# What does the return of the name 'plugins' mean for ChatGPT apps?

Date: 2026-07-28 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/return-name-plugins-mean-chatgpt-apps/

**Answer:** Since July 9, 2026, the ChatGPT app directory has become a plugin directory, and a plugin is now a package that can hold apps, skills and app templates. Apps still do the connecting to outside services, so for most users and builders the change is in how things are packaged and found, not in how they work.

If you used ChatGPT in 2023, the word "plugins" will sound familiar. It is back, but it names something new. On July 9, 2026, OpenAI moved the ChatGPT app directory into a new **plugin directory**, which it now calls the main place to find workflow tools in both ChatGPT and Codex, its coding agent. Every existing app was packaged into a plugin.

The easiest way to understand the change is as a box and its contents. The **app** is still the piece that connects ChatGPT to an outside service, such as a document store, a CRM (customer relationship management system) or a messaging tool. The **plugin** is the box that can carry one or more apps together with other things that make a job repeatable.

## What a plugin contains now

According to OpenAI's help center, a plugin can include three kinds of parts:

| Part | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Skills | Reusable instructions, prompts and workflow patterns for a task | Steps for preparing a weekly sales summary |
| Apps | Connections to outside systems, their data and their actions | Access to a company's CRM or file storage |
| App templates | A starting point an admin configures to create the app a plugin needs | A connector to an internal system, set up with the organization's details |

Not every plugin has all three. Some contain only skills, and some work only in Codex. A broad plugin might serve anyone, while a line-of-business plugin might bundle what a sales or analytics team needs so they don't have to switch between separate tools.

## Same word, different thing

The 2023 plugins were a separate system. OpenAI ran them as a beta, then wound them down in 2024: from March 19 that year no new plugins could be installed, and from April 9 old plugin conversations could no longer continue. OpenAI said it was ending the beta because custom GPTs had taken over the same role.

The 2026 plugins sit on top of the apps OpenAI introduced later. In December 2025 it renamed connectors to apps, and custom apps are built on MCP, the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI models to tools and data. Nothing from 2023 comes back; only the name does.

## What changes for users, admins and builders

- **Users** now find plugins in three places: the directory itself, **Settings > Plugins**, and a Plugins link in the sidebar, on ChatGPT web and the desktop app. You still connect the underlying app by signing in to the service, then call it in a chat with an @ mention or through the **+** menu.
- **Workspace admins** get a new **Workspace settings > Plugins** page to enable or disable a plugin and choose which roles get it. Two installation policies exist: *Available*, where members can install it themselves, and *Installed*, where it is added for them automatically. Neither grants access to data; that still comes from the app settings.
- **Builders** keep building apps as before. New app submissions now reach the directory packaged inside a plugin.

## A worked check for your account

Here is a short check to run this week, especially in a work account.

1. Open the plugin directory and find the plugins that contain apps you already used. Note their names.
2. For each one, open the listing and look at which apps it includes, what each app can read and whether it can take actions such as sending or editing.
3. In a chat, call one plugin with an @ mention and ask a harmless read-only question, such as listing the five most recent files in a folder.
4. If you are an admin, open **Workspace settings > Plugins**, check the installation policy for each role, then compare with **Workspace settings > Apps** to confirm the action limits you set earlier are still in place.

> **Try it:** Pick one plugin and write down, in two lines, which apps and skills it contains and what it can change in the outside service. If you cannot answer the second part from the listing, keep it read-only until you can.

## Do existing apps and connectors keep working?

Yes, according to OpenAI. Its help center says existing app connections are not affected, and that apps with their own interface, apps with sync, search and other app features continue to work because a plugin is only a container for them. Connectors were already renamed apps in December 2025, with existing connections kept, so a connector you set up last year is now an app inside a plugin.

Permissions also carry over. A plugin inherits the settings of every app it uses: who can use it, whether it may only read or also act, and whether actions need your confirmation. Approving an app in ChatGPT never overrides the permissions in the connected system, so you still see only the files or records you could see there.

Two details are worth knowing. Disabling a plugin turns off its apps and skills, and since several plugins may share one app, switching that app off can affect the others. And if a plugin says an app needs setup, the app may not be enabled for your role yet, or it may come from a template an admin has not finished configuring.

## Sources

- Plugins in ChatGPT and Codex: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001256-plugins-in-chatgpt-and-codex
- Apps in ChatGPT: https://web.archive.org/web/20260105173731/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11487775-apps-in-chatgpt
- Winding down the ChatGPT plugins beta: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8988022-winding-down-the-chatgpt-plugins-beta