Ask HN: What's the current state of ChatGPT Apps?

Posted by arthurlee on Thursday February 12, 2026 @02:08PM
from the ask-hn dept.

It’s been quite some time since OpenAI announced the ChatGPT Apps SDK in late October last year.

Looking at the ChatGPT Apps directory, there seem to be many apps available, but are people actually using them actively in practice?

I’ve been trying to find information or metrics about real usage, but it’s been surprisingly hard. As a rough proxy, I checked the app versions, and noticed that most of them are still at version 1.0.0, which makes me wonder how actively they are being maintained or used.

Would appreciate any insights from people who have built or used ChatGPT Apps.

( 3 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What's the current state of ChatGPT Apps? by verdverm on Friday February 13, 2026 @03:22AM (#47000304)

Everyone is doing Claude Skills, OpenAi gets much less attention these days

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's the current state of ChatGPT Apps? by arthurlee on Friday February 13, 2026 @11:22AM (#47004460)

But I think this “everyone” mainly refers to developers and early adopters.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's the current state of ChatGPT Apps? by Sea_reafused on Saturday February 14, 2026 @09:20AM (#47014743)

The version 1.0.0 observation is a pretty telling signal. From what I've seen with most platform-specific app ecosystems, the initial land grab phase looks impressive in terms of directory size but actual retention is a different story. It reminds me of early Slack apps or Shopify plugins — lots of listings, very few with real engagement loops. The hard part isn't building the integration, it's finding a use case where being inside ChatGPT is meaningfully better than just being a standalone tool or API call. I'd be curious if anyone has seen usage patterns where the conversational context actually makes the app stickier vs. just being a novelty

[ Parent | on HN ]