ChatGPT Integration Agency

The short answer

Tack Media integrates ChatGPT and the OpenAI API into the systems a business already runs, then operates it. We are AI integrators, not trainers. Work covers API builds, function calling, MCP connectors, retrieval over your own content, data-handling controls and human review gates. Engagements start at $5,000 a month.

What we actually do with ChatGPT

There is a large gap between a team with ChatGPT licences and a business with an AI system. The licences produce faster emails. The system changes throughput. We build the second one.

• API integration. Calls made from your application, your automation platform or a scheduled job, with structured error handling, timeouts, logging and a defined behaviour when the API is slow or down.
• Function calling. Tools defined by JSON schema so the model can look up an order, create a ticket or update a record. OpenAI notes that strict mode forces the model to follow the schema exactly, and recommends fewer than 20 functions available at the start of a turn. Teams that hand the model fifty tools and wonder why accuracy fell have found their answer.
• MCP connectors. OpenAI supports the Model Context Protocol for connecting models to external systems. Their documentation is direct about the risk: write actions require manual confirmation, and prompt injection and untrusted servers are named threats. We build servers you control rather than plugging into whatever is available.
• Retrieval over your own content. Policies, product data, past work, transcripts. Indexed and supplied as context so the answers come from your material.
• Data-handling setup. Which endpoints, which retention setting, what is logged, what never leaves your environment. Written down before build, not after the security review.
• Review gates and routing. Draft to a human, approve in Slack, then act. Irreversible actions do not run unattended.

What it connects to

Where teams get stuck

The pilot cost is not the production cost. As of 26 August 2026, OpenAI publishes GPT-5.6 Sol at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output, Terra at $2 and $12, and Luna at $0.20 and $1.20, with cached input at a 90% discount and the Batch API at 50% for asynchronous work processed within 24 hours. Route everything to the flagship model and you pay twenty-five times the Luna rate for tasks that did not need it. Model selection per task is where the budget is won. OpenAI changes pricing, so check before you commit.

The data question is answered badly, or not at all. OpenAI’s documentation states that as of March 1, 2023, data sent to the OpenAI API is not used to train or improve OpenAI models unless you explicitly opt in, that abuse-monitoring logs are retained for up to 30 days by default, and that approved organisations can obtain Zero Data Retention. Those are three different facts and most internal debates conflate them. We write the position out, name the endpoints, and let your counsel read it.

Too many tools, too little grounding. Accuracy falls when the model is given a large tool surface and no retrieval. It guesses which tool applies and invents the arguments. Fewer tools, tighter schemas and grounded context beats a bigger model almost every time.

Nobody owns it after launch. Prompts drift out of date, an upstream field is renamed, a model version changes behaviour. Without monitoring and an evaluation set, the first person to notice is a customer.

How it works — 1, 2, 3

1. Audit and access, week 1 to 2. We find the workflows that consume real hours, check what data they touch, and agree the retention and access position. Output is a written scope and a cost model.
2. Build and connect, week 3 to 8. Functions, connectors, retrieval, prompts and an evaluation set run against real historical cases. We show you the failure modes, not only the demo. Rollback is defined before launch.
3. Run and report, ongoing. Monthly reporting on volume, cost per task, error rate and hours returned. Prompts and tools are maintained as the business changes.

What it costs

Tack Media engagements start at $5,000 a month. What moves the number: how many systems the model has to touch, whether connectors have to be built and hosted, the volume of content to index, whether output needs regulated review, and how much ongoing operation we own.

ChatGPT seat licences and API usage are billed by OpenAI on your own account. OpenAI lists consumer and business plans including Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise on its published pricing page, priced per user per month, with Business requiring a minimum of two users as of 26 August 2026. Seat pricing and API rates both change. Our scoping work sits inside automation and AI services, and the build method is described on AI agent development.

Questions we get asked

Do you train a model on our data?

No. We ground the existing model in your content with retrieval and give it tools to act. That produces what most people mean when they ask for a model trained on their business, without a training run or the governance overhead attached to one.

Who owns the account?

You do. The OpenAI organisation and any ChatGPT seats are yours, billed to you, with your admins in control. We work inside it. Code, prompts and connectors are documented and handed over.

Can we take it in-house later?

Yes. We document as we build and run a handover with your engineers. Several clients now operate what we built and call us only for new work.

Do you work with our existing setup?

Usually. If your team already runs automations in Make or Zapier we start there. If your CRM is Pipedrive or HubSpot we build against what exists rather than proposing a migration you did not ask for.

Should we use ChatGPT or Claude?

Both, chosen per task. We build model choice as a configuration rather than a commitment, so switching is a change of setting. See the Claude integration page for how we handle the other side.

The bottom line

ChatGPT earns its place when it is connected to real systems, costed at production volume, grounded in your own content and supervised where the actions are irreversible. Seat licences alone will not get you there.

To find out which of your workflows are worth building and which are not, book a call with a Tack Media expert or phone 310-620-1141.

Sources

• OpenAI — API pricing
• OpenAI — Your data (API data usage and retention)
• OpenAI — Function calling guide
• OpenAI — MCP (Model Context Protocol) documentation
• ChatGPT — Pricing plans