ChatGPT now lets you lock private chats with a PIN—but forgetting it could erase them for good

OpenAI has begun gradually rolling out Locked Chats for ChatGPT, allowing users to hide selected conversations from regular history, pinned chats, and search results. Locked conversations are stored under Projects > Locked chats and require a four-digit account PIN to open; supported mobile devices can also use Face ID, Touch ID, or device authentication. The feature is available across ChatGPT’s Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans, with some conversations—including temporary, archived, group, shared-link, Codex, and scheduled-task chats—ineligible. Resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes every locked chat, memories stored only in those chats, and content protected only by the old PIN. OpenAI says neither its support staff nor workspace administrators can restore or unlock that content, while changing a PIN that users still know preserves it. Locked Chats do not add end-to-end encryption, alter retention periods, or change whether chats are used to improve OpenAI’s models under a user’s existing settings. Enterprise and Edu locked chats remain available in compliance logs. New information from locked chats can be used across other locked chats when Memory is enabled, but not in regular conversations. Existing shared links remain accessible until separately deleted. Temporary Chat offers different protections: it does not appear in history, does not update memory, and is not used for model improvement, though OpenAI may retain copies for up to 30 days for safety.