Publish a Website You Built in ChatGPT Without Plus

You asked ChatGPT for a website, it wrote one, and now you want other people to see it. On Plus, Pro and workspace plans, ChatGPT can publish it for you as a ChatGPT Site. On Free and Go it cannot, and OpenAI's help article says so in one plain line: "Sites is not available on Free or Go." That does not leave you stuck. Publishing a website means putting its files on a server that answers at an address, and you can do that yourself in a few minutes, on your own domain, without paying for a ChatGPT upgrade.

This guide covers the routes that work without Plus, how to give the site your own domain with HTTPS, how to update it later, and when upgrading to use Sites is honestly the simpler choice.

Why Free and Go cannot publish a Site

ChatGPT Sites is OpenAI's hosting feature for websites and small apps built in ChatGPT. It is in public beta for workspace, Plus and Pro accounts, and you start a Site in Work on ChatGPT web, or in Work or Codex in the desktop app. Free and Go are left out of the feature as a whole, so on those plans there is no step that turns your chat into a hosted Site.

What the plan does not take away is the result of your chat. The HTML, CSS and JavaScript ChatGPT wrote for you are ordinary web files, and any web host can serve them. The only missing piece is the host.

The routes at a glance

Route 1 always works, so start there when you want certainty. Route 2 saves the copying when your chat can handle it.

Route 1: Save the files and upload them

This route needs nothing beyond the chat and a browser.

1. Ask for the whole site as files. In the chat where you built it, ask: "Give me this website as separate files with their file names: index.html, a stylesheet and a script, and list every image it uses." For a one-page site it is even simpler to ask for "everything in one HTML file": the styles and scripts go inside the page, and there is a single file to save.
2. Save each file. Create a folder on your computer. For every code block, open a plain text editor, paste the block and save it under the name ChatGPT gave it, ending in .html, .css or .js. If ChatGPT offers a file to download instead, use that.
3. Add the images. ChatGPT often refers to pictures it never made, such as hero.jpg. Put your own images in the folder under those names, or ask ChatGPT to drop the references.
4. Open it on your computer. Double-click index.html. If the page looks right in your browser, it will look right online. If ChatGPT wrote a React or Vite project with a package.json, either ask for plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript instead, or run npm install and npm run build and use the dist folder. AI-Hosted rejects an unbuilt project, because a browser cannot open it yet.
5. Upload. Start the 14-day trial, no card needed, and drop the folder, a ZIP of it or the single HTML file into the dashboard. The site goes live straight away at an address on ai-hosted.com. During the trial a small "Hosted on AI-Hosted" credit sits in a corner of the page; it goes away on a paid plan.

Route 2: Paste the deploy guide into the chat

The deploy guide is an instruction sheet written for AI assistants. In the dashboard it sits behind the Copy Magic File button. Paste it into the ChatGPT conversation that holds your site and ask ChatGPT to publish. Usually one of two things happens. Either ChatGPT sends the files to your account itself and replies with the live address, or it gives you a deploy page instead: a small HTML page with a Deploy button that you open in your browser. If that page cannot deploy from inside the chat's preview, it shows Download HTML and Copy HTML buttons; save it as a file, open the file in your browser and press Deploy there.

How a Free or Go chat handles the sheet depends on what that chat can do on the day you try, so treat this route as one that may work. If ChatGPT does neither, you have lost nothing: you still have the files, and route 1 takes over. The sheet contains a private deploy key that lets it publish to your account, so paste it only into your own conversation and never into a file you publish.

Route 3: Connect the MCP server (only where your plan allows it)

If your ChatGPT plan lets you add custom MCP servers, you can add the VibeDeploy MCP server, https://mcp.vibedeploy.be/mcp, in ChatGPT on the web (Plugins, then +, then Add custom MCP server) and sign in with OAuth. With write access, ChatGPT can then publish, edit and redeploy the site as a built-in tool instead of following pasted instructions. Which plans allow this is not something to assume: OpenAI's help center lists full MCP support, write actions included, for Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces, says Pro accounts get read and fetch access in developer mode, and does not mention Free or Go. Check your own settings first; the MCP setup page lists the steps for ChatGPT and for Claude, Cursor and other clients.

Put it on your own domain, with HTTPS

The ai-hosted.com address works as soon as the upload finishes, and you can share it right away. A domain of your own is what people remember, what looks credible on a business card and what search engines build on over time. The trial already includes one custom domain: link one you own, or buy one in the dashboard.

Add the domain to the site in the dashboard. It shows two DNS records to create where your domain is managed: a TXT record that proves the domain is yours, and a routing record that sends visitors to the site (a CNAME for a subdomain such as www; an ALIAS, ANAME or A record for the bare domain). Click Verify once both are in place. HTTPS is switched on automatically, with a certificate from Let's Encrypt that renews without your help. If you later upgrade and move the site onto ChatGPT Sites, the ChatGPT Sites custom domain guide covers the same job on the Sites side.

Updating the site later without Plus

Changing the site follows the loop that built it. Ask ChatGPT for the change in the original chat, take the updated files and upload them again, or paste the deploy guide once more. Ask for complete files rather than fragments each time: replacing a whole file is much harder to get wrong than patching a few lines by hand.

Every deploy is kept as a version, and a restore point is taken before each new one. If an edit goes wrong, restore the previous version in one click from the dashboard, within 3 days on the trial, Solo and Maker and 7 days on Studio. Keep your own folder of files as well: it is the copy that never depends on any account.

When ChatGPT Sites is the better choice

Paying for Plus to publish is not always the wrong call. If you already have Plus or a workspace plan, Sites keeps building and hosting in one product. You change the site by asking in the chat, check a private preview, save a version before you deploy, see visitor numbers in the Site's built-in analytics and share it with named people who sign in. While Sites is in public beta, its usage is included up to limits that depend on your plan. If that fits, build it as a ChatGPT Site and connect your domain there.

Hosting the files yourself is the better choice when you want to stay on Free or Go, when the site should be hosted in the EU (OpenAI says Sites does not support data residency at launch), or when you want the site to keep running whatever happens to any one AI subscription. Host a website made with ChatGPT compares the two in detail, and how AI-hosted websites work explains the path from a chat to a live domain step by step.

What it costs

ChatGPT Free costs nothing, and neither does the first stretch of hosting: the trial runs 14 days without a card and includes one site and one custom domain. If you do not choose a plan by the end, the site goes offline while your account and files are kept for 30 days; choosing a plan in that time brings the site back at the same address, and after 30 days everything is deleted.

To keep the site online, Solo costs EUR 4 a month (EUR 38 a year) for one site with its own domain. Maker (EUR 15 a month) and Studio (EUR 39 a month) add more sites, password-protected sites and, on Studio, a staging copy. Prices include VAT where it applies; the pricing page has the details per plan.

Sources

• OpenAI Help Center, Creating and using ChatGPT Sites: which plans include Sites, Work and Codex, production deploys, custom domains, sharing, public beta limits and data residency. Fetched 13 October 2026.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT Sites developer guide: saved versions, built-in Site analytics and invitations for named viewers. Fetched 13 October 2026.
• OpenAI Developers, Add custom MCP server: adding a custom MCP server from Plugins in ChatGPT on the web, with OAuth, read and write tools and the risk warning. Fetched 13 October 2026.
• OpenAI Help Center, Developer mode and MCP apps in ChatGPT: full MCP support, write actions included, for Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces; read and fetch access for Pro in developer mode. Fetched 13 October 2026.