What Is an OpenAI Select Partner? The 3 Partner Tiers

Picture two proposals landing in the same week. One is a ChatGPT rollout for your 40-person office in Petaling Jaya. The other is an agent that reads orders from your shared inbox.

Both carry the same line under the logo: "OpenAI Select Partner". Before you sign either, you want to know what that line is worth.

One disclosure up front: Anchor Sprint is an OpenAI Select Partner. We have an interest in this topic, so we have kept to what OpenAI has said, in its own wording where it is public. Where we give our own view, we say so.

The short version: The OpenAI Partner Network is the programme OpenAI runs for outside firms that help customers put its technology to work. It has three tiers: Select, Advanced and Elite. A tier tells you a firm has a formal relationship with OpenAI. It does not tell you who will work on your project or how good their last deployment was. Ask for that separately.

What is the OpenAI Partner Network?

OpenAI launched it on 14 June 2026, describing it as "a new program for partners around the world to build, sell, and deliver AI solutions with OpenAI" in its launch announcement.

OpenAI says it is "investing $150 million to support this ecosystem". The goal "to train and enable 300,000 certified consultants by the end of 2026" is a target, so treat it as one.

Why it exists matters more to you. In OpenAI's words, "the limiting factor for seeing value from AI in the enterprise is no longer model capabilities".

What holds companies back is the work around the model: choosing the right tasks, changing how work flows, connecting AI to existing systems, and getting people to use it.

That list is the job description for a partner. If a proposal is mostly about the model and says little about how your work gets done, it is pitching the part OpenAI says is no longer the hard part.

The three OpenAI partner tiers: Select, Advanced and Elite

Select is the entry tier, then Advanced, then Elite. A tier rates the firm, not the project it is proposing to you. In OpenAI's words, partners "can progress through three tiers: Select, Advanced, and Elite", each with "a high bar" in four areas:

• Sales performance
• Technical capability
• Co-sell engagement, meaning selling alongside OpenAI
• Deployment experience

Moving up a tier means meeting OpenAI's bar on those four areas at the next level. OpenAI's launch announcement does not say what each bar is, so be wary of anyone who quotes exact requirements.

Specialisations are on the way

OpenAI's announcement says partners "will also be able to earn specializations" in areas such as Codex (OpenAI's AI coding product), cybersecurity and agents. The point is to help customers spot partners with proven skills in a specific area.

Note the tense: in June 2026 these were still to come. If a firm tells you it holds an OpenAI agents specialisation, ask to see where OpenAI shows it.

A pilot for deeper deployment support

The June 2026 announcement also said OpenAI was piloting a Forward Deployed Experts programme with a set of founding partners. It is designed to help qualified partner staff work more closely with OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering teams when a customer needs deeper deployment support. Ask before you assume your partner is part of it.

What does an OpenAI partner actually do for you?

OpenAI's own description is plain. Partners "help customers understand where AI can create the most value, build solutions that fit their operating environment, and deploy them with the reliability, governance, and support enterprises expect".

Put into the four jobs OpenAI names:

1. Finding the right use cases. Which tasks in your business are worth handing to AI, and which are not. A good partner tells you when a task does not need AI at all.
2. Redesigning the workflow. Adding ChatGPT to a broken process gives you a faster broken process. Usually the approvals and handovers have to change too.
3. Integrating with your systems. OpenAI calls this "secure integration with enterprise systems and data". For a Malaysian retailer, that might mean order data from its Shopee and Lazada stores. For a Singapore distributor shipping across the region, it might be the inventory system plus the shared inbox where regional orders arrive.
4. Adoption and change management. OpenAI's phrase is "change management that helps people adopt new ways of working". In our experience, that starts with training your team and agreeing in writing what data may go in.

Partners are not all the same. OpenAI says "some partners help customers define strategy and redesign operating models", while others integrate AI into complex technology, build industry solutions, modernise data, or help organisations manage change. Pick a partner whose strength matches your problem.

