ChatGPT gets locked chats with PIN protection: How it works and what happens if you forget your PIN

OpenAI has introduced a locked chats feature in ChatGPT that allows you to keep selected conversations saved while hiding them from regular chat history and search. The feature adds an access barrier for people who want to keep certain discussions out of view when sharing a device or screen. You can protect conversations with a four-digit account PIN and use supported biometric or device authentication options on compatible mobile devices.

However, the feature has an important limitation, as resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes locked conversations and content protected only by the previous PIN. OpenAI has outlined how the feature works, which conversations qualify and what you should know about files, memory and privacy.

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How to lock chats in ChatGPT

To lock a conversation, open its three-dot menu, select Lock chat, and confirm the action. You will then be prompted to create or enter your account PIN. Locked conversations move to Projects > Locked chats and no longer appear in regular chat history or conversation search.

The feature is available on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, although the rollout is gradual. If you use this feature on desktop, you need the new ChatGPT app for macOS or Windows.

Temporary, archived and group chats cannot be locked, nor can conversations created from shared links, those containing scheduled tasks or meeting recordings and certain other conversation types.

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You can permanently unlock a conversation to return it to regular history. Locked chats cannot be pinned, archived, moved or shared, although those who open them can still copy their contents.

What happens if you forget your PIN?

OpenAI warns that resetting a forgotten account PIN permanently deletes all locked chats, memories stored only within locked chats and files or other content protected only by the previous PIN. This action cannot be undone, and OpenAI Support cannot recover the deleted content. Changing a PIN while knowing the current one, however, preserves locked conversations.

Locking a chat does not provide end-to-end encryption, change OpenAI’s data-retention practices or switch off the existing model-improvement setting. Information ChatGPT remembered before a conversation was locked is not automatically removed.

Files uploaded or created within a locked chat receive protection, while files added separately to Space retain their existing access rules. Locked chats can also use relevant existing memories, and information from new messages may be remembered for use in other locked chats.

If you want conversations kept out of regular history and excluded from model improvement, consider Temporary Chat instead. Unlike locked chats, Temporary Chats do not create or update memories.