OpenAI’s Workspace Agents connect to your work tools, run on a schedule and keep working while you’re offline. Here’s who can use them, what they cost now, and how to build your first one.
On April 22, 2026, OpenAI launched workspace agents in ChatGPT, agents your team builds once and then hands real, recurring work to. (OpenAI’s launch post)
Instead of asking ChatGPT things one conversation at a time, you build an agent, give it a job and connect your tools. Then it runs when someone asks or on a schedule, in the cloud.
What Changed Since Launch
The free preview is over. Workspace agents are now generally available on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu, and since July 6, 2026, runs you start in ChatGPT use your workspace’s credits.
01
What it does
Gathers information, takes actions in your tools and reports back, on demand or on a schedule.
02
What it connects to
The apps your workspace admin allows, like Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, Microsoft 365 and Notion.
03
Who gets it
ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu. It isn’t on personal plans like Free, Plus or Pro.
04
What it costs
Runs are billed in credits based on how much the agent reads and writes, so longer runs with more tool use cost more. Credits come from the same pool as Codex and ChatGPT Work. (OpenAI rate card)
01
Get access
Your workspace admin has to turn agents on and give you permission to build them. Look for Agents in the ChatGPT sidebar. If it isn’t there, ask your admin.
02
Create the agent
Click Agents in the sidebar and describe the workflow in plain English, or start from a template. The builder is a chat, so you can keep refining the instructions by talking to it.
03
Connect your tools
Add only the apps this agent needs. Your admin controls which apps are available and whether each one can read only or also write.
04
Pick the trigger
Someone kicks it off from chat, or it runs on a schedule you set, like every weekday at 8am or Fridays at 3pm.
05
Add guardrails
Require approval before anything sensitive, like sending an email, posting to Slack or updating a CRM record. Start with approvals on every write action and loosen them once you trust it.
06
Share it
Share the agent with your team, and if your admin has set it up, use it in Slack through the ChatGPT Agents app (it needs a paid Slack plan). (Agents in Slack, workspace agents help)
Not sure what to tell the builder? Paste this into a regular ChatGPT chat first. It interviews you and writes instructions you can drop straight in.
01
Lead research agent
Researches each new lead, scores it, drafts a personal outreach email for your approval and updates your CRM.
02
Meeting prep agent
Before each meeting, it pulls recent emails, relevant Drive docs, open action items and a quick web search on the attendees, then drops a briefing in Slack.
03
Weekly report agent
Every Friday it pulls numbers from your tools, writes a summary of the week and posts it to your team channel. No one has to write it.
04
Feedback router
Watches support and Slack channels for product feedback, sorts it, drafts prioritized tickets and sends the product team a weekly summary.
05
Competitor monitor
Checks competitor sites and industry news on a schedule and sends a daily digest of what changed.
Custom GPTs wait for you to chat with them. Workspace agents connect to your tools, take actions and run on a schedule, and the whole team shares them.
Heads Up
OpenAI has stopped new custom GPT creation and is retiring custom GPTs, with December 11, 2026 as the standard date. The built-in migration moves a GPT’s instructions, files and app connections into a plugin. Custom actions don’t carry over. If your GPT ran a recurring team workflow, rebuild that part as a workspace agent.
Want ready-made agents to copy? Here are 5 workspace agents you can build today. On a personal plan? Here’s my comparison of the agents you can try.