The GOP is, as its name shows, a group of frames arranged in a specific order (I-

frames, B-frames and P-frames in case of the H.264/AVC standard). The coded video
stream is actually a succession of GOPs of a specific size (e.g 8 or 12 frames,
which is set in the header of the standard).
A GOP starts always with an I-frame (Intra coded frame or reference frame) also
called "key frame". The size of the GOP is the distance between two consecutive I-
frames (e.g IBBPBBPBBPBBI means that the size of the GOP is 12).
To extract GOP from a coded video, you should look at the ffmpeg documentation. One
solution could be
ffmpeg -i INPUT.mp4 -acodec copy -f segment -vcodec copy -reset_timestamps 1 -map 0
OUTPUT%d.mp4
which will split your input mp4 video into a series of numbered output files
starting each with an I-frame.
The concept of GOP is over in H.265 and future video coding. Since H.265 we re-
define it as "coded video sequence (CVS)" which have more flexible in term of
hierarchical structure and type of frames. In this CVS, repeated structure is used
to reduce the bit signaling for the frame'structure and P frame is used similar to
I frame in the signalling. This is more clear at Random Access profile.
Note that, H.265 also has the concept of intra-period which how often you see an I
frame.
If you want to transcode from H.264 to H.265 you need to understand correctly this
difference.
Beside, you should mention which tools you are working with. Are they reference
software of H.264/H.265 or open source implementation like x264 and x265.