ChatGPT now lets you lock individual conversations, so they vanish from your chat list and only open with a 4-digit PIN or your phone’s face or fingerprint unlock. If you ever share your screen or hand your phone to someone, locked chats keep your private questions out of sight.
The Gist
- Locked chats started rolling out on October 20, 2026, on every ChatGPT plan from Free to Enterprise.
- A locked conversation leaves your history and search, and opens only with a PIN or your phone’s unlock.
- If you forget your PIN and reset it, every locked conversation is deleted for good.
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ChatGPTMeet locked chats, ChatGPT’s private drawer
What is this new option? A locked chat is a normal ChatGPT conversation that you choose to hide. It disappears from your list of past chats, from your pinned chats and from search, then moves into a folder called Locked chats under Projects, as OpenAI explains in its help page on locking conversations in ChatGPT.
Who is it for? Anyone who uses ChatGPT for things they would rather keep to themselves. OpenAI points to two everyday moments: sharing your screen with other people, and using a phone or computer that someone else also uses.
Do you have to pay for it? The option comes with every ChatGPT plan: Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. It is arriving gradually, so if you can’t find it yet, your account simply hasn’t received it.
What locking a chat actually protects
Here is the detail worth knowing before you start. Locking changes where a conversation shows up and how you open it. Your data is stored and kept exactly as before, and the setting that lets OpenAI use your chats to improve its models stays the way you set it.
Memory works a little differently inside. ChatGPT’s memory is the set of facts it keeps about you from one chat to the next, and it now builds fuller stories about you. Locked chats can read that regular memory, while anything new you share after locking is remembered only for other locked conversations.
What ChatGPT learned about you before the lock stays where it was. If you want to clean that up too, our guide to seeing and erasing what ChatGPT remembers walks you through it step by step.
The PIN is the one piece you really have to keep safe. If you forget it and reset it, ChatGPT permanently deletes every locked conversation, along with the memories and files protected only by that PIN, and OpenAI’s support team cannot bring any of it back.
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How to lock a ChatGPT chat in four taps
The routine is short. Open the conversation’s menu, the three dots next to it, pick Lock chat, confirm, then create a 4-digit PIN the first time. The conversation leaves your regular history right away, although search results can take a moment to catch up.
Opening it later works the same way. Go to Projects, then Locked chats, type your PIN and pick the conversation. On an iPhone you can use Face ID or Touch ID, and on Android your usual screen unlock does the job.
The lock also closes again on its own. On a phone, access ends after one minute away from locked chats or one minute with the app in the background. In a browser, refreshing the page or closing the tab is enough, so an open private chat never stays on screen for long.
How to try locked chats without losing anything
A gentle first test helps. Pick an old conversation you don’t mind experimenting with, lock it, then close the app and open it again to see the PIN screen. Once that feels natural, move over the chats you would hate to see on a shared screen.
Some conversations can’t be locked. Temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats created from a shared link and chats tied to scheduled tasks or meeting recordings all stay out, and a chat can’t be archived, pinned, moved or shared while it’s locked.
Zooming out, this update says a lot about how people use AI today. Health questions, money worries and work drafts all end up in ChatGPT, and the ads that now appear below some answers can show up inside locked chats too, OpenAI says. Expect to hear more about how private an AI chat really is, and who else gets to see it.
One last point for work accounts. At organizations using ChatGPT Enterprise or Edu, locked chats still appear in the records the organization can check for compliance, and an admin can’t unlock your chats or reset your PIN.
Stay tuned on AI Noobies.
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