OpenAI GPTs: Build Custom AI Agents Without Coding

OpenAI offers one of the most versatile tools in the artificial intelligence ecosystem: custom GPTs. This feature allows creating adapted versions of ChatGPT that combine instructions, additional knowledge, and specific skills. Any person or company can design their own assistant without needing to code, for personal, educational, or business tasks.

The Chat Builder integrated into the same tool everyone knows facilitates the process and offers an intuitive experience; with guided steps and visual options. Since 2024, the feature has consolidated as a stable environment for creating practical AI agents, and in 2025 it fully integrated with ChatGPT Business and Enterprise plans.

AgentAya Verdict

GPTs stand out for their rapid deployment and breadth of use cases, all within the familiar ChatGPT environment. Its strong point is no-code customization, with the option to connect APIs, use files, browse the web, and even generate images. As a limitation, both the creation interface and documentation are mainly in English, and advanced administration and collaboration features depend on business plans. Recommendation: it’s an excellent entry point for SMEs wanting to obtain useful agents in days, with reasonable data control and a mature ecosystem.

Score Breakdown

Category	Score	Description
Features and Functionality	4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Templates, files, web browsing, and actions with APIs.
Integrations	4.2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐	Actions via external APIs and file handling.
Language and Support	3.7 ⭐⭐⭐	Interface and documentation in English; good online help center.
Ease of Use	5.0 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	No-code building directly within ChatGPT.
Value for Money	4.2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐	Accessible entry and scaling according to needs.

AgentAya Overall Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.3 / 5

Solid balance between ease, power, and ecosystem for SMEs.

Main Features

• No-code builder with instruction editor, file usage, and advanced configurations. Creation occurs within ChatGPT’s interface through clear steps (name, description, personality, etc.), without needing technical experience.
• Actions (APIs) to connect external systems (e.g., CRM, ERP) or the company’s own services. This allows integrating the GPT with company tools to automate tasks.
• Web browsing to consult public sources on the Internet and enrich responses with updated information.
• Integrated image generation through the DALL·E model, which allows creating images from text prompts – useful for visual content in marketing or prototypes.
• Data analysis using ChatGPT’s advanced tool (Python environment formerly called Code Interpreter). With this function, the GPT can process CSV or Excel files, perform calculations, and generate simple graphs, useful in financial reporting tasks or SME data analysis. (Functionality available for Plus/Pro subscribers.)
• Knowledge management with document uploads (PDFs, CSV, or other internal manuals), allowing queries based on your company’s own information. The GPT performs contextual search in these files to provide accurate responses with SME data.
• Flexible distribution: you can use your GPT privately, share it by link, or publish it in the GPT Store to reach more users.

Impact on SMEs: these capabilities translate to fewer hours dedicated to support and content generation, more consistent responses for clients, and the ability to launch intelligent assistants in days instead of months.

AI Functions

The “intelligent” core of this tool is the orchestration of GPT models with context and tools. The agent interprets user intent, consults proprietary documents, calls APIs, and reasons over all that information to deliver useful and actionable responses. This surpasses standard “chat” because it actually executes tasks: it combines company data with the web or external systems in a way controlled by the GPT creator. In 2025, OpenAI also introduced Apps in ChatGPT and an Apps SDK as an ecosystem evolution, which reinforces platform extensibility and augurs even deeper future integrations.

Integrations

GPTs integrate through Actions, which allow calling third-party APIs or the business’s own services; they can also handle files and use web browsing. This enables cases with CRMs, forms, tickets, and e-commerce without leaving ChatGPT. For international markets, channels like WhatsApp depend on external integrators and channel provider policies; GPTs don’t expose a native WhatsApp connector.

