Replace Your Custom GPT with a ChatGPT Project

Why this matters

Plenty of small teams have a Custom GPT that does one job every day: answering price questions, drafting replies in the house style, checking a policy. If it stops working, the team is back to typing the price list from memory, and the wrong answers start again.

The lesson explains that OpenAI is retiring custom GPTs on December 11, 2026. A ChatGPT Project holds the same three things that make a GPT useful, its instructions, its starting questions and its files, and it works on every plan.

In this module you move a working GPT into a Project piece by piece, then test it on a real customer question to prove it answers the same way.

What you’ll build

The Sunny Paws Booking Helper, a made-up grooming shop’s GPT, rebuilt as a Project called Sunny Paws Booking with project-only memory. Its five lines of instructions are pasted into Project settings, its three conversation starters become one extra line ("If I type menu, offer these starting points"), and its two knowledge files (Sunny Paws price list.pdf and Sunny Paws policies.docx) go under Sources.

You test it with a question that needs both files: a bath and nail trim for a 60 lb goldendoodle, and cancelling the day before. The answer matches the old GPT: $90 in total, free cancellation 24 hours or more ahead, and Rosa confirms the time by text.

What you need

Nothing to start the practiceChatGPT, the GPT and its two files are practice copies, and nothing changes in a real GPT.
The ChatGPT account that owns your GPTOnly the owner can open its editor. In the sidebar: More (or Explore), GPTs, then My GPTs at the top right.
The GPT’s instructions and startersIn the GPT editor, on the Configure tab. Copy the instructions with Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C, and write down the conversation starters.
Its knowledge filesListed under Knowledge on the same tab. Download them from the editor, or use your own copies of the same files.

Concepts

3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.

Three things make a GPT work

Its instructions (how it answers), its conversation starters (the suggested questions) and its knowledge files (the price list, the policies). Copy those three and the Project will answer the same way.

Custom actions and the public GPT Store link do not move. Most small-business GPTs never used them.

Where each piece goes

Instructions go into Project settings. The conversation starters become one last line of those instructions. The files go under Sources.

Choose project-only memory when you create it, so its chats stay apart from everything else you ask ChatGPT, the way the GPT’s did.

Test it the way customers use it

Ask one real question that needs both files, like a price that depends on a detail and a policy rule. If the numbers and the rule match the old GPT, the move is done.

Old chats with the GPT cannot be moved into a Project, so copy out anything you want to keep.

Practice

Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.

ChatGPTReplace Your Custom GPT with a ChatGPT Project25 steps · ~7 min · nothing touches your real accounts

Start the practice →Prefer to read? Step-by-step guide

Do it for real

Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.

Open your GPT: in the sidebar click More (or Explore), then GPTs, then My GPTs, then the pencil next to your GPT.
On the Configure tab, copy the instructions, write down the conversation starters and note the knowledge file names. Download the files if you do not have copies.
In the sidebar, under Projects, click New project. Name it, choose Project-only memory and click Create project.
Click ⋯, then Project settings. Paste the instructions, add the starter line from the download, and click Save.
On the Sources tab, click Add sources, then Upload, and add the same files.
Start a chat in the project and ask a real question that needs both files. Compare the answer with the old GPT’s.
Tell your team where the new project is, and copy out any old GPT chats you want to keep.

Downloads

GPT to Project checklist (.txt)The lesson’s GPT instructions, starters and files, where each one goes in the Project, the starter line to copy, the test question and what does not move.

Quick check

3 questions to check you’ve got it.

1. Which three things do you copy from a GPT?

Its instructions, conversation starters and knowledge files
Its name, icon and color
Its old chats

Show the answer

Its instructions, conversation starters and knowledge files. Those three make it answer the way it does. Old chats cannot be moved.

2. Where do the conversation starters go in a Project?

Under Sources, as a file
As one last line in the Project instructions
They cannot be used

Show the answer

As one last line in the Project instructions. One line like "If I type menu, offer these starting points" keeps them.

3. How do you know the move worked?

The Project has the same name
A real question that needs both files gets the same answer as the old GPT
The files uploaded without an error

Show the answer

A real question that needs both files gets the same answer as the old GPT. Test it the way customers use it: a price and a policy rule, checked against the old answer.

Up next · Module 12

ChatGPT Work: Have ChatGPT Do a Multi-Step Task

One module to go. So far you have asked ChatGPT questions and checked its answers. Next you hand it a whole job: switch to Work and have it compare three suppliers into a spreadsheet while you supervise.

Start module 12 →