Blog · August 18, 2026 · Rich Chetwynd
How to deploy an app from ChatGPT Canvas
ChatGPT Canvas is great for building an app, but it runs in the chat. Here's how to deploy a Canvas app to a real web address with a database and a login.
Short answer: Canvas builds the app; it can’t host it. Connect ChatGPT to Croft and ask it to deploy the Canvas app — it goes live at its own web address, with a database and a login for the people you invite.
A Canvas is a live workspace where ChatGPT writes and edits your app so you can watch it take shape. That loop is excellent for building. But the result still lives inside ChatGPT — there’s no URL to send, nothing saved between sessions, and no way to let your team in. Deploying fixes all three.
How to do it
- Connect ChatGPT to your croft. Add Croft in ChatGPT’s connector settings and sign in. (Needs ChatGPT Plus or better for connectors.) Full guide →
- Ask it to deploy the Canvas app. “Deploy this to my croft.” ChatGPT ships the app to your private server.
- Share the link. It’s live behind your login; invite whoever needs it.
What deploying adds
A real URL, a database so data persists, one login through enterprise sign-on, plus HTTPS and backups — none of which you set up. Canvas is where you build it; Croft is where it lives.
Not sure what a “Canvas app” really is before it’s hosted? Here’s what an artifact is, and why it isn’t an app.
Stake out your croft.
Your team's first app could be live before lunch.
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