ChatGPT now lets you lock sensitive chats behind a PIN

Locked Chats let you pick a conversation and put it behind a gate. You open that gate with a four-digit PIN. On supported phones you can use Face ID or Touch ID instead.

Once locked, the chat leaves your normal list. Engadget reports it no longer appears in your regular chat history, your pinned chats or your conversation search. Instead it moves to a dedicated "Locked Chats" section. Engadget describes that section as a new project with that name.

In real life You are planning a surprise trip for your partner with ChatGPT. You lock that chat. Later you hand over your phone to show them a recipe, and the trip plan is not sitting in the sidebar.

OpenAI says that is the main idea. TechCrunch explains it is meant for moments when you discuss something personal, or plan a surprise, and then hand your device to friends or family to show them something in another chat.

ChatGPT already had a privacy option, Temporary Chats. Those are a separate session that does not show up in your history.

Locked Chats work the other way around. They stay. TechCrunch notes you can return to a locked chat at any time. So a Temporary Chat is for a conversation you want to forget. A locked chat is for one you want to keep but not show.

Think of it like the difference between a sticky note you throw away and a diary with a small clasp.

The big picture: ChatGPT's memory is the part that makes it feel personal. It remembers things across conversations. That is also the part that could leak a secret into an unrelated chat.

OpenAI built a wall for this. With Memory turned on, Locked Chats gets its own separate memory. That memory is shared across the conversations inside the locked section.

New messages you send after locking a chat can update that locked memory. They do not update your regular Memory, TechCrunch reports. So what you tell ChatGPT in a locked chat should not show up in an everyday conversation.

This is the part to read twice. OpenAI says locking a chat is not end-to-end encryption and not a separate encrypted vault.

TechCrunch lists what stays the same:

• Retention: locking does not change how long OpenAI keeps the chat.
• Training settings: the "Improve the model for everyone" setting is unchanged.
• Older memories: anything ChatGPT remembered before you locked the chat is not removed.

Engadget adds a plain warning from OpenAI's new support page. Locked chats are not a way around OpenAI's legal obligations if you get into trouble with your workplace or the law.

The catch: the lock protects your screen from the people next to you. It does not make your chat invisible to the company that stores it. TechCrunch makes the same point: locking limits access, but it does not address how sensitive information is stored or handled.

In an end-to-end encrypted app, the message is scrambled on your device. Only you and the person you talk to hold the keys. Not even the company running the service can read it.

ChatGPT does not work that way, and Locked Chats do not change it. The chat is still stored by OpenAI under its normal rules. The PIN is a gate on your device and in your account, not a key that hides the words from the service itself.

That is why OpenAI's own support page spells out the limits. It is also why a lock is the right tool for a nosy sibling, and the wrong tool for anything you would need real secrecy for.

Yes, loudly. Android Authority reported earlier that OpenAI had been spotted working on a way to lock chats behind a PIN or fingerprint. The goal was to hide saved conversations from the sidebar, history and search.

On OpenAI's community forum, users had posted many separate requests. They asked for Face ID or PIN protection on individual chats, a protected folder for sensitive conversations, and a privacy wall around Memory. Locked Chats now covers most of that list: a PIN or biometrics, a separate section and a separate memory.

Be careful here. OpenAI says resetting your PIN permanently deletes all locked chats, files and other content protected by the old PIN.

Engadget quotes the warning: "This cannot be undone, and OpenAI Support cannot recover the deleted content." It also says the deletion covers files you uploaded to the locked project space.

That is the price of a lock that means it. A lock that support staff could simply open for you would not be much of a lock. So choose a PIN you will remember, and do not use your birthday if your whole family knows it.

OpenAI is rolling Locked Chats out in stages. TechCrunch says it began on Tuesday, so it may not be live for everyone yet. Engadget says it may take a few days to reach your account.

The plans that get it:

• Consumer: ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro.
• Work and school: Business, Enterprise and Edu.

It is not available on ChatGPT for Healthcare. Some chat types also cannot be locked:

• Temporary chats
• Archived chats
• Group chats
• Chats created from a shared link
• Chats with scheduled tasks
• Chats with meeting recordings

Engadget adds two more details. On Android and iOS you can use voice mode together with locked chats. You cannot lock your Codex conversations with this feature.

TechCrunch frames it as a new layer of privacy for an app that is increasingly used for personal conversations. People ask chatbots about health worries, money, relationships and gift ideas. Those chats pile up on the same screen you pass around the dinner table.

It also follows a steady run of ChatGPT features that make the app more personal. Recently OpenAI added virtual try-on for clothes, where you upload a photo of yourself. The more ChatGPT knows about you, the more a lock on some of it makes sense. You can read more about the assistant on our ChatGPT tool page.

• Lock the private stuff: surprise plans, personal questions and anything you would not want a friend to see over your shoulder.
• Do not treat it as a vault: the lock keeps people out of your screen, not out of OpenAI's retention rules.
• Remember your PIN: a reset wipes every locked chat and file for good.
• Check your account in a few days: the rollout is gradual, so the option may not be there yet.