Lock your ChatGPT chats with one tap, explained by monkey
Anyone who borrows your phone or laptop can scroll your ChatGPT history. Now you can lock a chat instead: it disappears from your list and search, and only your PIN or Face ID opens it. It works on the free plan. Here are the steps, where locked chats go, and the one mistake that deletes them for good.
On October 20, OpenAI started rolling out locked chats in ChatGPT. You pick a chat, lock it, and it's hidden from your regular chat history, your pinned chats and search. To open it again you need your 4-digit account PIN, or Face ID, Touch ID or your phone's own unlock where that's supported. It's coming to Free, Go, Plus and Pro, on the web, the iPhone and Android apps, and the new ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and Windows.
How to lock a chat
- Open the chat you want to hide.
- Tap the three dots (•••) for that chat.
- Tap Lock chat and confirm.
- The first time, you'll set a 4-digit PIN. Pick one you will actually remember.
- Done. The chat is gone from your list and from search.
Where your locked chats go
They're kept in your account under Projects, in a section called Locked chats. Open it, enter your PIN (or use Face ID), and they're all there.
Good things to lock
- Health questions you'd rather nobody scrolled past.
- Gift and surprise-party planning when you share a laptop at home.
- Money stuff: budgets, debts, salary talks.
- Anything you'd be embarrassed to have pop up when you share your screen at work or school.
The one gotcha
Don't forget the PIN. If you forget it and reset it, every locked chat is deleted for good, along with anything saved only in them, and OpenAI support can't bring them back. Changing your PIN while you still know the old one is fine and keeps everything.
Good to know
- It's still rolling out, so if you don't see Lock chat yet, give it a few days.
- Locking hides a chat from people using your device. It's not end-to-end encryption, and your data and training settings stay the same.
- Locked chats keep their own memory: what you say there can shape other locked chats, but not your normal ones.
- Just want a one-off chat that never saves? Use a Temporary Chat instead. The catch is you can't go back to it later.
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