DIY Custom GPTs

While ChatGPT is not a college-supported technology, we want you to stay informed about emerging AI tools. Here are some basics: 

For Free Accounts

• View & Use Access enabled. As of May 9. 2025, free accounts have view-only access to GPTs that are created by paying users.  See Custom GPTs open for free ChatGPT users at The Verge (May 2024). 

• Creation limited. Free accounts cannot create what OpenAI calls a "GPT" or Custom bot.

• GPT Alternatives for Sharable Interactives: if you are a non-paying user, consider creating your own discipline specific prompt templates to share with students. These can often be used across platforms - but be sure to guide them on proper use or modification, and any recommended files to attach alongside such prompts, as well as how to document and reflect on their process, share chat transcripts, and evaluate the tool they used!   

For Paid Accounts (e.g. CHATGPT Plus, etc) 

• Resources from OpenAI: Creating a GPT, GPT Builder and Introducing GPTs (November 2023) 

• Building a GPT vs. OpenAI API at the OpenAI Develper Community (January 2024)

• Product Persistence Note: Custom GPTs appear to persist from paid accounts that expire unless removed by the creator.  However they cannot be edited unless that creator renews their subscription.

• On Sharing. Learn more at the OpenAI Community Forum discussion on Sharing GPTs to Nonpaid users or Publishing and Sharing GPT.  You might also try How to Share Your Custom GPT from GPTWorld.

• Sharing Caps Note from Reed: as of May 9, 2025, free users can access GPTs that you share links to but their access is capped at approximately 10 messages every 5 hours. 

• On Privacy: Open in their Introducing GPTs notes that chats aren’t shared with builders, model training can be opted out at the account level, data sharing with third-party APIs is opt-in only, 

• and GPTs are also automatically reviewed and monitored to prevent harmful use.

• Analytics from Reed. There is currently no GPT dashboard reflecting the scope of use; to learn this, ask them to share a chat transcript link or cut and paste their full discussion into a Google Doc.  

• Connectivity & Internalized Use. As noted at Introducing GPTs (November 2023), educators with OpenAI developer accounts and advanced AI skills can connect GPTs to APIs, email inboxes, and external databases. Only OpenAI Enterprise users can deploy internal-only GPTs within company workspaces. 

• Bot vs Agents. GPTs are currently customizable OpenAI ChatGPT bot that queries Gemini, but it is not "agentic."  Agents involve advanced integrations with external sources, and have a higher degree of autonomy.

For Teams Account Holders

• OpenAI Resources on Sharing: How to share GPTs within [Team or Enterprise] workspaces

• Shared edit access for [Team, Enterprise or EDU] Custom GPTs

• What GPT settings can I control for my [Enterprise] workspace?

• GPTs vs Assistants in the OpenAI API. 

Beyond Current DIY Interactives from Frontier Model

• For other frontier model DIY sharable interactives that do not require using an API, see also Google's Gemini AI products (e.g. NotebookLM and Gems) and Artifacts by Anthropic's Claude. 

• Many other AI-based tools are emerging that are built directly by colleges and companies that utilize either these frontier LLMs as engines, or use open source tools.  If you're curious, check out what's happening at the ASU CreateAI and the UA Data Science Institute and UA Data Lab. 

• For those aiming to build a custom AI tool with an API, keep in mind your purpose, your bot's efficiency (networking costs, data servers, etc), and overall sustainability that can respond to the rapid innovation rate of current LLMs.