Ever handed someone your laptop with ChatGPT open and hoped they wouldn't scroll?
Maybe it's the chat where you worked out your prices. Or a health question. Or the resignation letter you haven't sent yet.
As of this week, you can lock it.
OpenAI is rolling out Locked chats to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users. A locked chat stays in your account, but it disappears from your chat history, your pinned chats and search.
To open it again, you need your 4-digit account PIN or, on devices that support it, your device's own authentication.
(It's rolling out gradually. If you don't see it yet, check again in a few days.)
Right after this: how to lock a chat in three taps, what locking leaves untouched, and the one move that deletes every locked chat for good.
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Right. Back to it.
How to lock a chat
Open the chat.
Tap the more options menu (•••).
Choose Lock chat.
It works on the web, iPhone, Android and the new ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and Windows.
Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces get it too. ChatGPT for Healthcare doesn't.
The part most people will miss
Locked chats get their own memory, kept separate from your regular ChatGPT memory, TechCrunch reports.
Handy if you use the same account for the sensitive stuff and the everyday stuff.
What locking leaves untouched
Locking hides a chat. Here's what it doesn't change:
It isn't end-to-end encryption.
It doesn't change how long your chats are kept.
It doesn't remove memories ChatGPT already saved before you locked the chat.
It doesn't touch the "Improve the model for everyone" setting. If you don't want your chats used for training, that's a separate switch under Data controls in your settings.
And some chats can't be locked at all: temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats you've shared with a link, scheduled tasks and meeting recordings.
The one catch
If you reset your PIN, every locked chat is deleted. Permanently, along with any files and other protected content inside them.
So before you lock anything that matters:
Pick a PIN you'll actually remember.
If a chat holds something you can't afford to lose, copy that part somewhere safe first.
Worth locking today
Anything with real numbers in it: prices, salaries, your revenue
Health questions
Job hunting and resignation drafts
Chats about a specific client or coworker
Make it stick
Next time you start a chat you wouldn't want on screen in a meeting, lock it before you close it.
Three taps now beats an awkward scroll later.
The chats worth locking are usually the ones that run your business, like your prices and your clients. Those deserve a proper home that any AI can pick up and work from. That's the whole idea behind The One-Person Company Playbook.
It's the complete setup for running a business where AI does the work of a full team. Inside:
A company folder with your brief, pipeline tracker and invoice log already laid out, so any AI picks up where you left off
Thirty AI roles across six departments, from sales to finance, ready to use
Six jobs that run on a clock: the morning briefing, follow-ups, invoice checks and more
The step-by-step path from picking a business model to your first paying customer
Works on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok, whichever you already pay for.
The catch: it takes about eight hours over a weekend to set up. After that, it's yours. $97, one-time (down from $297).
Talk tomorrow,
Zephyr
P.S. Which chat are you locking first? Hit reply. (You don't have to tell me what's in it.)