FAQ
Open-Source ChatGPT Work Alternative: FAQ
Kortix is the open-source alternative to ChatGPT Work: self-host it, use any model with your own keys, and own your agents in one git repo.
Is there an open-source ChatGPT Work alternative?
Yes. Kortix is the open-source AI Management System and the leading open-source alternative to OpenAI ChatGPT Work and Anthropic Claude Cowork. Kortix keeps the agents, skills, company memory and connector config in one git repo you own, and runs it on your own infrastructure or on Kortix Cloud. The definition of an open-source ChatGPT Work alternative covers what that ownership includes, and the alternatives list ranks the field.
What is ChatGPT Work?
ChatGPT Work is OpenAI's agent inside ChatGPT, launched July 9, 2026, that acts across your apps and files, stays with a project for hours, and returns finished documents, presentations and Sites (OpenAI announcement). It now runs on OpenAI's GPT-6 with Codex technology built in and reaches tools such as Slack, Teams, Google Drive and Salesforce through more than 1,400 plugins (ChatGPT Work). OpenAI hosts ChatGPT Work in its own cloud, so you cannot install, read or audit it. Usage is metered against your plan's included allowance rather than sold as a separate product, following the same structure as Codex (OpenAI rate card).
What does ChatGPT Work replace?
ChatGPT Work replaces the manual assembly around a task: gathering context from separate apps, building spreadsheets, slides and documents by hand, and moving a project between tools step by step. It sits on top of ChatGPT, so question-and-answer chat still exists, and the agent layer carries a goal through to a finished artifact. OpenAI's launch examples include an NVIDIA team that replaced an Excel workflow consuming about 40% of pre-event prep time (OpenAI announcement).
Is ChatGPT Work open source?
No. ChatGPT Work is closed source and runs only in OpenAI's cloud, with no code you can read, fork or self-host. Your agents, prompts and company context live inside OpenAI's product. An open-source alternative such as Kortix puts the same kind of agent work in files you own and infrastructure you choose, and its source is public at Kortix on GitHub.
ChatGPT Work vs an open-source alternative: the one difference that matters
Ownership is the one difference that matters. ChatGPT Work is a capability you rent inside a ChatGPT plan, so the configuration and the runtime stay on OpenAI's side. Kortix is one git repo you own, holding every agent, skill, memory file and connector, and each agent's work lands as a change request a human reads as a diff before it merges. The head-to-head comparison walks through the rest.
Is the open-source ChatGPT Work alternative free?
Yes. Kortix is open source, so self-hosting it is free. Kortix Cloud has a Free plan at $0 with 200 sandbox-compute credits per month and one project, and a Team plan at $40 per seat per month with 2,500 pooled credits per seat; Enterprise adds SAML SSO, SCIM, RBAC, audit logs and cloud, VPC or on-prem deployment. You can create a project from the home page and bring your own API key or your ChatGPT subscription.
Can I self-host an open-source ChatGPT Work alternative?
Yes. Kortix self-hosts on a laptop, a VPS, your VPC or an on-prem network, or you can let Kortix run it as managed cloud. Install with curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash, scaffold your project with kortix init, then start a single Docker Compose stack with kortix self-host start. Every session runs on its own isolated Linux sandbox on its own branch, and connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine; the self-hosting guide lists the full path.
Can I use my own AI model and API keys with Kortix?
Yes. Kortix is model-agnostic, so you pick the model per agent, per session or per message from Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, or point at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. You bring your own API key through the Kortix Gateway, or connect the ChatGPT subscription you already pay for. ChatGPT Work uses OpenAI's models inside OpenAI's cloud, so model choice there is fixed.
Does Kortix have a free trial?
Kortix does not need a trial, because the Free plan is permanent: $0 for 200 sandbox-compute credits per month, one project, and your own API key or ChatGPT subscription. Open-source self-hosting is free as well. Team and Enterprise are the paid tiers for pooled credits, more projects, SAML/SCIM and VPC or on-prem deployment.
How do I migrate from ChatGPT Work to an open-source alternative?
Migration is a repo you build rather than a data export. Install the Kortix CLI (the command is in the self-hosting guide), run kortix init to scaffold kortix.yaml with your agents/ and skills/ folders, then connect the 3,000+ apps, MCP servers or HTTP APIs you already use. Turn each recurring ChatGPT Work task into a markdown agent, set each tool call to allow, ask or block, and the output lands through change requests you review.
Get started with open-source Kortix
Kortix is open source (Elastic License 2.0), so you can self-host, read and modify the code. Run it on your own machine or start on Kortix Cloud. Get started with open-source Kortix.