Custom GPTs are becoming plugins and Gems are becoming skills: how to save yours

Updated October 10, 2026 · By Otter Potter, the maker of Assistant Keeper (not neutral; we say where it matters).

If you built a Custom GPT or a Gemini Gem, the valuable part is the instructions you wrote and refined. Both homes are changing in 2026. Users report that OpenAI removed the ability to create new Custom GPTs from Plus and Pro accounts and is turning GPTs into “plugins”, and Google has said Gems will move to “skills” starting November 17, 2026. Whatever each company does next, a copy of your own instructions costs ten minutes and can’t be taken away.

What to save

• The name and description.
• The instructions. This is the part that took the work.
• Conversation starters, if you set any.
• A list of the files you attached as knowledge, and where the originals are. The files themselves are yours already; the list is what people forget.

1. Copy them by hand (free)

Open your GPT’s editor (the Configure tab) or your Gem’s edit page, and copy each part into a document you control: one page per assistant. Do it while the edit pages still open. It’s dull if you have many, and easy to miss one.

2. Use them anywhere: paste as the first message (free)

Instructions aren’t tied to the product they were written in. To use a saved assistant in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot, start a new chat and paste:

For this whole chat, act as the assistant described below. Reply only with “Ready.” Then wait for my request. [paste the instructions]

It works in every AI, and you can see exactly what it was told.

3. Put them where each AI keeps standing instructions (free)

ChatGPT and Claude both have Projects with their own instructions, and each AI has a place for custom instructions that apply to every chat. Pasting a saved assistant into a Project gives you something close to the original, with files, without depending on the GPT or Gem itself.

4. An extension that saves and relaunches them

Assistant Keeper (we make this) adds a Save button to the GPT and Gem edit pages, keeps your assistants in a library in your browser, and starts any of them in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with one click. It can export the whole library as a file. Nothing is sent to us.

What it can’t do: it saves the text of an assistant, not its attached files or any actions it could run, and it works in a desktop browser, not the phone apps.

Questions

Will my GPTs and Gems be deleted?

We don’t know, and we’d rather not guess. What’s reported is a move to new formats, not deletion. A copy protects you either way.

Will a saved assistant behave exactly the same elsewhere?

Close, not identical. Different AIs follow the same instructions a little differently, and attached files and actions don’t travel with the text.

Is Assistant Keeper made by OpenAI or Google?

No. It’s made by Otter Potter and is not affiliated with either.