ChatGPT can now lock individual chats behind a 4-digit account PIN. On Android you can use your phone’s screen unlock instead, and on iPhone, Face ID or Touch ID. Locked chats drop out of your regular history, pinned chats and search. The catch is serious: if you forget the PIN and reset it, every locked chat is permanently deleted.
OpenAI’s help article spells out what a reset wipes. It deletes all locked chats, any remembered information stored only within them, and files protected only by the old PIN. It can’t be undone, and OpenAI Support can’t recover the content. Changing your PIN is different and keeps your chats intact.
OpenAI’s release notes describe the feature this way:
“Locked chats let you keep selected conversations in your account while hiding them from regular chat history, pinned chats, and search.”
Who gets ChatGPT locked chats
The release notes entry is dated October 20, 2026, and the rollout is gradual. OpenAI’s help article lists availability on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. ChatGPT for Healthcare isn’t included.
The feature works on the web, in the Android and iOS apps, and in the new ChatGPT desktop app for macOS and Windows. If you don’t see the Lock chat option yet, it may not have reached your account.
How to lock a chat in ChatGPT
- Open the chat you want to hide.
- Tap the ••• menu.
- Choose Lock chat and confirm.
- Create a PIN, or enter your existing one.
Locked chats then live under Projects > Locked chats. To change your PIN without losing anything, go to Settings > Security and login > Account PIN.
What locking doesn’t do
This is privacy from people around you, not privacy from OpenAI. It helps if someone glances at your screen, watches a screen share or borrows your device. According to OpenAI’s help article, locking a chat:
- Isn’t encryption: no end-to-end encryption and no separate encrypted vault
- Doesn’t change retention: OpenAI keeps the chat for the same length of time
- Doesn’t change training: your Improve the model for everyone setting still applies
- Doesn’t erase memory: anything ChatGPT remembered before you locked the chat stays
Shared links also survive. Locking a chat doesn’t delete its share link, so remove that separately. The PIN-reset rule deserves a second mention, too. A single reset wipes every chat you deliberately chose to lock, so store your PIN somewhere safe.
The rest of it, in brief
- Auto-relock: on Android and iOS, access ends after one minute away from a locked chat or one minute in the background. A Lock now button relocks it instantly.
- Projects: locking a chat that sits in a project pulls it out of that project.
- Voice: works in locked chats on web, Android and iOS, but not in the desktop app.
- Wrong PINs: too many failed attempts temporarily disable access.
- Admins: a workspace administrator can’t reset your PIN or unlock your chats.
- Other devices: they may keep showing a locked chat’s title until their lists refresh. On iOS, loaded content may stay visible until the app refreshes.
WhatsApp is testing a similar idea for messaging, covered in our look at its Restricted Chat beta.
Sources: OpenAI release notes, OpenAI Help
