OpenAI Turns ChatGPT Into an App Store Rival With Dots and 4,000 Apps
OpenAI turns ChatGPT into an app discovery and agent platform for 1.2 billion weekly users, challenging Apple and Google without a shared billing system.
Summary
On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, OpenAI positioned ChatGPT and its 1.2 billion weekly users as an alternative software distribution channel. Conversational suggestions will let users connect and run relevant apps inside ChatGPT, while expanded plugins support extensions and interactive panels. Developers can build AI-native apps and share them through lightweight ChatGPT sites where coworkers use their own credentials and permissions. Sign in with ChatGPT carries users’ AI allowances into third-party apps, with 16 launch partners including Cognition’s Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw and Dactyl. Demonstrations featured OpenAI’s meeting app producing notes and follow-up summaries, plus Adobe and Figma project editing. Developers can now track plugin reviews, identify fixes, request human review and update tools without resubmitting everything.
OpenAI’s autonomous Dots each have a cloud computer and browser, can access more than 4,000 connected apps and conduct proactive, read-only research, while requiring approval before taking actions. A new enterprise marketplace launches with more than 30 partners, including Adobe, Figma, Sierra, Decagon, HubSpot, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Harvey, Legora, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Baseten. Eligible customers can apply OpenAI commitments toward approved partner software. Developers could sell subscriptions on their websites and connect accounts to ChatGPT or Codex, creating distribution beyond Apple and Google. OpenAI did not say separate subscriptions or charges would disappear and announced no app-store-style billing or revenue-sharing system.
Positives
- ChatGPT’s 1.2 billion weekly users give developers a substantial new channel for discovering and running AI-native apps.
- More than 4,000 connected apps will be available to Dots for delegated tasks and proactive research.
- Sixteen Sign in with ChatGPT launch partners can let users carry existing AI allowances into outside apps.
- More than 30 enterprise marketplace partners can sell approved software against eligible customers’ OpenAI commitments.
- Plugin developers can track reviews, request human intervention and update tools without restarting submissions.
Risks & concerns
- No billing or revenue-sharing system was announced, leaving OpenAI without the economic layer offered by traditional app stores.
- Separate third-party subscriptions and other charges may remain even when services operate through ChatGPT or Codex.
- Dots may increasingly choose and surface tools for users, weakening direct relationships between app developers and customers.
- Only 16 Sign in with ChatGPT launch partners were identified, although OpenAI plans to add more.
- Proactive research is limited to read-only access, and consequential actions still require user approval.