OpenAI has released ChatGPT Work, a new autonomous agent powered by GPT-5.6 that can handle entire workflows across apps and files, paired with a unified plugin directory connecting major business tools. The product represents OpenAI's second push into plugins—an earlier 2023 attempt failed because models were not ready, but GPT-5.6 is expected to deliver the capability the company lacked then. The desktop app is available immediately to all users, while web and mobile access begins with Pro, Enterprise, and Edu subscribers.
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OpenAI released ChatGPT Work, a new agent that runs on GPT-5.6 and can handle multi-step workflows across apps and files, delivering finished outputs like Excel or Word documents. The product includes a "Unified Plugins Directory" that bundles integrations from Google Drive, SharePoint, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Adobe, Zoom, LinkedIn, GitHub, Canva, and Dropbox. After a Trump administration restriction on GPT-5.6 access to select organizations about two weeks prior, OpenAI has now received approval for public rollout.
Why it matters
This is OpenAI's second attempt at plugins—the company's 2023 plugin push "didn't work at all because the models weren't ready," according to co-founder Greg Brockman. With GPT-5.6, OpenAI expects a different outcome. The desktop app makes ChatGPT Work available immediately to all plans, including the free tier, while web and mobile rollout begins with Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users. For businesses, this could mean automating complex knowledge work tasks that previously required manual steps across multiple applications.
What to watch
On security, OpenAI's "Auto-Review" feature blocked 100 percent of attempts to extract protected data during adversarial red-teaming. ChatGPT Work shares the same usage-based billing pool with Codex, ChatGPT for Excel, and Workspace Agents; consumption depends on task size, complexity, and model selected. Enterprise and Edu admins can manage limits via Spend Controls.
OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT Work comes on the heels of a recent Trump administration restriction that limited GPT-5.6 access to select organizations roughly two weeks earlier. The public rollout approval signals a shift in that policy, clearing the way for broader deployment of the advanced model. The product itself centers on what OpenAI calls an agent—AI that can operate autonomously across multiple applications and data sources—a capability the company has been building toward through its Codex technology, which was previously reserved mostly for developers.
The reintroduction of plugins is particularly significant because it marks a deliberate second attempt at a strategy OpenAI abandoned. The 2023 plugin ecosystem failed not because the concept was flawed, but because earlier language models lacked the reasoning and task-sequencing ability to reliably use them. GPT-5.6 is positioned as having overcome that constraint, suggesting the model's improvements in reasoning and instruction-following are substantial enough to handle plugin selection and chaining automatically. The article notes that users can call plugins explicitly with an "@" mention or let ChatGPT determine which data source is relevant on its own—a feature that directly depends on model capability.
From a product strategy perspective, ChatGPT Work consolidates several existing OpenAI capabilities—Scheduled Tasks, Computer Use, and long-context task handling—into a branded workflow product. The body indicates this is partly a rebrand of Codex for knowledge workers with local file access, mirroring Anthropic's shift from Claude Code to Cowork. The article notes Anthropic also just launched Cowork for web and mobile, suggesting both companies are converging on autonomous agent products for business users. The phased rollout and usage-based billing model reflects a careful go-to-market approach, with desktop access serving as the immediate broad entry point while web and mobile access follows a tier-based schedule.
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