ChatGPT 2.0

As verified on November 5, 2026.

One app for Chat, Work and Codex

OpenAI's new desktop app for Mac and Windows brings three experiences into one app, on every plan, including Free.¹,²

• Chat is everyday conversation.
• Work is an agent for longer jobs. It gathers information from your apps and files, splits a project into steps, works for hours if needed, and returns finished materials.
• Codex is OpenAI's coding agent, with its own view and history.

You choose Chat or Work with a toggle above the message box, and switch to Codex separately. Chat and Work conversations share one list of recent chats, and projects hold related files and context for both.³,⁴

GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's most capable model, is (reported) the model behind Work on Plus and higher plans. In Codex you can choose among the GPT-6 models. Everyday Chat runs on lighter GPT-6 models. Which models you see, and which is the default, depends on your plan and your workspace settings, so check the model picker in your own app. Chat answers can now mix text with interactive charts, forms and small tools when that suits the question.⁵,⁶,⁷,⁸

What Work can do

• Work with your files and apps. On the desktop it can use local files and apps. Work you start in the cloud continues on the web and on your phone.
• Use a browser. The desktop app has a built-in browser for research and web tools. A cloud browser runs on a separate remote computer with its own sign-ins, never your own browser's passwords or tabs. ChatGPT in Chrome adds ChatGPT to Chrome's sidebar, and sites can offer ChatGPT their own tools directly through WebMCP.⁹,¹⁰,¹¹
• Use your computer. Computer use lets ChatGPT click, type and move files across your apps in the background, once or as part of a scheduled task. Record & Replay turns a workflow you demonstrate into a reusable skill.
• Produce finished work. Documents, spreadsheets, presentations and web apps, often built to your templates and reference files. Sites, in beta, are interactive web apps such as dashboards, trackers and internal portals that you can share with your team or publicly, and that update as their data changes.
• Build decks with your team. Slides turns a conversation, a file, an outline or a template into a presentation, with speaker notes and sources, in your brand style if you supply it. Ask "create a slide deck from this chat" and the deck opens in a slide editor where you can change text, charts, tables and images yourself. Decks live in Space, ChatGPT's shared area for pages and decks. You invite people to view or edit, and teammates can select part of a slide and ask ChatGPT to change it. You can present from ChatGPT, or export a copy to PowerPoint, PDF or Google Slides. The live deck stays in Space.¹²,¹³
• Use your apps. Plugins connect ChatGPT to tools such as Slack, Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint, email, calendars and CRMs. ChatGPT picks relevant plugins itself, or you name one by typing "@" and its name.
• Repeat what worked (reported). Skills package a way of doing a job so ChatGPT follows the same method each time. The results still need checking. When you like how ChatGPT handled something, ask it to turn that into a skill. You can also describe one to the skill creator, write one in an editor, or upload a skill file. You call a skill by typing "@" and its name, in Chat or in Work.¹⁴,¹⁵,¹⁶,¹⁷
• Run on a schedule or on an event. Scheduled tasks run once, on a schedule, or to watch for a change. They can also start when something happens: a new Gmail message, a message in a Slack channel, or activity on a GitHub pull request. Plugin builders can offer their own events through MCP.¹⁸,¹⁹,²⁰
• Remember. Memory saves useful preferences and recurring workflows when you turn it on. Opt-in features can also build memories from what you do on screen.
• Keep some chats private (reported). You can lock a chat behind a four-digit PIN, or Face ID, Touch ID or device unlock on a phone. A locked chat disappears from your history and search and is found under Projects > Locked chats. Locking hides a chat from people using your device. It is not encryption, and a forgotten PIN can only be reset by deleting every locked chat.²¹,²²

Where ChatGPT's work actually runs

ChatGPT's cloud work also runs on separate, protected computers, but OpenAI describes a different design from Claude's.²³,²⁴

• Machines that can be reused. Work's cloud tasks run in sandboxes backed by virtual machines on OpenAI's servers. OpenAI says Work can reuse an environment across tasks, or replace it while keeping the state it needs, so not every task gets a new one. Saved state is what lets Work resume an interrupted task and refer back to earlier work.
• Deleting is not immediate. Ending a task or deleting a chat does not immediately remove everything stored with it. Your workspace's retention settings decide how long saved state is kept.
• What it cannot reach. The cloud environment does not inherit your local files, installed apps, browser sign-ins or company network. The cloud browser is another separate computer with its own sign-ins.
• Steps on your own computer. A Work task can run some steps on your connected computer, which must be online. If it is not, an existing task can continue in the cloud, but without your files.
• Local work in the desktop app and Codex runs on your own computer, inside your operating system's own sandbox (Seatbelt on a Mac, bubblewrap on Linux, the Windows sandbox on Windows), not in a virtual machine. Your permission mode sets what that sandbox allows.

Codex in the same app

Codex is to ChatGPT what the Code tab is to Claude. Like the Code tab, it is not only for programmers: OpenAI says you can use it for research, documents, presentations and other knowledge work.²⁵ What it adds is developer views and technical detail, which matter most when software gets built, reviewed and tested. In the desktop app it can edit changes inline, review pull requests in a side panel, work across several repositories in one project, give each chat its own copy of a repository (a worktree) so parallel jobs do not collide, and run coding tasks in parallel in Codex Cloud. A goal mode keeps Codex working until it judges a goal complete or a token budget runs out, and Codex Remote lets you follow and steer a session from your phone.²⁶,¹⁰,¹¹,²⁷,²⁸

Permissions and governance

You control what ChatGPT can reach, when it checks in, and which actions need your approval. In the desktop app you choose a permission mode:

• Ask for approval works inside the current workspace and asks before editing files outside it or using the internet.
• Approve for me keeps the same limits but sends approval requests to auto-review, a model that checks each action and asks you only about ones it finds risky.
• Full access removes the limits on files and internet use.
• Custom applies rules from a settings file.

In the cloud browser, permission to visit a website is separate from permission to take a consequential action on it, such as a purchase. In companies, administrators manage access, connected tools and permitted actions, and can see Work conversations and actions through the Compliance API.²⁹,³⁰,³¹

Complex tasks use more of your plan than quick questions, and Codex draws on your ChatGPT plan's usage (reported).³²,⁴

Briefing ChatGPT 2.0

OpenAI's advice for its GPT-6 models matches Anthropic's closely. State the goal, the relevant context, the constraints, the evidence required, the success criteria and the output format. State each instruction once. Ask for approval only after the worker has prepared a concrete result you can review. Start at medium reasoning effort and raise it only when the gain is worth the time and cost. To shorten a prompt that works, remove one group of instructions at a time and rerun the same tests.³³,⁶

The same Four-Part Brief works on both: the brief you write for Claude is the brief you give ChatGPT Work. That is why this book teaches briefing once, not once per app.