ChatGPT Locked Chats: hide private chats behind a PIN

A new privacy option keeps selected conversations out of your history and search, but it is not a vault.

On 20 October 2026 OpenAI began rolling out Locked Chats in ChatGPT. You can lock individual conversations so they disappear from your history and search, and open them again with a four digit PIN or your phone’s own unlock. It helps against shoulder surfing, but it is not encryption.

Key facts

OpenAI started rolling out Locked Chats on 20 October 2026, gradually, to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans.
Locked chats leave your normal history, pinned list and search. They sit under Projects, in a Locked chats folder.
You open them with a four digit account PIN, or with Face ID, Touch ID or device authentication on supported phones.
Locking is not end to end encryption and does not change data retention.
Resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes all locked chats.

What happened

On a shared screen or a shared device, the titles of your conversations are easy to see. Locked Chats is OpenAI’s answer to that. To use it, open the three dot menu of a conversation, choose Lock chat and confirm. ChatGPT asks you to create a PIN the first time, or to enter it if you already have one.

From then on the conversation moves to Projects, under Locked chats, and it no longer appears in your history, your pinned chats or the search box. To read it again you enter the PIN, or use Face ID, Touch ID or the unlock method of your device. If you change your mind, choose Unlock chat and the conversation returns to your regular history.

The feature is rolling out on the web, on iOS and Android, and in the newer ChatGPT desktop apps for Windows and macOS. Some accounts will see it later than others.

There are limits on what can be locked. Temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats opened from a shared link, chats with scheduled tasks and chats with meeting recordings are left out. A locked chat cannot be pinned, archived, moved or shared.

Why it matters

Many people now use ChatGPT for things they would not say out loud: a salary negotiation, a health worry, a difficult message to a relative, a surprise gift. Temporary Chat keeps nothing, and deleting a chat loses it for good. Locked Chats sits in the middle: you keep the conversation, but it stays out of sight.

It is worth being clear about what it does not do. Coverage of the launch stresses that locking is not end to end encryption. It does not change how long OpenAI keeps your data, and it does not switch off the setting that lets conversations improve the model. Anyone who opens a locked chat can still copy its contents, and a link you shared before locking keeps working until you delete it. Think of it as a curtain, not a safe.

Reports also say locked chats keep their own memory, which does not carry over into your regular chats.

How to try it

Locking a chat is the easy part. A common next step is starting a fresh private chat from a long one, without dragging everything along. Our free prompt Move a long AI chat to a fresh one without losing context helps with that.

Open the long conversation and paste the prompt at the end, after filling the fields: – What the chat is about: for example “Preparing a conversation with my manager about my salary”. – What you want to do next: for example “Practise my opening statement”. – Details that must not be lost: optional, for example “My target figure and the date of the meeting”. – Who the brief is for: choose “Same assistant, new chat”.

The prompt asks for a short brief with the goal, the decisions already made, the facts to respect, the current state, the open questions and the next steps, and it marks anything unclear as TO CHECK. Before you paste the brief into a new chat, read it and delete every detail you do not need there, such as names, numbers or health information. Then lock the new chat.

Try it

Move a long AI chat to a fresh one without losing context

Frequently asked questions

Does Locked Chats encrypt my conversations?

No. Reports on the launch say locking hides a chat from history and search but is not end to end encryption, and it does not change data retention or the model improvement setting.

What happens if I forget my PIN?

Resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes all your locked chats and the content protected only by that PIN, and support cannot recover it. If you still remember the PIN, you can change it without losing your chats.

Which chats cannot be locked?

Temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats from shared links, chats with scheduled tasks and chats with meeting recordings. Locked chats also cannot be pinned, archived, moved or shared.

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