If you have built a ChatGPT plugin and are currently going through the review process to get it on the Plugin store, it can certainly be an adventure.
Over the last few days, I’ve got about 8 plugins approved and learnt a ton of lessons. Not all of them were approved on the first shot, so doing everything to the letter is absolutely required.
In this blog post, I will walk you through some lessons learned so that you can get your plugin approved on the first shot.
ChatGPT Plugin Review Process : The Basics
After you have developed and tested your plugin, you need to get it reviewed by OpenAI before they will put it up on their ChatGPT Plugin Store. This review process is a combination of bot and human, so you need to make sure that all their requirements are met.
During development, a plugin goes through various statuses that indicate its stage in the review process and its availability to users. Currently, a plugin can be unverified (initial status), approved (reviewed and approved by OpenAI), or banned (deemed inappropriate by OpenAI).
Three user categories are currently considered for plugin access: ChatGPT Plus users, Plugin developers, and Normal ChatGPT users. At this stage, approved plugins are accessible to ChatGPT Plus users and Plugin developers have permissions for plugin development, usage, and testing.
ChatGPT Plugin Review : Before You Build
Before you even build your plugin, do consider what makes for a good plugin. In particular, what value you will be adding to the user’s of your plugin.
The review process is implemented to ensure that every plugin on ChatGPT is safe, functional, and provides a quality user experience.
A superior plugin is one that harnesses the power of large language models to deliver unique, exciting experiences to users, much as a white-label AI chatbot platform does, enhancing their interaction with the ChatGPT platform.
Below I’ve listed key characteristics and categories that make a plugin exceptional:
Unique User Experiences
High-quality plugins can transform a user’s experience, providing functionalities that were not possible without the immense potential of large language models. These “magical” experiences are often the result of innovative thinking and creative application of technology.
Categories of Outstanding Plugins
Here are some categories that have so far proved highly successful in delivering value to the users:
- Knowledge Retrieval: These plugins have the ability to retrieve user-specific or otherwise hard-to-search information from different sources, such as searching over your website or a your document repository or other proprietary databases.
- Synergistic Plugins: These plugins work in harmony with other plugins to provide complex services. For instance, if a user wants to plan a weekend, these plugins can integrate flight/hotel search with dinner reservation search to provide a comprehensive plan.
- Computational Plugins: These plugins enhance the computational capabilities of the ChatGPT model, using tools that call out to computational APIs.
Remember, creating a great plugin is all about enhancing user experience, providing valuable functionalities, and maintaining a safe environment for users. The review process is there to guide you through this journey of innovation and creativity.
ChatGPT Plugin Review : Lessons Learned
These are some hard lessons learned from going through the review process for multiple plugins. Each lesson was learned painfully – since each denial results in a long wait to get the plugin back in queue and under review.
Lesson 1: Make sure you are approved to develop plugins
I know this is obvious – but the very first step (and probably the most time consuming one) is to make sure you are approved to develop plugins. To do this, you will need to join the developer waitlist.
Do this right now. It is by far the most time consuming part of the whole process. And it could take 1-2 days or could take weeks.
No kidding. We have customers who got approved in 1 day. And ones who have been waiting for over a month now.
One tip in the approval process: Make sure you are very clear about how your plugin would truly add value to the world.
When you are approved, you will see this “Develop Your Own Plugin” link in the store.
Lesson 2: Make sure every element in the manifest meets guidelines
Now again, this might seem straightforward, but even small mistakes in the manifest results in the plugin being denied.
If you use a no-code plugin builder like CustomGPT.ai to avoid common plugin development challenges, you don’t need to worry, because the builder will take care of all the validations and make sure that you are within the guidelines.
For example: The manifest has validations for character length, punctuations and other requirements. All those are confirmed when configuring your CustomGPT Plugin endpoint.
If you are using a different system to build your plugin (or coding it yourself), make sure that each and every element in the manifest follows the length and other validation requirements specified in the plugin development process.
Lesson 3: Make sure the description ends with a punctuation
I know this one is a little odd, but my plugin got denied twice because of punctuation. I’m not really sure why this should matter so much, but I think the automated review bot does this.
Lesson 4: Make sure the name is less than 20 characters
Ok, now this one is tricky. While the description says “should not exceed 20 characters”, it’s actually a max of 19 characters.
I kid you not – I submitted a plugin with 21 characters and got (rightly) denied. I then reduced it to 20 characters. And got denied again! Wait – what?
So here is a hint: Even though it says 20 characters, keep it to 19 characters or below. You will thank me later.
PS: I expect OpenAI to fix this soon – but you might want to be safe – because each denial costs you couple of days to get back into the review queue.
Lesson 5: Test the plugin using the “Develop Your Own Plugin” link
Yeah yeah – I know your plugin is perfect and needs no testing. But for some reason, you have to test it using the “Develop Your Own Plugin” link.
Failure to do this, will get your plugin denied and then you will be back in queue.
As I was submitting my multiple plugin reviewals, I forgot to test one of them and got the denial.
Lesson 6: Put in a proper meaningful logo
Now this one too might be obvious, but one of my plugins got rejected because it had the wrong logo. It was a plugin about Abraham Lincoln and my logo was some random guy.
So I get this rejection notice.
Once fixed, the plugin was approved.
Lesson 7: Avoid using the words “Plugin” or “GPT”
Yeah – this one is obvious too (and hurt a lot – given that our company name is CustomGPT) – but you cannot use these words.
So you might need to get creative if this is an issue.
Lesson 8: Test your plugin with actual questions
I know your plugin works with some test questions (like those we engineers ask like “hello world”). But make sure you test it with actual questions that users may ask.
In the plugin review process, you need to provide 2-3 real questions that the user’s may ask.
