OpenAI has started rolling out a privacy upgrade that many ChatGPT users have quietly wanted for years. The new “Locked Chats” feature lets you move selected conversations into a protected section, hidden behind a four-digit PIN or biometric unlock. The rollout began on Tuesday, October 21, and is reaching users across the Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, the company said.
Think of it as a private locker inside your ChatGPT account. You can keep using the app normally, hand your phone to a friend, or share your screen in a meeting, while the chats you lock stay tucked away in their own corner. Unlike Temporary Chats, which vanish from your history, locked chats stay saved and accessible, just not visible to anyone glancing over your shoulder.
What Locked Chats actually does
Once you lock a conversation, it moves out of your regular chat history and into a dedicated “Locked chats” section inside the Projects menu. It also disappears from your pinned chats and from standard conversation search, so it will not surface when someone scrolls or searches through your account.
To open a locked chat later, you authenticate with a four-digit account PIN. On phones, you can also use Face ID, Touch ID or your device’s own unlock method, which can be enabled separately on each device as a convenience on top of the PIN. OpenAI notes that the same PIN works across every device signed in to the same account.
There is one more detail worth knowing. When Memory is enabled, locked conversations get their own separate memory space. Messages sent after a chat is locked can shape that separate memory, but they will not update the memory used in your regular conversations. That said, locking a chat does not erase information ChatGPT may have already remembered before you moved it into the protected section.
How to lock a chat
Locking a conversation takes a few seconds:
- Open ChatGPT and find the conversation you want to protect.
- Click the three-dot menu next to the chat and choose “Lock chat”.
- Confirm your choice. If it is your first time, create a four-digit account PIN and enter it again to confirm.
The conversation immediately shifts to the Locked chats section under Projects. To read it again, head to Projects, open Locked chats and authenticate with your PIN or biometrics.
What the lock cannot do
Locked Chats is a privacy convenience, not a security vault, and OpenAI is upfront about its limits. The feature does not provide end-to-end encryption, and it does not change OpenAI’s data retention policies or your existing setting for whether conversations can be used to improve its models.
A few more caveats matter. Some conversation types cannot be locked at all, including Temporary Chats, archived chats, group chats and chats created from shared links. On Android, screenshots of a locked chat may appear blank or black because the app hides protected content. And locked chats may still show ads if your account previously showed them.
The most serious warning concerns the PIN itself. If you reset a forgotten account PIN, every locked chat, along with any files uploaded to the protected space, is permanently deleted. OpenAI says this cannot be undone, and its support team cannot recover the content. Choose a PIN you will remember.
Why this matters
The launch lands at a moment when AI chatbots have become everyday tools, from homework help to salary negotiations to therapy-style late-night conversations. In India, where family members routinely share phones and colleagues often share screens during meetings, a private section behind a PIN solves a genuinely common problem.
It also arrives amid growing attention on AI privacy. Locked Chats does not shield your conversations from OpenAI itself or from legal obligations, but it does address the most common real-world privacy leak: another human looking at your screen. For a feature that took this long to arrive, that is a practical win.
The rollout is gradual, so if the option has not appeared in your app yet, give it a few days. Notably, the feature is not available on ChatGPT for Healthcare, which follows stricter data-handling rules.
FAQs
Is Locked Chats available for free users?
Yes. The feature is rolling out across the Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, though not for ChatGPT for Healthcare.
Can I unlock chats with my fingerprint or Face ID?
Yes, on supported phones you can use Face ID, Touch ID or your device’s unlock method instead of the four-digit PIN.
Are locked chats encrypted end to end?
No. OpenAI states the feature does not add end-to-end encryption and does not change data retention or model-training settings.
What happens if I forget my Locked Chats PIN?
Resetting the PIN permanently deletes all locked chats and their associated files. The content cannot be recovered, even by OpenAI support.
Can I lock every type of conversation?
No. Temporary Chats, archived chats, group chats and chats created from shared links cannot be locked.
Locked Chats is a small change with an outsized everyday payoff. For millions of people who live inside ChatGPT, the most meaningful privacy upgrade is not about servers and encryption policies. It is about keeping a conversation private when someone else is holding your phone.