OpenAI also says "no single company can deliver every solution, in every market, for every customer". That applies to partners too. A firm that is strong at rolling out ChatGPT to a 40-person office in Petaling Jaya may be the wrong choice for a regional data platform, and the reverse.

Why you may not find every partner in OpenAI's Partner Locator

A Select partner will usually be missing from OpenAI's Partner Locator, and that is by OpenAI's design. The Locator exists to help enterprise customers find partners in the network.

As of October 2026, OpenAI's guidance to Select partners says Locator listings are for Advanced and Elite partners, with an exception for Select partners who enrolled in the 2025 program year.

So for a firm claiming Select status, absence from the Locator tells you nothing either way; ask the firm for evidence instead. If a firm says it is Advanced or Elite, the Locator is where to look.

How to check an OpenAI partner: six questions to ask

Take these to any firm, including us.

1. Which tier are you, in OpenAI's exact wording? OpenAI's guidance to Select partners is to describe the status as "OpenAI Select Partner". Vague wording such as "official OpenAI partner" or "OpenAI certified agency" is a reason to ask more.
2. Can you show me the confirmation? Ask to see written confirmation of its status from OpenAI. If it says Advanced or Elite, you can also look for it in the Locator.
3. Who will work on our project? A tier belongs to the firm. Ask for the names and roles of the people who will do your work.
4. Show me a deployment like ours. Ideally one for a Malaysian or Singapore business. Ask what they built, how they measured it before go-live, and what happened after launch.
5. How will you handle our data? You need a written answer on which data goes into ChatGPT or into a custom system built on OpenAI's API (the connection developers use to build OpenAI's models into their own software), who can see it, and who in your company signs off on it.
6. When would you tell us not to use AI? A partner that has never talked a client out of a project is selling hours, not judgement.

About Anchor Sprint

Anchor Sprint is an OpenAI Select Partner. That is our status in the OpenAI Partner Network, and it does not mean OpenAI endorses our services.

We help businesses in Malaysia and Singapore with three things:

• ChatGPT rollout: setting ChatGPT up for your team, deciding who gets access, and agreeing usage rules.
• Building on the OpenAI API: custom AI agents and integrations with the systems you already run.
• HRD Corp claimable ChatGPT training: team workshops. We are an HRD Corp approved training provider.

See what we offer on our OpenAI partner page, or compare the plans first in our ChatGPT plans guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is an OpenAI Select Partner? A firm in the Select tier of the OpenAI Partner Network, the programme OpenAI runs for outside firms that help customers put its technology to work. Select is the first of three tiers, before Advanced and Elite.

What are the OpenAI partner tiers based on? OpenAI says each tier has "a high bar for sales performance, technical capability, co-sell engagement, and deployment experience". Its announcement does not publish the thresholds.

How do partners work with OpenAI? OpenAI lists four ways: "co-selling, deploying, building, or helping customers connect to OpenAI technology". Partners then move up from Select to Advanced and Elite on the four measures above. This guide is for buyers, so it does not cover how a firm applies to join.

Can a partner already hold an OpenAI specialisation? OpenAI's June 2026 announcement said partners "will also be able to earn specializations" in areas such as Codex, cybersecurity and agents. If a firm claims one, ask where OpenAI shows it.

Does being an OpenAI partner mean OpenAI endorses that firm? No. A tier shows a formal relationship with OpenAI and progress on OpenAI's four measures. It is not a review of a firm's work on your project, so check references and past deployments yourself.

Sources

• OpenAI, Introducing the OpenAI Partner Network, 14 June 2026
• OpenAI, Codex
• Partner Locator listing rule and status wording: OpenAI's guidance to Select partners (shared with partners, not published)

OpenAI and ChatGPT are trademarks of OpenAI. Anchor Sprint is an OpenAI Select Partner; this does not imply endorsement of our services.