OpenAI announced for the first time the option for people to create custom GPTs almost a year ago. The company described GPTs as an automated, low-code way to create specialized experiences on top of ChatGPT, and said it believed non-traditional developers such as educators, trainers, and experts would create impressive GPTs.
The Store would be accessible to customers and developers who paid for ChatGPT Plus, Teams or Enterprise. OpenAI also stated that it would launch an income program for GPT builders and that US builders would be paid based on user interaction with their GPTs. He promised to provide details on payment criteria.
The GPT store officially launched in January 2024. In late March, developer Nick Dobos shared on X a screenshot of an email he said he received from OpenAI inviting him to be part of their revenue-sharing pilot program. Dobos’ encoding GPT, Grimoire, is one of the most popular GPTs in the GPT store and has hosted over 2 million “conversations” or chats with the app.
According to the email Dobos shared on X, the pilot program guaranteed him a minimum payment of $1,000 per month, with the potential for additional earnings based on usage. Dobos did not respond to several emails and direct messages asking about his experience with the GPT Store since the pilot program launched.
When asked about the status of the program, OpenAI pointed out to WIRED its help pagewhich provided a brief, high-level overview of the program and said the company “hopes to enable more builders to monetize their GPTs in the future.”
Like Villocido, Adrian Lin, who lives in Singapore, was optimistic about the GPT store. Lin is a full-time AI researcher who has created an applications lab, Adrian AI Lab, on the side. He has no formal training in web or mobile app development, so when OpenAI said that doing a GPT wouldn’t require coding skills, Lin saw it as an opportunity to build and manage his own products.
It was easy to adjust their models to their intentions, Lin says.
Lin estimates that Copywriter GPT, his copywriting GPT, has had between 500,000 and 600,000 interactions. Like Villocido’s Books GPT, Lin’s has appeared on the OpenAI store homepage.
