How to move a custom GPT to another account or owner

Where the GPT is going, and how

From OpenAI's help, read through search-result text and kept only where an independent source agrees, and university IT guides from St. Thomas and Illinois, read 5 November 2026.

A worked example: the consultant's GPT

Illustration: a made-up business. A marketing consultant built a "Campaign brief" GPT on her own ChatGPT account and shared its link with a client's team of six. Her contract ends in December, and the client wants the GPT on an account it controls. The client's marketing lead:

1. Copies the Configure tab with her: the name, description, instructions and conversation starters, plus the list of knowledge files and the one Action.
2. Rewrites it as a skill, with the description "Writes a campaign brief from a product note: audience, message, channels, budget and dates. Use when planning a campaign." The two rules from the brand guide that mattered go into the steps; the guide itself stays with the client.
3. Adds the skill to the client's pod and sends the invite link, so the team gets it in Claude, and in ChatGPT Business once the admin adds the pod.
4. Removes the consultant from the pod when the contract ends. Her AI stops reaching the skills, and the skills she wrote stay with the team.

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.

Move a GPT to a skill in five steps

1. Open the GPT, choose Edit GPT, then Configure. Copy the name, description, instructions and conversation starters into a document.
2. List the knowledge files and Actions. Keep the original files. Actions don't carry over to a skill; rebuild them as a connector.
3. Rewrite the instructions as a skill: a description that starts with what it does and says when to use it, numbered steps, and one output template.
4. Test it with three real requests and compare the answers with the GPT's.
5. Share it, then retire the GPT link, so nobody keeps using the old copy.

Next step: GPT or skill, what changes

Before you rewrite, see what a skill does differently from a GPT. Custom GPT vs Claude skills compares them and shows how to move one.

Questions

Can you transfer a custom GPT to another account?

Only inside a workspace, as far as OpenAI's help shows: in a ChatGPT Business or Enterprise workspace, a workspace owner can reassign a GPT to another member. To move one to someone else's account or another company, you rebuild it from its Configure tab, and with GPTs retiring on 11 December 2026, rebuilding it as a skill lasts longer.

What happens to my GPTs if I merge my personal account into ChatGPT Business?

OpenAI's help and a university IT guide agree that merging your personal workspace into a Business workspace brings your chats and your own GPTs with it, and that the merge can't be undone. Copy each GPT's instructions and keep its files before you merge.

What should replace a GPT before it retires?

A skill. GPTs retire on 11 December 2026, some Enterprise workspaces later. A skill is a SKILL.md file that Claude and ChatGPT both read, so the team keeps one copy that isn't tied to the account of whoever built the GPT.