Everything you need to know about ChatGPT Plugins

By now, you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, the mind-blowing conversational chatbot that has taken the world by storm.

With over 1.16 billion users globally, it’s become the fastest platform to ever pass the 1 billion user mark—and it’s not even close.

What you may be less familiar with are ChatGPT Plugins—third-party applications that enable ChatGPT to access even more information and enable even more functionality.

These Plugins have been expected for some time, and were just recently rolled out to the public in beta on May 15, 2023.

What is a ChatGPT Plugin?

Simply put, ChatGPT Plugins are third-party tools that can expand ChatGPT’s knowledge and functionality in the ChatGPT ecosystem.

Companies can build their own Plugins, so that ChatGPT users can engage with their brand or products within the ChatGPT ecosystem to offer services and information that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The easiest way to understand what a ChatGPT Plugin is is to look at how ChatGPT works with and without Plugins.

Let’s take Expedia as an example…

Without the Expedia Plugin, ChatGPT is unable to look up any real time information on flight travel schedules.

With access to the Expedia Plugin however, by asking the same question, that real time information not only becomes available, but allows users to book flights directly.

At the limit, a ChatGPT Plugin allows companies to port all information and functionality from their websites into ChatGPT.

What can a ChatGPT Plugin do for my brand, and why does it matter?

It’s common logic in business that you have to go where your customers are. For the past two decades, brands have been competing for top placement in search engine results.

Now, with well over 1 billion users globally, ChatGPT has emerged as one of the most dominant places that users go to engage with content online, and brands will need to allow their customers to engage with them on ChatGPT or risk not being visible to them at all.

By building a ChatGPT Plugin, brands will be allowing their users to engage with their content, products or services, and even lead to making direct purchases, in real time and in a conversational manner.

What does a ChatGPT Plugin cost?

The cost of a ChatGPT Plugin largely depends on how much information and functionality it needs to be trained to include, but it’s probably cheaper than you think.

We recently took a client through an effort estimation exercise for a ChatGPT Plugin that would allow ChatGPT users to book and change flights or hotels, check-in to flights, see flight schedules, and view travel advisories, and ended up at $45k and a total timeline from discovery to submission of 8 weeks.

Ok, I want a ChatGPT Plugin for my brand! Where do I start?

That’s great! If you’d like to explore what having ChatGPT Plugin developed for your brand might look like, select a date and time for a discovery call below.

We’ll quickly review the desired functionality of the Plugin, ask a few clarifying questions as required, and can get you a proposal within 72 hours.