ChatGPT Skills don't live where you'd expect. There's no "Skills" item in the sidebar — the nav entry is still labeled Plugins, and Skills is a tab inside that same Plugin Directory. It's an easy thing to miss if you're looking for a dedicated menu, and it's also the first clue to how OpenAI is actually structuring this feature: Skills and Plugins are related but distinct concepts, not two names for the same thing.
The more interesting fact underneath the UI: ChatGPT Skills use the exact SKILL.md format Anthropic created and open-sourced for Claude Code in December 2025. OpenAI adopted the same standard rather than inventing a competing one, which means a skill written well enough to be format-agnostic can move between Claude Code and ChatGPT — the same portability idea covered in explainx.ai's guide to npx skills install and the Claude Code skills registry.
TL;DR
| Question | Direct answer |
|---|---|
| Where do I find Skills? | Sidebar → Plugins (still labeled that) → Skills tab in the Plugin Directory |
| Is this the same format as Claude Code skills? | Yes — the SKILL.md standard, open-sourced by Anthropic, adopted by OpenAI |
| How many ways to create one? | Three: Create with chat, Create with editor, Upload from your computer — plus Record & Replay |
| Does it load automatically? | Yes — ChatGPT can pick a matching skill on its own, or you invoke one explicitly with @skill-name |
| Who has access? | Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Edu workspaces — not Free, Plus, or Pro, as of the documented rollout |
| Is it free? | The feature itself has no separate charge, but it's gated to the plan tiers above |
Where Skills actually live in the UI
Click Plugins in the sidebar — it sits alongside New chat, Library, Projects, and Scheduled. That opens the Plugin Directory, which has a segmented toggle at the top: Plugins and Skills. Switch to Skills, and you land on a page with two sections:
- Installed — skills you've added and use in conversations
- Created by me — skills you've authored, whether or not you've installed them
Each skill card shows an icon, a name, and a one-line description — the same information ChatGPT reads to decide when to auto-load it. A search bar and a + button sit in the top right for finding or creating new ones.
The three ways to create a skill
Clicking + next to the search bar opens three options:
- Create with chat — describe what you want in plain language and let ChatGPT draft the skill for you. This is the same idea as invoking
@skill-creatordirectly inside a regular conversation (or$skill-creatorin Codex), where you walk through the goal, the workflow steps, the expected output format, and examples, and ChatGPT builds the SKILL.md content from that. - Create with editor — write the instructions yourself with direct control over the exact wording, rather than going through a conversational back-and-forth.
- Upload from your computer — bring an existing SKILL.md package, including one built for or exported from Claude Code, since it's the same underlying format.
There's a fourth path not shown in the + menu but documented separately: Record & Replay — demonstrate a workflow once, and ChatGPT turns the recording into a reusable skill. It's a lower-effort path than writing instructions from scratch when the task is easier to show than to describe.
Skills vs. Plugins: the actual distinction
This is worth being precise about, since the UI puts both under one directory:
| Skill | Plugin | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A SKILL.md file — name, description, instructions, and supporting resources for one task | An installable bundle that can contain skills, MCP connectors, or both |
| Scope | One specific, repeatable workflow | A larger product integration — potentially multiple skills plus live connections to other tools |
| Where it's distributed | Inside a plugin, or standalone via upload | Through the Plugin Directory, shared between ChatGPT and Codex |
In practice: a skill is the instructions. A plugin is the delivery mechanism. This maps directly onto the distinction explainx.ai covered in Agent Plugins: OpenAI's New Open Standard for Packaging AI Agent Tooling — that August 2026 standard, built with AWS, Cursor, GitHub, VS Code, and Vercel, is the cross-client packaging format for exactly this kind of bundle. ChatGPT's own Plugin Directory is OpenAI's first-party implementation of that same idea inside its own product.
How ChatGPT decides when to use a skill
Two paths, same as Claude Code's progressive-disclosure model:
- Automatic — ChatGPT reads each installed skill's name and description (without loading its full instructions) and can select a matching one when your request lines up with what the skill claims to do. This keeps context usage low: only the chosen skill's full instructions get loaded, not every skill you have installed.
- Explicit — type
@followed by the skill's name in ChatGPT (or$in Codex) to invoke it directly, bypassing the matching step entirely.
If you've used Claude Code's own skill-loading behavior, this will feel identical, because it's built on the same underlying mechanism — see What Are Agent Skills? A Complete Guide for the deeper explanation of why that loading pattern matters for context efficiency.
Who actually has access right now
This is the part that catches people off guard: Skills rolled out to ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Edu workspaces — not Free, Plus, or Pro. Enterprise workspaces had it turned on by default starting July 23, 2026, unless an admin opted out. If you're on a personal Plus or Pro subscription and don't see the Skills tab under Plugins, that's the documented reason, not a bug on your end.
Individual account access can vary as the rollout continues past its initial announcement, so the reliable way to check is your own Plugins → Skills tab rather than assuming purely from your plan tier — availability windows for gated features like this tend to widen over time without a second announcement.
Building your first skill: a practical example
The fastest way in is Create with chat. Open the + menu under Skills, choose it, and describe a task you do repeatedly — the same instinct behind explainx.ai's top skills in the Claude Code skills registry:
Build a skill that writes LinkedIn posts in my voice: punchy hook in
the first line, 3-5 short paragraphs, no more than one emoji, ends
with a specific question to drive comments. Ask me for the post
topic and any data points I want included before drafting.
ChatGPT drafts the skill, you review and refine it the same way you'd review AI-written code, and it lands in your Created by me list, ready to install. This is precisely the pattern in the screenshot most people run into first — a single-purpose skill (in this example, a "linkedin post writer" skill) installed once and reused across every future post, instead of re-explaining voice and format in every new chat.
Summary
ChatGPT Skills are OpenAI's implementation of the same SKILL.md standard Anthropic created for Claude Code — reusable, shareable task instructions, not one-off prompts. Find them under Plugins → Skills (not a dedicated sidebar item), build one via chat, an editor, upload, or Record & Replay, and expect automatic loading based on your request matching a skill's description, or explicit invocation with @skill-name. The catch: as of the documented rollout, this is a Business/Enterprise/Healthcare/Edu feature, not something Free, Plus, or Pro accounts get by default — check your own account's Plugins tab rather than assuming from your plan.
Related reading
- npx skills install: How to Use the Claude Code Skills Registry
- What Are Agent Skills? A Complete Guide
- Agent Plugins: OpenAI's New Open Standard for Packaging AI Agent Tooling
- Diagram Design: The Claude Code Skill That Ends Generic AI Diagrams
- Claude vs ChatGPT for Work
- What Is MCP? Model Context Protocol Complete Guide
Official sources: Skills in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center · Skills & Plugins — ChatGPT Learn
Screenshots in this post are from a live ChatGPT account.
UI paths, creation methods, and plan availability reflect OpenAI's documentation and rollout as of August 13, 2026. ChatGPT's interface and plan gating change frequently — check Plugins → Skills in your own account for current access.