OpenAI has begun piloting group chats in ChatGPIT, allowing you to collaborate with your family, friends or colleagues in a shared space to discuss ideas or make decisions.
How does this work? Well, to start a group chat, tap the people icon in the top-right corner of a new or existing chat and invite people. Once people accept the invitation, a copy of your conversation will be created as a new group chat to keep the original conversation separate.
OpenAI says you can invite up to 20 people directly by sharing a link, and anyone in the group can share that link to include other people. And when you join or create a group chat, you’ll be asked to set up a profile, which will include your name, username, and a photo.
Group chats can be accessed from the sidebar. Members can see who is in the chat or leave at any time. They can also remove other members from the group chat except the group creator.
Responses in group chats are powered by ChatGPT 5.1 Auto. It chooses the best model to respond based on the signal and the models available to the ChatGPT user, responding based on their plan. Rate limits only apply when ChatGPT responds, not when users are chatting with each other in a group. Additionally, ChatGPT’s responses count toward the available range of the person to whom ChatGPT is responding.
OpenAI said they “taught ChatGPT new social behaviors for group chats,” so “it follows the flow of the conversation and decides when to respond and when to remain silent based on the context of the group conversation.” But you can always mention “chatgpt” when you want a message to come through.
Additionally, the bot has gained the ability to respond to messages with emojis and reference profile photos of group members. Additionally, you can set custom instructions for how ChatGPT responds in each group chat.
For those concerned about privacy, OpenAI said that neither your personal ChatGPT memory is used in group chats, nor does ChatGPT create memories from these conversations. The company also revealed that it is exploring more detailed controls in the future so that users can choose how and when ChatGPT uses memory with group chats. Additionally, if anyone under 18 uses a group chat, ChatGPT will automatically reduce exposure to sensitive content for everyone in the chat.
Group chats are available on web and mobile for logged-in users on ChatGPT’s Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans in Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and South Korea. The rollout will be expanded to more areas based on initial user feedback.
