Built a GPT or Gem for a family job? Keep it working after it retires

What’s changing at OpenAI

• On Dec 11, GPTs and their pages become inaccessible. Your old conversations with them stay in your history.^[1]
• The replacement is plugins. When you migrate, the GPT’s instructions become a “skill” inside a new plugin, its knowledge files are copied over, and connected apps come along. Custom actions do not transfer, and the GPT’s chosen model doesn’t carry over.^[1]
• About “GPT creation ends Oct 26.” That date is for Enterprise workspaces.^[1] On personal accounts (Free, Go, Plus and Pro), creating and publishing new GPTs is already off. Existing GPTs still work, and you can still edit them on an eligible plan.^[4] So there’s no last-minute window. Just save what you have.
• How migration works. When it’s available to you, go to My GPTs and choose Migrate to plugin. It uses the GPT’s latest published version, so drafts don’t come along. Publishing doesn’t mean sharing publicly. After you migrate, the original GPT becomes read-only.^[1]
• Don’t see the button? OpenAI says migration may not be available on every account yet. It also has to be the account where you made the GPT.^[1]
• GPTs other people made are the creator’s job to migrate. You can’t migrate them yourself. Watch for a notice on that GPT.^[1]
• On the Free plan? ChatGPT’s pricing table lists “Create & share Plugins” for Go, Plus and Pro, not Free.^[5] If you’re on Free, use the project fallback in step 6 below.

What’s changing at Google

• Work and school accounts follow in March 2027 and June 2027.^[2]
• Skills work a little differently. You type / and the skill’s name in any chat (Google says this will soon be @). Gemini can also pick a skill on its own when it fits, and you can use several at once.^[2]
• Teens. Google’s page doesn’t say what happens to a 13- to 17-year-old’s Gems. If that’s your house, check the notice in your teen’s account.
• Some tools don’t come along yet. For now, most of the built-in tools that worked in Gems don’t work in skills. That includes Canvas, Deep Research and Guided learning, which a lot of homeschool Gems use.^[2]
• Also going in November: Opal (Google’s mini-app experiment) and Gems by Google Labs.^[2]

The 20-minute migration: ChatGPT

20 minutes is my estimate for two or three simple GPTs without custom actions.

1. Make a short list (2 min). Open My GPTs. Write down only the ones your family actually used this month.
2. Copy everything out (5 min). For each one, paste its instructions into a doc and download its knowledge files, so you have a backup.
3. Save three test prompts (2 min). These are things you normally ask it. OpenAI suggests the same thing, so you can compare old and new.^[1]
4. Publish, then migrate (3 min). Publish any unsaved edits, since drafts don’t transfer. Then choose Migrate to plugin when it shows up.^[1]
5. Test it (5 min). Run your three prompts plus one tricky one. Check that it picks the right skill, uses your files and answers in the format you need.^[1]
6. No button yet, or on Free? Use a project (3 min). Make a ChatGPT project, paste the GPT’s instructions into the project instructions and upload its files. Project instructions only apply inside that project. Free allows 5 files per project, Go and Plus allow 25, and Pro allows 40.^[6]

The 20-minute migration: Gemini

1. Simple Gems: you can wait for the automatic conversion.
2. Want it done now? On gemini.google.com, open Settings, then Skills, then Create manually. Paste in the Gem’s name, description and instructions, then click Create.^[2]
3. Gems with files take a few more steps. Download each knowledge file into a folder named like the skill, in lowercase with hyphens (for example school-email-digest). Download the new skill’s .zip and move its SKILL.md into that folder. Then choose Replace skill and upload the folder. For now, uploading only works on gemini.google.com or the Gemini app on Mac.^[2]
4. Test it: type / and the skill name in a new chat.

My checklist for this week

[ ] ChatGPT: list the GPTs we actually use
[ ] Copy each GPT's instructions + download its files into one folder
[ ] Save 3 test prompts per GPT
[ ] Publish any draft edits; migrate when "Migrate to plugin" shows up (before Dec 11)
[ ] On Free or no button yet: recreate it as a ChatGPT project
[ ] Gemini: list our Gems; note any that use Canvas, Deep Research or Guided learning
[ ] Teen under 18 using a Gem? Check their account notice
[ ] Optional: recreate the important Gems as skills now and test with /name

Once your instructions are saved in a plain doc, you can paste them into any assistant later. That’s the idea behind our family profile, and it’s a good time to point the helper at a job that saves real time, like the daily school email digest.