ChatGPT Plugins
ChatGPT plugins were the original third-party integration surface, launched in 2023. They have largely been deprecated in favor of the newer apps surface, which is the successor product. If you came here looking for plugins, the modern equivalent is a ChatGPT app.
What plugins were
Plugins were the first attempt at letting third-party services run inside ChatGPT. They had their own enable/disable flow, lived in a dedicated plugin store, and worked via a manifest the developer published. Notable plugins included Expedia, Wolfram, Zapier, OpenTable, and many smaller integrations. At their peak there were hundreds, but most never reached the polish and reliability bar of the current apps generation.
Why they were replaced
Plugins had structural limitations: the manifest-based design constrained how rich the integration could be, the plugin store became a sprawl of low-quality entries, and the user experience required explicit toggling per chat. The apps surface that replaced them is a deeper integration model — persistent connections, richer interaction inside chat, better permission handling, and a cleaner discovery experience. From a user perspective, apps are simply a better version of the same idea.
What happened to the plugins you used
Many of the strongest plugins migrated to the apps surface — Wolfram, Zapier, Expedia, and others now exist as ChatGPT apps with the same or expanded capabilities. Smaller or unmaintained plugins were retired without a migration. If you bookmarked a specific plugin, search for it in the apps directory — if it isn't there, it likely wasn't carried over.
What to use today
Use ChatGPT apps. The modern surface is what "plugin" became — the conceptual model is the same (a third-party service running inside ChatGPT), but the execution is significantly better. If you're still seeing references to plugins in older articles or tutorials, mentally translate "plugin" to "app" and the steps usually still apply.