For years "I need a simple website" meant a weekend, a template you fought with, and a hosting bill. ChatGPT Sites turns it into one message. You describe the site, ChatGPT builds it, hosts it, and gives you a link. Want a change? You say it in plain English and the page updates. It is in public beta on the Plus and Pro plans, it costs nothing extra, and I have watched people go from nothing to a live page for their business in under an hour. If the business itself does not exist yet, my side hustle guide gets you to the point of needing one.
Here's the full walkthrough: where Sites lives (it hides in a mode most people have not opened), the prompt shape that gets a good first version instead of a generic one, how to edit and publish, how to put your own domain on it, and the three things it genuinely cannot do, so you do not find out the hard way.
The plan · 60 minutes, 4 prompts
- 1Describe the site properly
- 2Edit it by talking
- 3Publish it and share the link
- 4Build the next three
Before you start
ChatGPT Plus or Pro (Business, Enterprise and Edu plans have it too). Sites is not on Free or Go.
Your real content
the business name, what you do, prices, a paragraph about you, your logo and a few photos, and how people should contact you. The site is only as good as what you give it.
Work mode
Sites lives inside the Work tab, not in a normal chat. If you do not see Work yet, it may not have reached your account or region, so check back in a few days.
Describe the site properly
On chatgpt.com, switch to the Work tab at the top. In the desktop app, choose Work. Then describe your site in one message and include the word "website" or mention @Sites so ChatGPT knows to build rather than just plan. Attach your logo and photos to the same message. The trick is giving it the audience, the purpose, the sections, the actual content and the contact method in one go, and telling it not to invent anything.
Build a website for [BUSINESS NAME], a [WHAT IT IS] in [CITY]. Audience: local customers, mostly on their phones. Pages: Home, Services with prices, About, Contact. Here is the content to use, word for word where possible: [PASTE YOUR SERVICES AND PRICES], [PASTE A PARAGRAPH ABOUT YOU]. Tone: warm and plain, no marketing buzzwords. Contact: a tap-to-call button for [PHONE NUMBER] and a "Book a time" button that links to [YOUR CALENDLY OR BOOKING LINK]. Use the attached logo and photos. Do not invent reviews, prices or facts: wherever I have not given you real content, put [PLACEHOLDER] in brackets so I can see it. Mobile first.
ChatGPT builds it and shows you a private preview only you can see. Look at it on your phone as well as your computer before you touch anything else, because that is how most of your visitors will see it.
Maverick's tip
The "do not invent" line matters more than it looks. Without it, the builder fills every gap with convincing fake content, a testimonial from a customer who does not exist, a price you never set. With it, you get bracketed placeholders you cannot miss.
Edit it by talking
There is no drag-and-drop editor. Every change is a sentence. In the preview, select Edit and describe what you want under "Describe website edits," or open the chat where you built it and just say it. Be specific and do one or two changes at a time, the way you would brief a designer.
Three edits. First, on the Home page, make the headline "[YOUR NEW HEADLINE]" and put the "Book a time" button directly under it. Second, on the Services page, show the prices in a simple table instead of paragraphs. Third, the About page photo should be the one of me outside the shop, not the interior shot. Keep everything else exactly as it is.
Each change produces a new version. Save a version when you like where it is, because saving creates a draft you can review, and only deploying makes it live. If you already have a site and want to move it over, you can also paste your old site's text in as content, and a form on the site can collect messages into the site's own storage, but it will not email them to you unless you add an outside form service, which is why a booking link or a tap-to-call button is the better contact method for most people.
Maverick's tip
Ask for the small things people forget: a favicon, your opening hours in the footer, a map link to your address, the phone number on every page, and "make every button big enough to tap with a thumb."
When the preview is right, deploy it. Every deployment is the live site, so save a version first, review it, then deploy. A new site is private by default, visible only to you, so select Share, choose "Anyone on the internet" under who has access, select Publish, then use Copy link. Your address will look like your-site-name.your-handle.chatgpt.site, and you can rename that address later in the site's settings without rebuilding anything.
If you own a domain and the option shows for your account, the site can live on it. In the site's settings choose Add domain, type your domain, and it gives you the records to paste into your domain provider. Wait a few minutes, refresh the domain status, and your site is at your own address. ChatGPT can walk you through your provider's screens if you get stuck.
Your Sites page (Sites in the sidebar, or chatgpt.com/sites) lists every site you have built, with an analytics view showing unique visitors and page views over time. To take a site down, change its share settings back to private. Deleting is permanent and cannot be undone, so unpublish first if you are not sure.
Build the next three
Once you have done one, the others take twenty minutes each. Same shape: audience, purpose, sections, real content, tone, contact, and the do-not-invent line.
Build a website for my personal resume. Audience: recruiters and people I meet at events. One page with sections: a two-line intro, work history (pasted below), skills, three things I have made with links, and a contact section. Content: [PASTE YOUR RESUME]. Tone: friendly and direct. Contact: link to my email and my LinkedIn, no form. Use the attached headshot. Black text on white with one accent colour, mobile first, and put [PLACEHOLDER] wherever you need something I have not given you.
Build a website for [EVENT NAME] on [DATE] at [VENUE]. Audience: invited guests. Sections: a hero with the date and place, the schedule, travel and hotel information (pasted below), dress code, an FAQ, and an RSVP button that opens [YOUR GOOGLE FORM OR RSVP LINK]. Content: [PASTE THE DETAILS]. Tone: elegant and minimal, very few words. Mobile first, and no placeholders that could be mistaken for real information.
For a portfolio, ask for a home page of project tiles you can filter by category and one page per project with three images each, which is the kind of interactive thing the cheap page builders cannot do at all.
The Honest Part
Three things it will not do. It will not take payments: no checkout, no card details, so a shop means linking out to a page on Stripe, Shopify or Gumroad. It will not give you a visual editor, so if you are someone who needs to drag boxes around yourself, Squarespace or Canva will make you happier. And there is no documented way to export the site and take it elsewhere, so a Sites site lives on your ChatGPT subscription. There are also beta limits on how much you can build and host, shown inside the app rather than published, and a fresh chatgpt.site address has no search history behind it, so do not expect Google to find it on day one.
For a page that needs to exist by tonight, for a launch, an event, a portfolio, a small service business, it is the fastest route I know, and it is already included in the plan you are paying for. Open Work, paste the first prompt with your real details, and look at it on your phone. That is the whole first step.