users inside the product itself. Discovery happened outside the app, which meant most integrations stayed invisible.

ChatGPT becomes a platform, not just a chatbot

Developers can now submit apps to ChatGPT introduces a formal submission and review process that places approved apps in an in-product directory, searchable by ChatGPT users directly inside the interface. Developers submit through an updated Apps SDK built specifically for chat-native experiences, where apps can trigger real-world actions mid-conversation. The input is your app; the output is a listed, discoverable product inside one of the most-used AI interfaces on the planet.

The developers who move first are the ones who get found

This matters most for builders who have been waiting for a legitimate distribution channel inside ChatGPT:

• SaaS developers who need their tool to surface when users describe a relevant task in ChatGPT
• Enterprise tooling teams whose internal apps need a sanctioned, reviewable integration path with OpenAI
• Indie developers who lack marketing budgets but can compete on placement inside a directory with intent-driven traffic

The directory levels the visibility gap between well-funded teams and solo builders.

OpenAI just made the platform fight with Google and Apple official

ChatGPT now has over 400 million weekly active users, and OpenAI is moving to turn that audience into an app distribution network, directly challenging the app store model that Apple and Google have owned for 15 years. If app store economics repeat themselves inside AI interfaces, early-listed developers will hold a structural advantage that latecomers will spend years trying to close.

What you can build and ship right now

• Submit a chat-native app that executes real-world actions from within a conversation
• Build discovery into your app via the in-product ChatGPT directory
• Use the Apps SDK to connect your product to ChatGPT’s existing user workflows
• Target specific task contexts so your app appears when users need it most

Submission requires review, so building to OpenAI’s published guidelines from day one avoids rejection delays.

Pricing not listed — check our directory.

The review process means you do not control your own publish timeline, and OpenAI can change listing criteria at any point.

Zapier’s ChatGPT integrations cover automation but do not put your product inside the native directory. Custom GPTs offered a version of this, but without the formalized submission, review, or discovery infrastructure that this new process includes.

The app store era for AI interfaces is starting now

The developers who get listed early will own the search real estate inside ChatGPT before the directory gets crowded. We cover tools like this every Friday — subscribe here and we’ll send the best ones straight to you.