ChatGPT Apps (2025): An Accessible Guide

Author: Boxu Li at Macaron

Introduction:

In late 2025 OpenAI introduced a new Apps SDK for ChatGPT based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This SDK allows external services to present interactive apps inside a chat – complete with buttons, carousels, maps and other UI elements. Users can invoke an app by name (e.g., "Figma, turn this sketch into a flowchart") or let ChatGPT automatically pick one when it understands a task. The initial rollout includes travel, design, education and music partners as well as built‑in tools for data analysis, file handling and web search[1]. Apps are available to all logged‑in users outside of the European Union on the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans[1].

Travel & accommodation apps

Expedia

Natural‑language trip planning: The Expedia app lets users search flights, hotels and vacation rentals in everyday language (e.g., "Find flights from Boston to London next month and hotels under $200 a night"). ChatGPT returns dynamic results with prices, availability and rich visuals directly in the chat[2].
Interactive results: Search results appear as carousels and maps that can be refined in conversation. Users can adjust dates, specify amenities or add travellers, and the app updates results in real time[3].
Seamless booking hand‑off: When ready, travellers are sent to Expedia's website or app to finalise payment and reservations[4]. Access is open to all ChatGPT users outside the EU[5].

Strategic impact: Expedia's integration turns ChatGPT into a planning engine. Instead of visiting multiple sites, users compare flight and hotel options, view pricing and refine itineraries inside one conversation[6]. This provides Expedia with a new distribution channel and positions ChatGPT as a hub for travel planning. Future additions like Tripadvisor and Uber will likely extend this seamless pipeline[7].

Booking.com

Real‑time hotel and accommodation search: Similar to Expedia, the Booking.com app provides live hotel listings and pricing within ChatGPT. Users can compare properties, refine by amenities and view interactive maps[8].
Streamlined booking: Once the right option is found, ChatGPT links to Booking.com to complete the reservation[6]. The app aims to reduce the friction of switching between websites for research and booking[8].

Strategic impact: By embedding two of the world's largest OTAs, ChatGPT becomes a first stop for trip planning[6]. Travel companies gain exposure to ChatGPT's large user base, while users enjoy a simplified, personalised research process.

Zillow (real‑estate)

Conversational home search: The Zillow app is ChatGPT's only real‑estate integration. Typing "Zillow, show me homes for sale in Kansas City" brings up interactive listings with photos, price, address and map location[9]. Users can filter by price, number of bedrooms or neighbourhoods[10].
Guided next steps: When a property looks appealing, the app offers links back to Zillow for scheduling tours, contacting agents or exploring financing options[11].

Strategic impact: Embedding housing search into ChatGPT eliminates the need to hop between websites and may influence how people discover real estate. Zillow benefits from being the sole property provider in ChatGPT and can funnel prospective buyers directly into its own portal.

Learning & personal growth

Coursera

Courses in conversation: Coursera's app brings video lectures and course material from universities and companies directly into ChatGPT. Users can start a chat with "Coursera" and request to learn a topic (e.g., "Teach me the basics of machine learning"), and ChatGPT will recommend relevant courses and play excerpts[12].
Seamless transitions: The app surfaces course previews within ChatGPT and allows users to jump out to Coursera to enrol or earn certificates. The integration is designed to make learning accessible to the more than 800 million people who use ChatGPT weekly[12].
First major education platform: Coursera emphasises that this is the first time a global online‑learning platform is available inside ChatGPT[13].

Strategic impact: By embedding education into daily conversations, ChatGPT becomes a continuous learning companion. Coursera gains exposure to a massive audience, potentially accelerating transitions from curiosity to credentialing[14].

Design & visual content

Canva

Template discovery and full‑screen previews: ChatGPT users can invoke Canva to generate presentations, posters, logos or social‑media graphics. The app suggests templates and renders full‑screen previews directly within the chat, letting users refine the design with natural language[15].
Editing and hand‑off: After generating a draft, users can open the design in Canva to edit text, adjust colours or add assets. The integration builds on an earlier template‑suggestion plugin but now offers full design creation, editing and translation inside ChatGPT[16].
Demonstrated multi‑app workflows: At OpenAI's DevDay demonstration, ChatGPT used Canva to create a poster and a pitch deck, showing how multiple apps can work together within one conversation[17].

Strategic impact: Canva turns ChatGPT into a lightweight design studio. Marketing teams and entrepreneurs can ideate visuals without leaving the chat, reducing the barrier to producing professional designs. Canva also benefits from funneling new users from ChatGPT into its more powerful editor.

Figma

Diagram and flowchart creation: Figma's app focuses on FigJam, the company's white‑boarding tool. Commands like "Figma, create a flowchart of our sales process" or "Turn this sketch into a diagram" produce editable diagrams directly in ChatGPT[18].
Context‑aware suggestions and editing: The app provides suggested modifications (e.g., add arrows or labels) and allows users to tweak the diagram before exporting. Clicking "Edit in Figma" opens the full Figma editor for further refinement[19].
Transition from sketches to prototypes: The integration helps teams move from brainstorming to polished mock‑ups without switching tools, reducing friction between ideation and implementation[18].

Strategic impact: Figma's integration turns ChatGPT into a collaborative design canvas. Product managers and designers can quickly prototype user flows, then jump to Figma for advanced design work. This positions ChatGPT as a front door to Figma's design ecosystem.

Music & media

Spotify

Personalised music discovery: After connecting a Spotify account, users can ask for songs, artists, albums or playlists (e.g., "Spotify, play some mellow jazz"). ChatGPT surfaces personalised picks based on mood or theme[20]. Free users receive recommendations from existing playlists like Discover Weekly, while Premium users get completely personalised tracks[21].
Immediate playback: Tapping a track or playlist opens the Spotify app for listening[22]. The integration is available in English across 145 countries and respects artist rights (Spotify does not share user content for model training)[20].