So test it out after you click “Develop Your Own Plugin” and then install it for yourself.
Ninja tip: To activate your plugin, you can use the following command
/Start <yourpluginname> Ask your question here
Lesson 9: Put in relevant keywords in the plugin manifest
Make sure you are adding lots of relevant keywords into your plugin definition. ChatGPT uses these to decide whether to activate your plugin or not.
One caveat: Make sure they are relevant to what your plugin does. Just putting in high-value keywords could get your plugin rejected.
One trick I use: You can use ChatGPT itself to find semantically relevant keywords. For example, for my Tom Brady plugin, I used ChatGPT to get a list of 100 semantic keywords related to Tom Brady.
I built a ChatGPT plugin about Tom Brady. This plugin is the ultimate trusted guide for everything to do with Tom Brady. It is based on trusted sources related to Tom Brady - The Goat. give me 100 semantic keywords as a comma-separated list related to Tom Brady.
Frequently Asked Questions
What usually gets a ChatGPT plugin rejected in review?
A ChatGPT plugin is most likely to fail review when it does not meet the stated bar for safety, functionality, and a quality user experience. Because the review process combines automated checks and human review, you should submit only after the plugin is fully developed, tested, and clearly useful to end users. A weak value proposition or an unfinished user flow increases the odds of rejection or resubmission.
How much testing should I do before submitting a ChatGPT plugin?
More than a happy-path demo. Review happens after a plugin is developed and tested, so you should validate normal queries, edge cases, and repeated use before submitting. Brendan McSheffrey, Managing Partner u0026 Founder of The Kendall Project, said, u0022We love CustomGPT.ai. It’s a fantastic Chat GPT tool kit that has allowed us to create a ‘lab’ for testing AI models. The results? High accuracy and efficiency leave people asking, ‘How did you do it?’ We’ve tested over 30 models with hundreds of iterations using CustomGPT.ai.u0022 The practical takeaway is to test until behavior is consistent, not just until one demo works.
Does a ChatGPT plugin need a unique use case to get approved?
Yes. Strong plugins are expected to add clear user value, not just duplicate what ChatGPT already does. Useful patterns called out for successful plugins include knowledge retrieval, synergistic multi-plugin workflows, and computational tasks. Elizabeth Planet, Nonprofit Leadership Coach u0026 Advisor, said, u0022I added a couple of trusted sources to the chatbot and the answers improved tremendously! You can rely on the responses it gives you because it’s only pulling from curated information.u0022 That kind of focused, trustworthy use case is easier to justify in review than a generic assistant with no distinct purpose.
How can I speed up ChatGPT plugin approval?
You cannot control the review queue, but you can reduce rework. The fastest path is to submit a plugin that is already fully developed, tested, safe, functional, and clear about the user experience it provides. Performance matters too because slow or inconsistent behavior weakens the quality bar reviewers are checking. Bill French, Technology Strategist, said, u0022They’ve officially cracked the sub-second barrier, a breakthrough that fundamentally changes the user experience from merely ‘interactive’ to ‘instantaneous’.u0022 Treat speed and reliability as launch criteria, not post-approval fixes.
Should I still build a ChatGPT plugin, or use a hosted assistant instead?
Choose a plugin when you want access through ChatGPT’s plugin ecosystem. Choose a hosted or API-based assistant when you need more control over branding, deployment, or where users interact with it. Supported deployment options in the provided materials include an embed widget, live chat, search bar, API, and MCP server. Stephanie Warlick, Business Consultant, said, u0022Check out CustomGPT.ai where you can dump all your knowledge to automate proposals, customer inquiries and the knowledge base that exists in your head so your team can execute without you.u0022 In practice, the right choice depends on whether users need the assistant inside ChatGPT, on your website or app, or across both.
Are ChatGPT plugins safe for private or proprietary data?
They can be, but you should look for concrete controls rather than assume safety by default. Useful trust signals in the provided materials include SOC 2 Type 2 certification, GDPR compliance, a policy that data is not used for model training, and citation support to help trace answers back to sources. For sensitive use cases, retrieval-based systems with source grounding are generally easier to trust than unsupported free-form outputs.
Can I turn an existing website or WordPress chatbot into a ChatGPT plugin?
Yes, if your existing chatbot can rely on a stable knowledge source and API behavior. The provided materials support ingesting website content from URLs and exposing responses through an OpenAI-compatible REST API at /v1/chat/completions. The same knowledge can also be deployed through an embed widget, live chat, search bar, API, or MCP server. Reusing one curated knowledge base across your site bot and plugin is a practical way to keep answers more consistent.
Conclusion
Good luck with the review process – and hopefully you will get approved on the first shot.
As mentioned before, our no-code plugin builder, which is included free-of-cost in all paid plans, is a great way to comply with all the rules and get approved quickly, so that you can showcase your plugin in the Plugin Store.
Did I miss any lessons you learned with the review process? If so, please comment below.
Related Resources
If you want to go beyond this review, these reads cover building, installing, and exploring the broader plugin ecosystem.
- Building a ChatGPT Plugin — Learn what technical skills, tools, and planning are involved in creating your own ChatGPT plugin with CustomGPT.ai in mind.
- Installing ChatGPT Plugins — This guide walks through the setup process so you can start using ChatGPT plugins smoothly and avoid common installation issues.
- ChatGPT Plugin Store — Get an overview of how the plugin store works, what kinds of tools are available, and how to evaluate useful options.
- ChatGPT Plugin Expert Insights — Read perspectives from 17 experts on plugin development, trends, and practical lessons relevant to teams working with CustomGPT.ai.
Founder @ CustomGPT.ai , Husband & Father of 4, Avid cricket wicket-keeper