Additionally:

• Native connectors in Business and Enterprise plans: Direct integration with internal sources like Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint, GitHub, Dropbox, and Notion for custom queries with internal data.
• Integration via custom APIs: Actions allow connecting ChatGPT with the company’s own systems (e.g., databases or ERPs) to send, receive, or process information in real-time.
• Compatibility with popular tools: Support for flows with platforms like Zapier, Make (Integromat), or Stack AI, which expand connections between GPTs and external applications without writing code.
• Knowledge synchronization through files: GPTs can retrieve information from uploaded documents (PDF, CSV, TXT) or cloud systems, using contextual search (file search) to keep responses updated.
• Actions with secure authentication: OpenAI implements authentication with OAuth or encrypted API keys, ensuring only the owner or authorized users can execute sensitive integrations within their GPT.

These integrations expand GPTs’ reach, allowing SMEs to connect their operational and customer information directly with an intelligent assistant within the ChatGPT environment.

Security and Data Compliance

In Business/Enterprise products and the API, OpenAI has SOC 2 Type 2 certification (external security audit) and controls aligned with international standards like ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018, and 27701, plus compliance with GDPR (Europe) and CCPA (California) laws. This guarantees good data handling practices, with reports available on their trust portal.

By default, OpenAI doesn’t train its models with business customer or API data, and owners maintain control over retention and ownership of inputs and outputs according to law. For consumer plans (individual users), content could be used to improve models, but users have options to deactivate that use in privacy settings. It’s important to review these options before using GPTs with sensitive information.

Language – Customer Support and Interface

The ChatGPT interface (including the GPT builder) and part of the official documentation is available in multiple languages. However, the online help center and updated release notes are mainly in English.

AI Language – The Tool Itself

OpenAI models understand and generate multiple languages with very high quality level, like other global languages. This means your GPTs can converse fluently in various languages and dialects as needed, maintaining local nuances and contexts. To achieve consistent tone and terms internationally, it’s recommended to define glossaries, use local examples, and establish style policies (e.g., formal vs. informal treatment) when training or instructing your GPT, so it maintains communication consistency.

Mobile Access

GPTs function within official ChatGPT mobile applications for iOS and Android, with history synchronization between devices. You can open and use your GPT assistants from your phone just like in the desktop version. While advanced editing (like modifying instructions or adding files/actions) is more comfortable on a computer, daily operation and quick tests are totally viable from mobile. This allows, for example, SME owners to consult or demonstrate their GPT in meetings using only their phone.

Support, Onboarding Process, and Account Management

OpenAI provides step-by-step tutorials, an active user community (forums), and publishes frequent release notes with news. The onboarding process for a new GPT is guided within ChatGPT, facilitating non-technical users to start quickly. In business environments (e.g., with ChatGPT Team or Enterprise), user management controls, permission management, and centralized data retention options for account administrators are added. For SMEs with little technical experience, the guided GPT creation flow simplifies startup to a matter of hours, not days.

Ease of Use / UX

The experience is very familiar for any ChatGPT user. Building a GPT involves defining its instructions/personality, attaching relevant files, and, if desired, adding Actions with APIs and defining specific permissions. The learning curve is moderate at first, but then agent iteration and improvement is rapid thanks to immediate feedback. ChatGPT’s interface guides the creation process intuitively, so coding isn’t needed. An SME can start with a small pilot and see value in a few days, adjusting the GPT on the fly based on actual queries it receives. In summary, usability is high: anyone who has used ChatGPT can create a custom agent with a little practice.

Pricing and Plans

As part of the ChatGPT ecosystem, it has free and paid options, as well as plans for teams and companies. Below is a summary of relevant plans and how they affect GPT use:

• Free: Base model (limited GPT-4). Use of public GPTs allowed, but can’t create custom GPTs. Messages, file uploads, and images with limits (slower). Reduced conversation context.
• Plus: Advanced model (GPT-4/GPT-5). Allows creating custom GPTs and accessing improved features: more messages and files per hour, faster image generation, advanced data analysis, and integrated web browsing.
• Pro: Unlimited individual platform use. Offers everything in Plus but without restrictions: virtually unlimited messages and uploads, faster image generation, maximum context, and priority access to new experimental features.
• Business (Team): Designed for small or medium teams. Includes all Plus features, with multi-user administration: secure workspace with SSO (single sign-on) and MFA, GPT sharing controls within the organization, and connectors to internal sources (Google Drive, SharePoint, GitHub, Notion, etc.) to customize responses. Conversation data in this plan is excluded from model training by default (greater privacy).
• Enterprise: Oriented to large organizations. Includes everything in Business, with advanced improvements.