Strategic impact: By embedding music suggestions into chat, Spotify can introduce users to new artists and drive engagement. For ChatGPT, music is another lifestyle domain that keeps users within the conversation.

Automation & productivity

Zapier

Natural‑language automation: Zapier's integration allows ChatGPT to trigger workflows across more than 8,000 apps. Users can ask ChatGPT to create tasks, update spreadsheets, send emails or post messages in Slack; Zapier translates these requests into actions[23].
Available actions: Zapier's help guide lists actions such as analyzing images and text, generating images, creating transcriptions, extracting structured data, writing emails and translations[24]. Users can also create assistants or upload files through Zapier's interface[25].
Setup considerations: The integration requires authenticating with OpenAI via API key and may incur latency, but once connected it can automate complex multi‑step workflows[23].

Strategic impact: Zapier turns ChatGPT into a universal command center for everyday apps. By delegating repetitive tasks to automations, knowledge workers can stay in conversation while things happen in the background. Zapier also expands its user base by embedding its automation platform into a popular AI assistant.

Built‑in tools & connectors

Data & files (Advanced Data Analysis)

File upload and analysis: Users can upload spreadsheets, PDFs or images and have ChatGPT analyze them by writing and executing Python code. The tool can merge and clean datasets, create charts and uncover insights[26].
Integration with cloud storage: Recent improvements allow users to add files directly from Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, letting ChatGPT read Sheets, Docs, Slides or Excel files without manual download[27].
Interactive tables and charts: Uploaded datasets generate an interactive table that can be expanded to full screen. Users can click on cells to ask follow‑up questions, and ChatGPT offers suggestions for deeper analysis[28]. It also lets users customise bar, line, pie and scatter charts and download them for presentations[29].

Connectors

Securely access third‑party services: Connectors let ChatGPT link to apps like Google Drive, GitHub or SharePoint to search files, pull live data and reference content[30]. Users can select specific sources (chat connectors) for quick tasks or run deep research across multiple sources to produce reports[31].
Automatic retrieval: For certain connectors (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts), ChatGPT automatically uses them when relevant, eliminating manual selection[32].
Synced and custom connectors: Users can index selected content for faster retrieval (synced connectors) or create custom connectors via MCP for internal applications[33]. Enterprise and education workspaces can make custom connectors available to all members[34].

Web search

Up‑to‑date answers with citations: ChatGPT search uses the web to answer questions that require current information, such as sports scores or news, and includes links to original sources[35]. Users can trigger search manually via a globe icon or let ChatGPT decide when to search[36].
Availability: Search is rolling out across the web, desktop and mobile; Plus and Team users get it first, with access coming to Free users over time[37].
Designed for trust: The feature provides citations and partners with publishers to highlight high‑quality sources[38].

Other specialised apps

AskYourPDF: A popular app that lets users upload PDFs and query them in natural language. ChatGPT can summarise documents, extract key points or answer questions. (No authoritative source was found during research, so this description reflects common functionality.)
Wolfram: This app connects ChatGPT to Wolfram | Alpha and the Wolfram Language, enabling complex mathematics, unit conversions, chemistry queries and visualisations. (While widely known, no open citation was available; therefore this description remains general.)

Projections & strategic implications

The rollout of ChatGPT apps signals a shift from plug‑in style API calls to in‑chat experiences. The model context protocol allows multiple apps to work together – for example, a user can plan a conference trip with Expedia, generate a marketing flyer in Canva and schedule follow‑up emails through Zapier, all in a single conversation. This reduces friction between discovery and action[1].

For users, the ecosystem transforms ChatGPT into a "super app" where travel planning, home searches, learning, design, music and productivity tasks happen seamlessly. The ability to search the web, analyse data and pull information from personal drives further reduces the need to open separate tools. ChatGPT also surfaces apps automatically when they are relevant, lowering the barrier for casual users[39].

For businesses, embedding apps within ChatGPT unlocks a massive audience of more than 800 million weekly users[12]. Companies can offer interactive experiences (maps, playlists, course previews) while controlling the booking or checkout flow on their own sites[11]. This new distribution channel could drive brand discovery and customer acquisition. However, partners must invest in building reliable MCP integrations and consider the risk of being an "invisible back‑end" behind ChatGPT's unified interface.

Looking ahead, OpenAI plans to expand the app ecosystem to include food delivery (e.g., DoorDash), ride‑hailing (Uber), outdoor activities (AllTrails) and more[39]. Improvements in search aim to integrate categories like shopping and travel even more deeply[40]. As apps proliferate, ChatGPT could become a central operating system for everyday tasks, provided that privacy and data‑sharing concerns are addressed.

[1] Introducing apps in ChatGPT and the new Apps SDK | OpenAI

https://openai.com/index/introducing-apps-in-chatgpt/

[2] [3] [4] [5] Expedia in ChatGPT

https://www.expedia.com/product/expedia-in-chatgpt/

[6] [7] [8] ChatGPT Integrates Expedia and Booking.com to Transform the Future of Trip Planning - Travel And Tour World

https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/chatgpt-integrates-expedia-and-booking-com-to-transform-the-future-of-trip-planning/

[9] [10] [11] Zillow debuts the only real estate app in ChatGPT - Zillow Group

https://www.zillowgroup.com/news/zillow-becomes-first-real-estate-app-in-chatgpt/

[12] [13] [14] Making Coursera learning more accessible worldwide through an app in ChatGPT - Coursera Blog

https://blog.coursera.org/making-coursera-learning-more-accessible-worldwide-through-an-app-in-chatgpt/

[15] Use ChatGPT to discover Canva Templates - Canva Help Center

https://www.canva.com/help/chatgpt-templates/