OpenAI Launches Workspace Agents to Replace Custom GPTs, Plugging ChatGPT Into Slack, Salesforce, and Google Drive
OpenAI unveiled workspace agents on April 22 — shared, always-on Codex-powered agents that operate inside ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans, with native integrations for Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, and SharePoint.
Overview
OpenAI introduced workspace agents in ChatGPT on April 22, 2026, positioning them as the successor to custom GPTs and a broader attempt to turn ChatGPT from a conversational assistant into a shared automation surface for enterprise teams. The new agents are powered by Codex and run continuously in the cloud, carrying persistent memory across sessions and plugging into Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, SharePoint, Microsoft apps, Notion, and Atlassian Rovo. The launch arrived as a research preview on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans, with free usage through May 6 before a credit-based pricing model takes effect, according to The Decoder.
What Was Announced
OpenAI describes workspace agents as “an evolution of GPTs” that are shared within an organization — built once, used together in ChatGPT or Slack, and improved over time, per OpenAI’s announcement post. Unlike custom GPTs, which respond to individual prompts and are bound to a single user session, workspace agents retain context across sessions, execute code, operate their own sandboxed workspace with file access, and can be triggered through scheduled runs or Slack hooks, as The Decoder reports.
OpenAI says workspace agents can take on tasks ranging from preparing reports, to writing code, to responding to messages. The Decoder cites internal examples OpenAI demonstrated, including software request review, product feedback routing, weekly metric reporting, and lead qualification with personalized email drafting. Templates covering finance, sales, and marketing are included to shorten setup time.
Custom GPTs, introduced in 2025, are not being shut down immediately. 9to5Mac notes that OpenAI plans to let organizations convert existing custom GPTs directly into workspace agents in a future update, but the company is positioning the new surface as the long-term replacement.
Pricing and Availability
Workspace agents are available in research preview on ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers plans, according to 9to5Mac. Exact dollar pricing for the underlying ChatGPT tiers is not disclosed in the announcement materials cited here. The Decoder reports that usage is free through May 6, 2026, after which a credit-based billing model takes over — a pattern OpenAI has used for other compute-heavy features such as long-running Codex runs.
The free window gives enterprise customers two weeks to evaluate the agents before metered costs begin. The Decoder reports that each agent runs with its own file workspace and code execution environment, a design that implies non-trivial compute costs once the free period ends.
Integrations and Admin Controls
The integration list positions workspace agents as an enterprise workflow layer rather than a consumer assistant. Agents can connect to Slack, Google Drive, Google Calendar, SharePoint, Salesforce, Microsoft apps, Notion, and Atlassian Rovo, and they also support custom MCP servers, file uploads, skills, image generation, and web search, according to The Decoder.
Admin controls are a central part of the release. The Decoder reports that Enterprise and Edu administrators can determine which user groups are allowed to create agents, which tools each group can access, and which sensitive actions — such as sending emails or editing calendars — require explicit approval. Usage is tracked through analytics for shared agents.
OpenAI’s post frames the controls as addressing the core enterprise concern that has slowed adoption of autonomous AI: that agents with broad tool access can take unsanctioned actions. Workspace agents run in an approval-gated mode by default for sensitive operations.
Competitive Context
The launch comes a week after OpenAI upgraded Codex itself into a desktop agent with background computer use, 111 plugin integrations, and scheduled thread automations, as The Machine Herald previously reported. Workspace agents extend that same Codex runtime into the enterprise layer, sitting above ChatGPT’s conversational interface rather than the developer command line.
The announcement also lands the same day Anthropic opened its Claude Managed Agents public beta, which charges eight cents per hour to host enterprise agents. Workspace agents appear to be OpenAI’s answer to the enterprise-agent competition from Anthropic, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Salesforce Agentforce, and a shift away from the single-user custom GPT model toward shared, team-oriented automation.
What’s Not Yet Clear
Several details remain open. OpenAI has not disclosed the per-credit price that will apply after May 6, nor whether Business customers will receive a baseline credit allocation or pay entirely on consumption. The official announcement also did not quantify agent concurrency limits, maximum run durations, or memory retention windows. 9to5Mac notes that the feature arrives as a research preview rather than general availability, leaving room for material changes to capabilities, pricing, and admin tooling before a full launch.
The migration path from custom GPTs to workspace agents is described by OpenAI as forthcoming but without a specific date. Organizations that have invested heavily in custom GPTs will want clarity on preservation of prompts, knowledge files, and actions during conversion. OpenAI has also not specified whether workspace agents will be available to Plus or free users in the future, or whether they will remain exclusive to business-tier subscriptions.