How to Build a Website with ChatGPT (Step by Step)

Yes, ChatGPT can build you a real website, and host it, from a single description. The feature is called ChatGPT Sites, and it turns a plain-language brief into a live, hosted page with its own link, no designer, no developer, no code. This is the step-by-step: What you need, how to brief it so the result is actually good, how to make it match your brand, and how to publish it to a domain you own.

I've built business sites, landing pages and full apps this way, so this is the real process rather than the theory. If you'd rather see the range of what's possible first, our ChatGPT Sites use cases piece runs through eight builds.

What you need before you start

ChatGPT Sites is a feature of ChatGPT Work, so the first thing to know is which plan and app you need. OpenAI's help docs are clear that Sites is in public beta on the Plus, Pro and workspace plans, and not on the Free or Go tiers. You start from Work on the web, or Work or Codex in the desktop app.

I'd use the desktop app. As with the rest of Work, the desktop version carries the fuller feature set and lets you work in a local project, which matters here because it's how you keep all the files the site is built from. Our how to use ChatGPT Work guide covers getting the app set up if you're starting from scratch.

Step 1: Start a project and open Sites

Don't just fire a prompt into a blank chat. Create a project first, and add a project folder for the site to live in. Working inside a project is what gives you access to every file the site is built from afterwards, which you'll want if the idea gets traction and you ever move it elsewhere.

With the project open and Work mode selected, you invoke the builder one of two ways: Include the word "website" in your prompt, or type @ and choose Sites, described in the tool list as "build and deploy websites." Then you describe the site you want, and it generates a preview you can refine before publishing.

Step 2: Write a brief that gets you a good site

The quality of the site tracks the quality of the brief, so this is where the work is. A one-line request gets a generic page; a proper brief gets something you'd actually use. When I built a site for a test business, an office-plant service called Leaf It To Us, the brief covered four things, and those four are a good template for any site.

State the goal of the site, not just the topic: What should a visitor understand, and what should they do. Describe the business or offer in enough detail that it can write real copy rather than filler. Say what you want built, the sections, a lead-capture form, an FAQ, whatever the page needs. And give it direction on brand, the name, the feel, the logo, or let it invent them if you're testing an idea. On that run it produced a live site in fifteen minutes, complete with a logo it designed, its own images, a working enquiry form, and a before-and-after slider it built without being asked.

The habit to build is treating this like briefing a capable freelancer: The clearer the brief, the less you fix afterwards. And you're not locked into the first attempt. Sites builds a preview you refine before publishing, so the normal flow is a solid first version, then a few rounds of "make the hero shorter, swap this section, change the tone," the same way you'd steer a designer. It's quicker to get close with a full brief and then adjust than to write the perfect prompt up front, so don't over-engineer the opening ask.

Step 3: Make it match your brand

If you already have a brand, the difference between an on-brand page and a generic one is whether you give it your style. The best way I've found is to put the guidance in files inside the project folder rather than cramming it into the prompt.

For our own community landing page, I used two files: A brief for what the page should do and contain, and a design.md that taught it our exact style guide, colours, fonts, spacing and tone. What came back matched our main website closely, and if you use AI agents at all, whether ChatGPT Work, Claude Cowork or Claude Code, writing a design.md for your brand is one of the highest-return things you can do. You provide the assets too, logos, fonts, images, so it has real materials to build with rather than guessing.

You can also make the page do things. That community page only accepts business email addresses and, on submit, forwards the person to our sign-up with their email pre-filled. It's live now with people signing up through it daily. For pulling in live data, like an upcoming event or numbers from another tool, you connect the relevant plugins and connectors and tell it what to display.

Step 4: Publish and connect your own domain

When you publish, ChatGPT hosts the site and gives it a production URL on its own chatgpt.site domain. That's a real, shareable site as-is. To put it on your own address, open the site's settings and add a custom domain, OpenAI notes you must already own the domain and be able to change its DNS records. I've pointed sites at our own subdomains this way, and the hosting is all handled by ChatGPT under your plan.

Two settings are worth checking before you share anything. The sharing control decides who can see the site, from just you, to your workspace, to anyone on the internet, so a public marketing page and an internal tool get different settings. And if the site needs to talk to other systems, you add environment variables, including any API keys, in the same settings area, marking the secret ones as secret.

What ChatGPT can't do when building a site

Set expectations before you rely on it. Sites is in beta, and there are firm limits. It can't take payments except through a third-party processor, and it must not handle sensitive data like health or payment-card details, so it isn't an online-shop platform. User logins, out of the box, only work through "sign in with ChatGPT," so everyone using a gated app needs a ChatGPT account. And OpenAI is honest that Sites suits focused pages, internal tools, dashboards and calculators, while a more complex product may still need a real engineering project.

None of that undercuts the core use. For a simple business site, a landing page, an internal tool or a prototype, this is the fastest route from idea to live that I've used. Start with one real page you need, brief it properly, and publish it, then decide what to build next.

Getting a whole team building their own sites and tools like this, rather than waiting on someone else, is exactly what our Cowork training programme teaches, function by function, on the tools you already run. If you want to be the one who ships instead of waits, book a call with us.

Common questions

Can ChatGPT build a website? Yes. Through ChatGPT Sites, a feature of ChatGPT Work, you describe the site in plain language and it builds and hosts a live page with its own link. You can then connect a custom domain you own. It's available in public beta on the Plus, Pro and workspace plans.

How do I build a website with ChatGPT? Open ChatGPT Work, create a project, and either include the word "website" in your prompt or tag @Sites. Write a clear brief covering the goal, the offer, the sections and the brand, refine the preview, then publish. Adding your own style guide as a file makes it match your brand.

Is building a website with ChatGPT free? No. ChatGPT Sites is on the paid plans, Plus, Pro and workspaces, and isn't available on the Free or Go tiers. The hosting for sites you build is included within your plan's limits.

Can I use my own domain? Yes. ChatGPT first hosts the site on a chatgpt.site address, and in the site settings you can connect a custom domain, as long as you already own it and can edit its DNS records.

What are the limits of building a website with ChatGPT? It's in beta, can't process payments except via a third-party processor, must not handle sensitive data, and only offers "sign in with ChatGPT" for logins by default. It's best for simple sites, landing pages, internal tools and prototypes rather than complex software products.