How to move a custom GPT to Claude before 11 December

A Project or a skill?

From the Claude Help Center, read 5 November 2026. Custom GPTs vs Claude skills compares the two formats in more depth.

Move it as a Project

1. Copy the GPT. In ChatGPT, open the GPT, click its name, choose Edit GPT, and copy its instructions from the Configure tab. Find the original files you uploaded to Knowledge.
2. Create the project. In Claude, click Projects, then + New Project, and give it the GPT's name.
3. Add the instructions. Click Set project instructions, paste the GPT's instructions, and click Save instructions.
4. Add the files. Click + to add the knowledge files. On paid plans, Claude switches to searching them when they near the context limit.
5. Test it with three requests people used to send the GPT, and fix the instructions where the answers differ.

Move it as a skill

1. Write the header. A name in lowercase with hyphens (64 characters at most) and a description that starts with when to use it, such as "Use when drafting a parent update from lesson notes". Claude allows 200 characters for the description of a skill you upload.
2. Paste the instructions under the header in SKILL.md, as numbered steps with one example.
3. Add the files. Put the knowledge files in the skill's folder, which must have the skill's name, and mention each one in SKILL.md so Claude knows when to open it.
4. Upload it. Zip the folder so it sits at the ZIP's root, then in Claude go to Customize > Skills, click +, Create skill, and upload the ZIP. Code execution must be on.
5. Test it in a new chat by asking for the task in your own words; the skill should load without being named.

What doesn't move

• Actions. OpenAI's FAQ says custom actions don't transfer. In Claude, the same API calls come back as a connector, a remote MCP server; until someone builds it, the step is done by hand. What replaces a GPT's Actions covers it.
• Conversation starters. Claude has no starter buttons. Put the starters in the skill's description as examples of when to use it, or in the project's instructions.
• The chosen model. Pick a model in Claude; OpenAI says the model doesn't carry over even inside ChatGPT's own migration.
• Its link and listing. People who used the GPT's link need the new project or skill instead.

A worked example: three GPTs, two destinations

Illustration: a made-up business. Atlas Tutors, a tutoring agency of eight on Claude Team, has three GPTs: "Parent updates" (instructions only), "Lesson planner" (instructions and two curriculum PDFs) and "Policy questions" (the staff handbook). The office manager moves them in an afternoon:

1. Parent updates becomes a skill. Its description reads "Use when drafting a weekly update to a parent from a tutor's lesson notes", and its three starters become examples in that line.
2. Lesson planner becomes a skill with the two PDFs in its folder, mentioned by name in the steps.
3. Policy questions becomes a Project with the handbook in its knowledge, shared with all eight as Can view, so staff open it when they have a question.

She provisions the two skills for the organization, so every tutor's Claude loads them without anyone opening anything. The GPT that posted lesson notes to the booking system had an Action; that one waits for a connector, and tutors paste notes in by hand until then.

Share what you moved

Inside one Claude Team or Enterprise organization, share the Project with Can view or Can edit, and share the skills with people or have an owner provision them for everyone. For people outside that organization, such as contractors, or teammates in another AI, put the skills in AI Skill Pod: everyone on the team gets them in their Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT (Pro, Business, Enterprise) from one invite link, free to start. On ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, an admin or owner adds the pod first.

AI Skill Pod is this site's product. Pod pricing: Free up to 3 members and 10 skills; Team $5 per seat a month from 3 seats.

Next step: keep the team on one copy after 11 December

Once the GPTs are in Claude, the people who used them by link need the new copy. Keep your custom GPT shared after it retires covers telling your team and clients and keeping one version.

Questions

Can I import a custom GPT into Claude?

Claude's help describes no import for GPTs, so you copy it across. Paste the GPT's instructions into a Claude Project's instructions or a skill's SKILL.md, add its knowledge files, and rebuild any Actions as a connector. It takes a few minutes for a GPT without Actions.

Should a GPT become a Claude Project or a skill?

A Project if people open the GPT to work with its files over many chats, such as a handbook or a client's documents. A skill if they use it for one repeated task, such as drafting a weekly report, because Claude then loads it in any chat when the request matches. A GPT can become both: the files in a Project, the procedure as a skill.

What happens to my GPT's Actions?

They don't move. OpenAI's migration FAQ says custom actions don't transfer, and in Claude an Action's API calls come back as a connector: a remote MCP server added under custom connectors. Until it's built, do that step by hand.