Overview
- OpenAI announced the Locked Chats feature on Tuesday and began a gradual rollout across web, macOS, Windows, iOS and Android for Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans.
- Locking a conversation moves it out of the main chat history, pinned list and search into a Projects > Locked chats folder that requires a four-digit account PIN on web and desktop or device biometric unlock on supported phones.
- Locked Chats use a separate memory partition so new messages inside a locked thread update only that locked-chat memory and will not add to the account’s regular Memory, though information saved before locking remains in regular Memory.
- OpenAI says locking does not add end-to-end encryption, does not change how long chats are retained, and does not change whether conversations can be used to improve its models, so server-side logging and policies still apply.
- Some conversation types and accounts are excluded from locking — temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, shared-link chats, chats with scheduled tasks or meeting recordings, and ChatGPT for Healthcare — and resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes all locked content with no recovery.