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Is ChatGPT Sites free, and can it replace web hosting?
ChatGPT Sites is not free: it needs a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu), and every site it hosts is capped at a 10 GB database. It handles a small site or an internal tool without a separate hosting bill, but the documentation rules out payment-card data and data residency.
What matters
- ChatGPT Sites is a hosting feature inside ChatGPT, in public beta, available with the paid Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans: there is no free tier.
- Each Site's relational database (D1) is capped at 10 GB, while R2 object storage carries no fixed storage limit, per OpenAI's Sites documentation.
- The runtime accepts HTTP, HTTPS and WebSockets but not raw inbound or outbound TCP, and OpenAI states that Sites supports no data or inference residency at launch.
- OpenAI's docs bar payment-card data, protected health information and financial transactions, so a real store still needs conventional hosting.
- Custom domains work only where the feature is available and you must already own the domain and edit its DNS; they are not offered in Enterprise workspaces at launch.
What is ChatGPT Sites?
ChatGPT Sites is a hosting feature built into ChatGPT that creates, hosts, refines and shares websites, web apps and games from a prompt, with no separate deployment pipeline. OpenAI's documentation describes it as turning a prompt, or a compatible local project, into a hosted experience and then sharing the resulting link.
You start one by including the word "website" in a prompt, or by typing @Sites. On the web it sits under the More menu; in the desktop app it is its own view. There is no standalone Sites management view in the Codex CLI or the IDE extension, so creating, saving versions, deploying and sharing all happen inside ChatGPT.
Sites is in public beta, and a Site is deliberately separate from a ChatGPT Project: it stays in your Sites list after the chat that created it ends. The storage products carry the names D1, for relational data, and R2, for objects, which are the product names Cloudflare uses for its database and object-storage services.
Is ChatGPT Sites free?
No. ChatGPT Sites has no free tier. OpenAI lists it as available with the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, and plan-specific usage limits apply across all Sites during the beta. ChatGPT shows the current limits and warns you as you approach one.
Those beta limits are not cosmetic. OpenAI states that reaching a limit can stop you creating a Site, adding storage, or keeping a high-usage Site public. You keep the ability to edit and manage Sites you already own, so the practical risk is that a site which grew can be pushed back to private access rather than deleted.
The accurate framing is not "free website builder" but "website builder bundled into an AI subscription". If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, the marginal cost of a small Site is zero. If you would subscribe to ChatGPT mainly to host a site, you are paying a monthly AI bill to get hosting, and that is the number to compare against a normal hosting plan.
The limits that decide whether it replaces your host
OpenAI documents a short list of hard limits, and these are the part launch coverage tends to skip.
- Storage: each Site gets one D1 relational database capped at 10 GB; R2 object storage has no fixed storage limit.
- Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS and WebSockets are supported. Raw inbound and outbound TCP connections are not.
- Runtime: OpenAI says some frameworks, private networks, databases, background services and hosting patterns are unsupported.
- Residency: Sites supports no data residency or inference residency at launch, covering deployed Sites, Site code, D1 and R2 data, generated artifacts and logs.
- Prohibited data: don't process protected health information or payment-card data, and don't use Sites to enable financial transactions.
Then there are the access defaults. A new Site is limited to its owner and workspace admins until you widen it, and in Enterprise workspaces public publishing is off by default and must be enabled by an admin. Custom domains are a separate feature, unavailable in Enterprise workspaces at launch, and even where it exists you must already own the domain and edit its DNS records, because Sites does not register domains for you.
ChatGPT Sites vs shared hosting
Line the two options up and the split is clear. ChatGPT Sites is a managed runtime tied to a ChatGPT plan; shared hosting is an independent paid server where you control the domain, the stack and where the data lives.
The price gap is smaller than it looks. Hostinger's web hosting page lists plans starting at $2.99/mo on the 48-month term, with Premium renewing at $10.99/mo and a 30-day money-back guarantee. That is a real recurring bill, but it buys a free domain, MySQL databases, email accounts and a control panel with SSH and WP-CLI. ChatGPT Sites folds hosting into a subscription you may already have, then removes e-commerce, residency and TCP from the table.
How publishing and sharing work
Sites splits publishing into two stages: save a version, then deploy it. Every deployment URL is a production URL, so OpenAI's guidance is to save a version first and deploy only after reviewing the build. The ChatGPT-hosted address can be changed later without a new deployment, and the previous address redirects to the new one, routes and query parameters included.
Sharing starts narrow. A new Site is visible only to its owner and workspace admins until you change the audience, and the options range from selected people or groups up to anyone on the internet, where public publishing is enabled. Invitations for named external viewers are rolling out on Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise. Analytics records unique visitors and page views automatically, without an analytics tag, but only for Sites not owned by an Enterprise workspace.
When to use ChatGPT Sites, and when to buy hosting
Use ChatGPT Sites for the jobs it was built around: an internal dashboard, a prototype, a shared planner, a small game, or a landing page you want live today. It stores data in D1, handles uploads in R2, and can add Sign in with ChatGPT for identity-aware features such as saved progress or personalised records.
Buy conventional hosting when the site takes payments, touches health data, needs a custom domain on your own terms, or has to keep data in a specific region. None of those are supported inside Sites, and no prompt fixes them.
For those cases a managed WordPress host or a small VPS is the standard path. ToolBistro's rundown of the best web hosting covers the plans worth comparing, the best managed WordPress hosting roundup filters to WordPress-specific providers, and the Hostinger review works through that provider's tiers if the $2.99/mo entry price is the draw.
At a glance
| Decision factor | ChatGPT Sites | Hostinger web hosting |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | No separate bill, but it requires a paid ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu) | From $2.99/mo on the 48-month term; Premium renews at $10.99/mo (verified Oct 3, 2026) |
| Custom domain | Only where the custom-domain feature is available; you must already own the domain and edit its DNS; not offered in Enterprise workspaces at launch | Free domain included with the 48-month Premium term |
| Database and storage | One D1 relational database capped at 10 GB per Site; R2 object storage has no fixed storage limit | MySQL databases plus plan-based disk, managed in hPanel |
| Server access | Managed runtime: HTTP, HTTPS and WebSockets, with no raw TCP; some frameworks and background services are unsupported | SSH, WP-CLI and PHP version control through hPanel |
FAQ
Is ChatGPT Sites free?
No. It is in public beta and available only with the paid ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans. Plan-specific usage limits apply during the beta, and OpenAI says hitting one can stop you creating a Site, adding storage, or keeping a high-usage Site public.
Can I use my own domain with ChatGPT Sites?
Only where custom domains are available. You must already own the domain and be able to edit its DNS records, because Sites does not register domains. Custom domains are not available in Enterprise workspaces at launch.
Can ChatGPT Sites replace WordPress hosting for an online store?
Not for payments. OpenAI's documentation bars payment-card data and financial transactions, and Sites supports no data residency at launch. A store needs conventional hosting, such as a managed WordPress host, where those uses are permitted.
Related reading
best web hosting, best managed WordPress hosting, Hostinger review