QWE AI Academy Key takeaway: If you’re searching for “the best ChatGPT plugins to install,” you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist anymore. ChatGPT plugins were sunset on April 9, 2024. The Plugin Store is gone. What replaced them – GPTs from the GPT Store – is actually better for most workflows, but only a handful are worth your time. This guide cuts the dead links and gives you what to install today.
A quick reality check on “ChatGPT plugins” in 2026
Almost every “best ChatGPT plugins” article you’ll find right now is recycling a 2023 list. Wolfram, Zapier, AskYourPDF, Prompt Perfect – those were the classics. They no longer exist as plugins. On April 9, 2024, OpenAI officially deprecated the ChatGPT plugin system, replacing it with Custom GPTs and GPT Actions – and the decision surprised a lot of users who had built workflows around the old Store.
The wind-down had a specific schedule. Zapier’s official sunset notice confirms: new conversations with the Zapier plugin were disabled March 19, 2024, and all existing plugin conversations stopped working April 9. Every other plugin followed the same cutoff. Try clicking an old plugin chat today and you get “Plugins are no longer supported” – the GPTs library is shown as the replacement.
So when this guide talks about “plugins,” it means the two things that actually replaced them: built-in ChatGPT tools and GPTs from the GPT Store.
Why OpenAI killed plugins
Most of the 1,000+ plugins in the old Store were barely touched. Usage clustered around maybe a dozen names – power users found them useful, but the average ChatGPT Plus subscriber never went near the Plugin menu. The UX was the problem: before every chat, you had to manually select which plugins to activate. You were predicting your own needs in advance. GPTs flipped that – you pick a specialized assistant, and the tools come pre-wired inside it. No pre-chat configuration, no switching mid-conversation.
Built-in tools vs. GPTs – pick the right layer first
Skip this comparison and you’ll install things you don’t need. Two options exist today, and for the average user, one wins decisively.
| Approach | What it covers | Setup | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in tools (browsing, Python, image gen, file uploads) | ~80% of what old plugins did | Zero – already there | Most users |
| GPTs from the Store | Specialized workflows, niche data sources, custom system prompts | One click to start a chat | Repeated tasks in a narrow domain |
Turns out ChatGPT Plus already includes web browsing, data analysis, and DALL-E 3 natively (as of 2024) – which covers most of what people installed plugins for in the first place. That’s the part most “best plugins” articles never mention. Check whether the base model handles it before installing anything. It probably does.
The practical split: built-in tools first, GPTs only when you have a task the base model handles awkwardly – academic research with citations, specialized diagram formats, document-heavy workflows. Otherwise you’re adding friction for no gain.
The short list of GPTs actually worth installing
These picks come from the current Top GPTs ranking on the public GPT Store leaderboard (rankings as of January 2025 – verify when you read this, they shift weekly), cross-checked against what real workflows actually need.
- Scholar GPT – gives you structured results from 200M+ sources: Google Scholar, PubMed, bioRxiv, arXiv. The base ChatGPT browser searches the open web; Scholar GPT pulls structured academic results with citations. Different tool entirely.
- Consensus – 287M+ papers, synthesized. Less about search, more about synthesis: you ask a research question, it drafts a response with citations from the literature. Complements Scholar GPT rather than replacing it.
- Canva – design presentations, logos, and social media posts from inside the chat. One important note: the GPT Store has several near-identical clones with similar names. Use the verified official version.
- Code Copilot – a coding-focused GPT that sits at the top of the leaderboard. If the base model’s code output already works for you, skip it. If you’re writing code all day, worth a test.
- Diagrams: Show Me – the base ChatGPT doesn’t produce structured diagrams reliably. This GPT does. Useful for anyone who needs flowcharts or process maps as a regular output, not a one-off.
- Doc Maker / AI PDF – better formatted document output than vanilla ChatGPT. If you regularly need polished PDF exports from a chat session, this fills a gap the built-in tools leave.
Here’s a question worth sitting with before you install any of these: how often do you actually repeat this task? A GPT adds a navigation step to every session. If you’d use Scholar GPT twice a week, the overhead is worth it. If it’s once a month, the base browser probably covers you well enough.
How to start a GPT (it’s not really installing)
“Install” is a holdover from the plugin era. GPTs don’t install – they’re standalone chats that start immediately with your existing ChatGPT account. No setup, no configuration file, no downloading anything.
- Open ChatGPT and click Explore GPTs in the sidebar (or go to chatgpt.com/gpts).
- Search by name or browse the category rows.
- Click the GPT – you’ll see a description, rating, and conversation starters.
- Click Start Chat. It now lives in your sidebar.
- To remove it later: open the GPT, click its name at the top, use the dropdown.
GPTs are available for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users – Plus runs $20/month as of early 2025, though OpenAI’s pricing page is the source to check since this changes. OpenAI has been gradually opening limited GPT access to free-tier users as well, so verify your account tier before paying.
Edge cases nobody warns you about
The clone problem. Search “Canva” in the GPT Store: the real one appears, plus several copies with near-identical names and icons. Clones farm interactions, then either break or quietly inject prompt instructions you didn’t agree to. Check for the publisher’s verified badge and the conversation count – the legitimate version typically has orders of magnitude more chats than any clone.
GPTs don’t share memory. Any preferences you’ve built into the base ChatGPT – writing style, project context, recurring instructions – a GPT won’t see any of it. Each GPT runs with its own system prompt in isolation. Workaround: paste a short context block at the start of GPT sessions for tasks that need your background.
For developers: the real plugin replacement isn’t GPTs. If you built workflows against the old plugin API, GPTs aren’t the migration path. The Responses API is. Per OpenAI’s official deprecations page, the Responses API was released in March 2025 as the forward-looking interface – check that page directly for the current migration timeline, as dates shift.
Old guides will keep fooling you. Many “best ChatGPT plugins” articles published in 2025 and 2026 still list dead plugins. If a tutorial tells you to open the Plugin Store from settings, close the tab. That menu hasn’t existed since early 2024.
FAQ
Can I still use the old ChatGPT plugins like Wolfram or Zapier?
No – all plugins were shut down April 9, 2024. Wolfram has a GPT in the Store now; Zapier moved to AI Actions inside Custom GPTs.
I keep seeing articles recommending plugins like AskYourPDF and Prompt Perfect – are those tutorials wrong?
Not exactly wrong, just outdated. The brand names still exist as GPTs in the Store, not as plugins. “Install AskYourPDF” today means “open the AskYourPDF GPT” – similar function, completely different path. The tell: if a tutorial walks you through a “Plugin Store” sidebar option, you’re reading something written before early 2024. That UI is gone.
Do I need ChatGPT Plus to use GPTs?
Historically yes – GPTs launched as a Plus/Team/Enterprise feature. OpenAI has been extending limited GPT access to free users, so check your account tier before upgrading. And if all you need is web browsing, image generation, and file analysis, the free tier may already cover you without any GPTs at all – test that first.
Next action
Open ChatGPT, click Explore GPTs, and run Scholar GPT on your next research question. Same prompt, side by side with the base browsing tool. If Scholar GPT gives you something materially better, pin it. If not, you just saved yourself an install. That’s the whole filter.