Advice: For a typical SME, it’s common to start with ChatGPT Plus for its low cost and good feature set. As use grows or more controls are needed (e.g., team collaboration or integrating internal data), you can scale to a Business plan.

Case Study

A digital agency created a GPT for e-commerce support: they loaded their help center information into it and enabled an Action connected to their CRM to create support tickets with certain priority.

Result: they managed to reduce first customer response time and provide more consistent responses during high-traffic campaigns. This pattern is replicable in retail, educational institutions, and service companies handling frequent and seasonal customer queries. Each SME can adapt the GPT to their own content to obtain similar benefits in efficiency and service quality.

OpenAI GPTs vs Alternatives

OpenAI GPTs vs Microsoft Copilot

• Focus: GPTs prioritizes building no-code assistants and an “apps” ecosystem within ChatGPT; Copilot integrates deeply into the Microsoft 365 suite (Teams, Outlook, SharePoint), powering scenarios within those applications.
• Implementation speed: GPTs facilitates rapid pilots and results in days; Copilot shines if your organization already works entirely in Microsoft environments, leveraging existing configuration.
• Governance and data: Both offer business options. GPTs has SOC 2 certification and robust data controls; Copilot inherits Microsoft’s own security and compliance controls.
• Channels: GPTs expands its features through Actions (external API calls); Copilot stands out in office productivity, assisting in documents, emails, and meetings within Microsoft Office.

OpenAI GPTs vs Stack AI

• Technical profile: GPTs requires no programming within ChatGPT. Stack AI offers a visual builder with emphasis on integrating AI with proprietary data (RAG technique, combining model with search in your information base) and optical character recognition (OCR to read scanned documents), plus allowing deployments in private cloud (VPC) or on-premises servers.
• Compliance: GPTs has SOC 2 and enterprise-level security controls; Stack AI offers deeper infrastructure isolation options for environments requiring dedicated servers.
• SME cases: GPTs is ideal for quickly implementing support and content agents; Stack AI fits when more complex orchestration is required or complying with strict sector regulations (e.g., medical, financial data, etc.).

Conclusion: choose GPTs if you value speed and the ChatGPT ecosystem; Copilot if your daily operation revolves around Microsoft 365; Stack AI if you need advanced business flows and dedicated deployments with greater infrastructure control.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Can I publish my GPT for other users?

Yes. Note that to list a GPT in the public store you must be a ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscriber (or member of an Enterprise plan with GPTs enabled) and verify your creator profile. Each GPT submitted to the store goes through an automated (and potentially manual) review process to ensure it meets usage policies.

Does OpenAI use my data to train models?

For API and enterprise plan customers, not by default: OpenAI doesn’t use your GPT conversation content to train its models, unless you explicitly opt to share that data. In consumer plans, some information could be used to improve models by default, but users have privacy controls.

What happens to data sent to external services via Actions?

The GPT shares with the external API only data necessary to perform the task, but OpenAI doesn’t control how the third party stores or uses that data.

Is there a mobile app to operate my GPTs?

Yes. GPTs work in official ChatGPT apps for both iOS and Android, with your same login. From mobile you can use your GPTs with the same main features, and conversation history syncs between devices.

Will GPTs continue to exist with the new “Apps in ChatGPT”?

OpenAI introduced the Apps feature and an Apps SDK in 2025 as platform evolution. This expands possibilities, but GPTs will continue to be compatible within this new ecosystem.