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OpenAI opens ChatGPT's sidebar to developer-built plugin extensions

· by Pondero Newsdesk

The short version

OpenAI now lets developers give plugins a permanent home inside ChatGPT's interface, a distribution move TechCrunch says takes direct aim at the traditional app store.

OpenAI opens ChatGPT's sidebar to developer-built plugin extensions

OpenAI gave developers a way to live permanently inside ChatGPT instead of linking users out to a separate app. That announcement landed at DevDay 2026 on September 29, and TechCrunch read it as a direct challenge to app-store distribution now that ChatGPT counts 1.2 billion weekly users, per OpenAI's DevDay recap.

What

Called "plugin extensions," the feature gives a plugin a dedicated home in ChatGPT's sidebar. Developers can also build interactive panels people work in alongside the conversation, plus viewers for whatever file types their product uses, all available on every ChatGPT plan, per OpenAI. A new Plugin Creator tool handles the build side, submission now runs through a redesigned flow with clearer feedback, and ranking and recommendations improved so plugins surface in both the directory and live conversations. Plugins can also trigger automations off events in a connected app, such as watching a project board for new tasks and drafting a plan while the user is away, now that OpenAI added support for the proposed MCP Events specification, per OpenAI's plugin documentation. Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Edu customers can now host supported plugins inside the ChatGPT Sites they build, so a team can share one connected app across a workspace with each member's own permissions, OpenAI said. A ChatGPT app directory first opened in December 2025; plugin extensions push that into deeper, persistent app-like surfaces instead of one-off tool calls, TechCrunch reported.

Discovery now happens inside the chat, not a storefront a user has to visit first

Alongside the extensions, OpenAI shipped a separate DevDay feature called "Sign in with ChatGPT," which lets a user carry an existing ChatGPT identity and AI usage allowance into third-party apps. Sixteen launch partners signed on, including Cognition's Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw, and Dactyl, with more planned, per TechCrunch. Combined, the two moves mean ChatGPT will start suggesting a plugin mid-conversation when it recognizes a task the plugin could handle, then let the user connect and use it without leaving the chat window, according to TechCrunch's reporting on the DevDay announcements. Developers get a new acquisition channel that does not require anyone to find and install something from an app store first. Products people already open mid-task, task trackers, shared docs, dashboards, are the most exposed to losing that moment to a plugin extension, since ChatGPT can now surface the same function without the user leaving the conversation. Standalone tools built around their own login and onboarding have more insulation, at least until a plugin extension replicates that flow inside ChatGPT itself.

What to watch next

Revenue-share terms for plugin extensions are not public, so a team deciding whether to build one should get that number from OpenAI directly before committing engineering time, not after. Watch which developers ship first, and whether MCP Events, still a proposed specification rather than a finished standard, gets adopted widely enough for the automation piece to work across products, per OpenAI's developer docs.

Sources