App Store Model: OpenAI's Surprising Aim and What to Avoid

App store model economics have barely changed since 2008: the owner of the platform controls how software is found, installed, paid for and approved, and keeps a share of the money. At DevDay on Tuesday 29 September 2026, OpenAI announced a set of features that, taken together, copy most of that structure inside ChatGPT. TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez put it directly: the announcements “pointed toward a bigger plan: a disruption of the traditional app store model”.

Perez’s reading is that OpenAI is “building the discovery, distribution, and interface pieces to counter the app store model, along with an identity layer and a mechanism for sharing a user’s existing ChatGPT AI allowance”. What it did not announce, she noted, is “a billing or revenue-sharing system that’s comparable to the economic layer of traditional app stores”.

This article takes that claim apart layer by layer. We set out what the app store model involves, which parts OpenAI has now built, which part is missing, and what a developer would keep under each arrangement. We covered the safety side of the same launch in OpenAI’s AI app store plans. For the wider market, see our AI models and tools hub.

Table of contents

What the App Store Model Is
How OpenAI’s Features Map to the App Store Model
The Missing Layer in OpenAI’s App Store Model
The Allowance: An App Store Model Turned Upside Down
Agents Change Who Chooses the App
OpenAI’s Earlier Runs at the App Store Model
What the App Store Model Shift Means for UK Software Firms
App Store Model FAQ
References

What the App Store Model Is

Before measuring OpenAI against the app store model, it helps to say what it is.

Six jobs in one shop

An app store does six jobs at once. It helps people discover software. It distributes and installs it. It gives the software a place to run and a consistent interface. It knows who the user is. It takes payment, and keeps a commission. And it reviews what developers submit. The app store model is the bundle: a developer who wants the audience must accept all six on the platform owner’s terms.

Where the app store model came from

Apple announced on 10 July 2008 that its App Store was opening with “over 500 native iPhone applications”. Google followed on Android. The terms that became standard are well known. Apple’s Small Business Program page describes “a reduced commission rate of 15%” for developers who earned up to $1 million in the previous year, against a standard rate of 30%. Google’s help pages say 97% of developers distribute their apps at no charge, and that 99% of those who do pay a service fee qualify for 15% or less.

Why regulators care

The bundle at the heart of the app store model is the reason regulators have become involved. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority designated Apple and Google with strategic market status in their mobile platforms on 22 October 2025, a label that covers app distribution and lasts five years. A rival route to customers that does not pass through a phone maker’s store is, for that reason alone, commercially interesting.

How OpenAI's Features Map to the App Store Model

OpenAI did not launch anything called a store. It launched parts. Set against the six jobs of the app store model, they cover five.

Job	Phone app store	ChatGPT after DevDay
Discovery	Search, charts and editorial picks	Suggestions inside conversations; a ranked plugin directory
Distribution	Download and install	Connect a plugin; nothing to install
Interface	A native app on the home screen	Plugin extensions: sidebar apps, panels, file viewers
Identity	Apple or Google account	Sign in with ChatGPT
Review	App Review before each release	Plugin review, with tracking and appeals
Payment and commission	In-app purchase; 15% to 30%	Not announced

Discovery: suggestions in the conversation

This is the part with the most reach. ChatGPT “will begin to make app suggestions within the flow of conversation when it recognizes that a particular app could help the user complete their task”, Perez wrote. OpenAI’s Thibault Sottiaux said the same on X: “We have over 1.2B weekly users and will surface relevant plugins right in the conversations.” Under the app store model the user goes looking. Here the assistant proposes.

Distribution: connect, don’t install

Once suggested, an app is connected inside ChatGPT and used there. There is no download. OpenAI’s own Meetings plugin, shown on stage, illustrates the pattern: it takes notes on a call “without a bot joining”, then saves a summary and action items. Its help page says it is in beta in the macOS desktop app for Pro and Business plans.

Interface: extensions replace the home screen

Plugin extensions let developers place “sidebar apps, conversation panels, file viewers and editors, and forms” inside ChatGPT, according to OpenAI’s documentation. Perez’s description is that this “turns the apps and services that users would have previously used via the web or through a native desktop or mobile app into something that’s operated directly within ChatGPT”. Figma and Adobe were the examples shown. Apps can also be shared through the lightweight websites ChatGPT builds, where colleagues sign in with their own permissions.

Identity: Sign in with ChatGPT

An app store needs to know who you are. OpenAI’s version is a “Continue with ChatGPT” button. Its help centre says the external application “receives only your name, email address, and profile picture”, and that signing in does not share conversations, memory, files or billing information. Sign-in is available globally. The developer documentation adds that it is open to “selected commercial partners through a limited trial”, so this layer is real but not yet open to everyone.

