MediumGPT
The Building a ChatGPT Plugin for Medium article published on Medium Engineering provides a technical exploration of the capabilities and p...
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What is MediumGPT?
MediumGPT is a proof-of-concept ChatGPT plugin developed by Medium that enables ChatGPT to access, browse, and extract content from Medium's platform. The plugin solves ChatGPT's limitation of lacking internet access and up-to-date content by providing a bridge between ChatGPT and Medium's content library through a REST API middleware that converts GraphQL queries.
Key features include four main API endpoints: getting trending posts with title, subtitle, author info, links and topics; querying specific posts to retrieve full content (for non-paywall content); querying topics to get trending and latest posts alongside related topics; and searching posts using specific queries. The plugin automatically chains multiple queries together to form comprehensive results and understands paywall status through the isLocked attribute.
This tool is primarily for developers interested in ChatGPT plugin development, Medium users who want natural language browsing of Medium content, and anyone exploring how content platforms can expose their data to AI conversation systems. It serves as a technical demonstration rather than a released product, showing how Medium content becomes retrievable through ChatGPT prompts.
The plugin requires no user authentication and works by having ChatGPT trigger the appropriate API based on user prompts. It provides nice card displays at the end of messages and can handle complex queries like summarizing heated tech debates or finding related posts on specific topics.
MediumGPT pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
The plugin documentation does not specify pricing details. As a proof of concept in private alpha, there is no publicly available free tier or paid plan information. Users need ChatGPT Plus subscription to access the plugins feature. The plugin itself requires no authentication and appears to be free, but official release pricing has not been announced since Medium has not committed to releasing it.
MediumGPT pros
- Solves ChatGPT's lack of internet access and up-to-date content
- Provides natural language query interface for browsing Medium content
- Automatically chains multiple API queries together for comprehensive results
- No user authentication required for plugin access
- Returns trending posts with complete metadata including author info and topics
- Successfully identifies which posts are behind paywall vs free content
- Can search posts using specific query terms
- Fetches full content of posts not behind paywall
- Provides related posts through topic queries
- Includes nice card displays at end of ChatGPT messages
- Works with simple prompts without requiring 'Medium' in every query
- OpenAPI specification allows ChatGPT to understand API capabilities
- REST API middleware converts internal GraphQL to ChatGPT-compatible format
- Demonstrates chain-of-thought reasoning for complex API navigation
- Simple proof of concept with straightforward Go microservice implementation
MediumGPT cons
- Still in proof of concept stage, not released as actual product
- No plan announced yet for official plugin release
- Only works with content not behind Medium paywall
- Limited to only 4 API endpoints exposed
- Requires ChatGPT Plus subscription with plugin access
- Private alpha plugin support limits availability
- Cannot query GraphQL API directly, requires REST middleware
- Topic API requires topic ID which must be obtained through search first
- Currently biased because only one plugin can be installed at a time
- No integration with Medium's internal GraphQL API
Frequently asked questions about MediumGPT
What is the MediumGPT plugin?
MediumGPT is a proof-of-concept ChatGPT plugin developed by Medium that allows ChatGPT to access, browse, and extract Medium content. It solves ChatGPT's limitation of lacking internet access by providing API endpoints to retrieve trending posts, specific post content, topic information, and search results from Medium.
Is the Medium plugin officially released?
No, this is a technical exploration and proof of concept. Medium explicitly states they do not yet have a plan about releasing this plugin officially. It was built during private alpha access to ChatGPT plugin support.
What API endpoints does the plugin expose?
The plugin exposes 4 API endpoints: (1) Get trending posts with title, subtitle, author info, link, and topics; (2) Query specific post for full content (if not behind paywall); (3) Query topic for trending/latest posts and related topics; (4) Search posts using a specific query.
Can I read paywalled content through the plugin?
No, the plugin only returns full content for posts that are not behind the paywall. The isLocked attribute indicates whether a story is locked behind paywall, and ChatGPT correctly identifies which posts are free vs paid.
Does the user need to mention Medium in their prompt?
Yes and no. When running ChatGPT with only one plugin installed (the Medium plugin), it's biased toward using it automatically. For example, asking 'what are the 3 trending articles' triggers the Medium plugin. However, if multiple platforms expose similar APIs, adding 'Medium' to the prompt would be important to target this plugin specifically.
How do I install the Medium plugin?
The article does not provide installation instructions since it's not released. During private alpha, users with ChatGPT Plus could install unverified plugins by going to Plugin Store > Install An Unverified Plugin and inserting the domain URL pointing to the .well-known/ai-plugin.json file.
What programming language was the plugin built with?
The MediumGPT microservice was written in Go, which is the primary language for Medium's microservices. The author used ChatGPT to convert Go code into OpenAPI specification, which was then adjusted and made ready for the plugin.
Can the plugin chain multiple queries together?
Yes, the plugin successfully chains queries together. For example, it can first fetch the trending API, then fetch the content of the first story, and finally provide a summary. It can also fetch a topic first, then fetch content of posts within that topic.
What is the OpenAPI specification's role in the plugin?
The OpenAPI YAML file is the most important part of the plugin. It allows ChatGPT to understand what the plugin can do, which API to trigger, and when. ChatGPT parses this documentation to make sense of the API capabilities, and simple, clear descriptions in the spec are crucial for proper understanding.
How does the plugin handle topic queries without a topic ID?
The getTopic API requires a topic ID, but ChatGPT demonstrates chain-of-thought reasoning to work around this limitation. Users must first use the search API to find stories related to a topic, grab the topic ID from the post's topic object, and then query the Topic API with that ID.