Review: OpenAI’s version of App Review

Perez called the plugin review process “OpenAI’s version of Apple’s App Review process, if you will”. Developers can now track a review, see what needs fixing, ask for a human review and update a plugin’s tools without starting the submission again. OpenAI’s submission guide confirms the mechanics: progress appears under “Review status”, only one review can be active per plugin, and a rejected developer can appeal by replying to the rejection email.

The Missing Layer in OpenAI's App Store Model

Five of the six jobs have an answer. The sixth, the one that made the app store model profitable, does not.

No billing system and no revenue share

TechCrunch was clear on this point. OpenAI “did not announce plans Tuesday for a billing or revenue-sharing system”. Its developer documentation, which we reviewed for our earlier report, recommends external checkout on the developer’s own website and limits approval to plugins selling physical goods. An embedded checkout exists only in beta for selected partners. There is no in-app purchase system for digital goods and no published commission.

What that means for a developer

The practical effect is simple. Perez wrote that “users could subscribe to a service through the app maker’s website, then connect that account to ChatGPT or Codex for their agent to use”. The developer sets the price, takes the payment and keeps the customer record. OpenAI supplies the audience and the interface and, for now, takes nothing from the sale.

What a developer keeps from a $10 sale

The chart below applies the published commission rates to a $10 monthly subscription. It shows the platform’s cut only. Card processing fees, tax and refunds apply in every case and are left out.

Developer’s share of a $10 subscription after the platform’s commission

Phone store, standard 30% commission $7.00

Phone store, reduced 15% commission $8.50

Sold on the developer’s own site, then connected to ChatGPT $10.00

Why the gap may be deliberate

OpenAI has reasons not to copy the commission. The app store model’s fee is the part that drew lawsuits and regulators to Apple and Google. A platform still recruiting partners gains more from being the cheaper route. Sottiaux framed it as a principle: “Plugin discovery on ChatGPT leads to massive adoption opportunity. Open ecosystems will win.” The caution is that nothing OpenAI has published rules out a fee later. Perez noted that OpenAI “has not said” these features remove the need for separate subscriptions or other charges.

The Allowance: An App Store Model Turned Upside Down

The most unusual piece is the one Perez listed last: “a mechanism for sharing a user’s existing ChatGPT AI allowance”. It reverses the direction in which value flows under the app store model.

How plan sharing works

After signing in, a participating app can ask to use the AI usage already included in a Plus or Pro subscription. If the user agrees, OpenAI’s help centre says, “eligible AI requests count toward the ChatGPT Work and Codex usage included in your plan”. The user needs no API key. They can set a weekly limit for each app as a percentage of their total, and the limit “is a cap, not a separate pool of usage”. Using credits after the plan runs out is off by default.

The platform pays, in effect

Under the app store model, the developer pays the platform a share of revenue. Here, the platform’s subscription covers the developer’s largest running cost, the AI requests themselves. A small software firm that would otherwise buy model usage and pass the cost on can let the customer’s existing ChatGPT plan carry it. OpenAI is careful to add that “the app may charge separately for its subscription, infrastructure, services, or premium features”.

Who is in: 16 partners, mostly coding tools

OpenAI’s partner directory lists 12 apps that accept plan usage: Amp Code, Conductor, Dactyl, Devin, Hermes Agent, Hyperagent, Kilo Code, Lovable, Notion, Vercel, Vorflux and Warp, with Lovable marked as coming soon. Four open-source tools, OpenClaw, OpenCode, Pi and T3, make up the 16 that OpenAI announced. A further five, Airtable, Canva, GitLab, HubSpot and Supabase, offer sign-in only. Most of the 16 are tools for software developers.

Group in OpenAI’s directory	Count	What the user can do
Apps with ChatGPT plan usage	12	Sign in and spend plan usage in the app
Open-source integrations	4	Spend plan usage in a self-run tool
Apps with sign-in only	5	Sign in; no plan usage

What the allowance does to lock-in

Sottiaux described the offer plainly: “No little rules, you can just use all your included usage right there.” The strategic effect is lock-in of a new kind. A customer whose ChatGPT plan powers their coding tool, their notes and their deployment platform has more reasons to keep that plan. The app store model tied developers to a device. This ties them to a subscription.

Agents Change Who Chooses the App

Perez’s second argument is about behaviour. OpenAI’s agents are “gently pushing users into a new era where they don’t have to think as much about which app to use or why”.

From searching to delegating

Dots, the always-on agents launched the same day, connect to what OpenAI calls an ecosystem of “over 4,000 apps”. Each has its own cloud computer and browser. Under the old arrangement, Perez wrote, a person managing a project “would have to download different apps”. Now they describe the outcome and the agent decides which tools it needs. Our report on Dots by OpenAI covers who can use them.

Why that matters more than any fee

In the app store model, a developer competes for a person’s attention: an icon, a rating, a place in a chart. If autonomous AI agents choose the tool, the developer competes to be the one the model selects. That depends on how well the plugin describes itself, how reliably it works and how OpenAI’s ranking treats it. OpenAI says it has improved “ranking and recommendations”. It has not published how they work.

The control that remains with the user

OpenAI’s description keeps the user in the loop. Dots carry out what it calls “proactive research” through connected apps in read-only mode, and actions need approval. That limits the damage a poor choice can do. It does not change the fact that the first decision about which app to try is moving from the customer to the assistant.

OpenAI's Earlier Runs at the App Store Model

TechCrunch noted that this “isn’t the first time OpenAI has experimented with how apps could operate” inside the chatbot. The history explains why the current version looks more complete.

Date	Step	Jobs covered
October 2025	Apps arrive in ChatGPT with partners such as Expedia, Spotify, Zillow and Canva	Interface
17 December 2025	Submissions open and an app directory launches	Review, discovery
29 September 2026	Extensions, in-chat suggestions, Sign in with ChatGPT, plan sharing, Marketplace	Interface, discovery, identity, part of payment

The directory of December 2025

When OpenAI opened submissions in December 2025, TechCrunch reported that the new directory had “swiftly been dubbed an ‘app store'”. It was a list. Developers could be found, but the apps appeared only as responses inside a chat, with no permanent place in the window and no identity layer.

What DevDay added

The September release adds the pieces a list lacks: a lasting interface, proactive suggestions, a login and a way to carry usage between products. For large customers there is also the OpenAI Marketplace, where “eligible customers can apply part of their OpenAI commitment toward approved partner software”. Its 30-plus partners include Adobe, Figma, Salesforce, ServiceNow and HubSpot, and Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike for cybersecurity.

What is still unproven

Reach is not the same as use. OpenAI says ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly users, but Perez observed that it “has yet to fully capitalize on its potential as a discovery mechanism”. Whether people accept app suggestions in the middle of a conversation, and whether developers trust a ranking they cannot inspect, will decide whether this becomes a real alternative to the app store model.

What the App Store Model Shift Means for UK Software Firms

For a UK company that builds or sells software, the change is an extra channel with different rules, not a replacement for the app store model.

A channel without a commission, for now

If your product is sold by subscription on your own website, a ChatGPT plugin lets customers use it inside ChatGPT without a platform taking a share of the sale. That is attractive. Treat it as the position today, not a guarantee. Keep your own billing, and keep a direct relationship with customers, so a later change of terms does not leave you dependent.

Plan sharing is limited for now

Spending a ChatGPT plan in a third-party app is open to Plus and Pro users only, in participating tools, and commercial access to Sign in with ChatGPT is a limited trial. Most UK firms cannot yet build on it. If you run an open-source tool, the route is open: OpenAI says plan usage is “available to all open-source partners”.

Do not abandon the phone stores

The app store model is not going away. Apple and Google still control distribution on the devices your customers carry, and the UK regulator is working on how those stores treat developers. A plugin reaches people while they are using ChatGPT. It does not put your product on a home screen.

Questions to settle before you build

Does your product work as a panel beside a conversation, or does it need a full screen and offline use?
Can your service describe its functions clearly enough for an assistant to choose it?
Who pays for the AI requests: you, the customer’s ChatGPT plan, or both?
What data does the plugin send to OpenAI, and does your privacy notice cover it?
What happens to your customers if the plugin is delisted or the terms change?

Our AI strategy and IT governance teams can help you answer those questions before you commit development time.

App Store Model FAQ

What is the app store model?

It is the arrangement in which a platform owner controls how software is discovered, distributed, paid for and reviewed, and keeps a commission on sales. Apple’s App Store, opened in July 2008, is the best-known example.

How is OpenAI challenging the app store model?

At DevDay on 29 September 2026 it added in-conversation app suggestions, plugin extensions, Sign in with ChatGPT, plan sharing and an enterprise Marketplace. Together they cover discovery, distribution, interface, identity and review inside ChatGPT.

Does OpenAI charge developers a commission?

It has not announced one. TechCrunch reported that OpenAI did not announce a billing or revenue-sharing system. Developers currently take payment on their own sites.

What is Sign in with ChatGPT?

It is a login that lets people use their ChatGPT account with other apps. The app receives a name, email address and profile picture. Plus and Pro users can also let participating apps use their plan’s AI usage.

Which apps accept a ChatGPT plan?

OpenAI’s directory lists 12 apps, including Devin, Notion, Vercel and Warp, plus four open-source tools. Five more, including Canva and HubSpot, offer sign-in only.

Will this replace the App Store and Google Play?

Not soon. It gives developers another way to reach customers, mainly on desktop and the web. Phone makers still control what is installed on their devices, so the app store model remains in place there.