Here is how to lock chats in ChatGPT, a feature OpenAI added on 20 October 2026: you pick a conversation, lock it, and it disappears from your chat history, your pinned chats and ChatGPT's search. Opening it again takes a 4-digit account PIN, or Face ID, Touch ID or your phone's unlock on supported devices. The feature is rolling out gradually to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts. It works on the web, iPhone, Android and the new ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and Windows.
The lock solves a narrow problem well: a sensitive conversation stays out of sight when you share your screen or hand someone your phone. It does not encrypt anything, and it does not change what OpenAI keeps. It also comes with one trap worth knowing before you set a PIN: resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes every chat you locked. This guide walks through the lock step by step and compares it with archiving and Temporary Chat. It also covers what changes on a Mac, and why the Lock chat button is sometimes missing from your menu.
The Key Takeaways
- How to lock: open a chat's ••• menu, choose Lock chat, confirm, and set a 4-digit PIN. The chat moves to Projects > Locked chats.
- The trap: resetting a forgotten PIN permanently deletes every locked chat, and OpenAI Support cannot recover them. Changing a PIN you still know keeps them.
- Not a vault: no encryption, no change to retention or training, and anyone who opens the chat can copy it.
- Archive does not hide: OpenAI says archived chats stay searchable. Locking is the only option that keeps a chat saved and takes it out of search.
- On a Mac: locking needs the new ChatGPT desktop app, and Voice does not work in locked chats there.
How to Lock Chats in ChatGPT
To lock a chat in ChatGPT, open the conversation's more options menu, select Lock chat twice, and enter a PIN. The same four steps work on the web, in the iPhone and Android apps and in the new desktop app:
- Open the more options menu (•••) next to the chat you want to hide.
- Select Lock chat.
- Select Lock chat again to confirm.
- Create your account PIN if this is your first locked chat, or enter it if you already have one. A new PIN is four digits, typed twice.
The chat then leaves your regular history and regular search. OpenAI notes that search results take a little time to catch up, so a freshly locked title may still turn up in search for a short while.
Check your other screens before you rely on the lock. Another device that already has ChatGPT open keeps showing the chat's title until its conversation list refreshes. On an iPhone, the conversation you had loaded stays visible until ChatGPT refreshes. On the web, the chat you just locked stays open in the current tab.
New conversations start in the same place once you have a PIN. Open Projects, then Locked chats, enter the PIN and type a message. That conversation is born locked and never touches your regular history. You cannot start there before your first lock: OpenAI asks you to lock an existing conversation first, which is what creates the PIN.
Where Locked Chats Go and How to Open Them
Locked chats live in a single place: Projects > Locked chats in the sidebar. The project may stay visible while the titles inside it stay hidden. To open one, select Projects, then Locked chats, enter your PIN or use Face ID, Touch ID or Android's device unlock, and pick the conversation.
Opening a locked chat gives you temporary access, not a permanent unlock. The titles appear under Locked chats for as long as access lasts, and the conversations stay out of your regular history the whole time. Select Lock now when you are done to end access and hide the titles straight away.
How Long Access Lasts on the Web and Mac
On the web and in the desktop app, access belongs to the browser tab or app window where you typed the PIN. ChatGPT relocks the chats once you have been away from that tab or window. Refreshing the page or closing the tab ends access on the web, and any new tab or window asks for the PIN again. Switching to a regular chat in the same window does not end access, so press Lock now before you share that window.
How Long Access Lasts on iPhone and Android
On a phone, access ends after 1 minute away from a locked chat or the Locked chats area, or after 1 minute with ChatGPT in the background. Signing out or switching accounts or workspaces can end it too. Face ID and Touch ID are optional on iOS, and you turn them on under Account PIN in settings. On Android, ChatGPT offers your device unlock method when it prompts you. Either way, biometrics apply only to the phone where you enable them and never replace the PIN itself.
ChatGPT also locks you out briefly after too many wrong PIN attempts. You wait for the retry period to end, then try again.
The PIN Trap: Forgetting It Deletes Every Locked Chat
Resetting a forgotten ChatGPT PIN permanently deletes every locked chat on your account. OpenAI's help page is blunt about the scope: the reset removes all locked chats, anything ChatGPT remembered only inside locked chats, and files protected only by the old PIN. It cannot be undone, and OpenAI Support cannot recover the content. A workspace administrator cannot reset your PIN or unlock your chats either.
Forgetting the PIN does not delete anything by itself. The deletion happens at the reset step, which is why ChatGPT makes you confirm it. The button reads Reset PIN & Delete on the web, desktop and Android, and Delete all and reset on iOS. If you are not sure you have forgotten the PIN, stop there and keep trying after the retry period.
Changing a PIN is the safe route.
If you still know the current PIN, open Settings > Security and login > Account PIN and choose Change (Change PIN on iOS and Android). Your locked chats survive a change. You have to type the current PIN even if you normally open locked chats with Face ID or Touch ID.
The PIN belongs to your OpenAI account, not to a specific workspace, so the same four digits work on every supported device where you sign in. A second OpenAI account needs its own PIN. Because a forgotten PIN costs you everything behind it, store it the way you store any password. On a Mac or iPhone, an entry in Apple's Passwords app does the job.
What a Locked Chat Does Not Protect
A locked chat changes where a conversation appears and how you open it. It changes nothing about how OpenAI stores or uses it. OpenAI's locked-chats help page spells out what locking leaves alone.
There is no end-to-end encryption and no separate encrypted vault. OpenAI keeps a locked chat for exactly as long as it would keep a regular one. Your Improve the model for everyone setting still applies, so a locked chat is used for training exactly when a regular chat would be.
Locking also does not erase what ChatGPT already knows. Anything it remembered from the conversation before you locked it stays in your Memory. And the lock never overrides workspace policies, safety requirements or legal obligations.
Two practical gaps follow from that. First, anyone who gets into a locked chat can copy its contents, so the lock protects against a glance, not against someone who knows your PIN. Second, work accounts stay visible to the company. Locked chats in ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu workspaces still appear in the message logs available through the OpenAI Compliance Platform, and administrators cannot switch the feature off.
Ads keep running too. If your plan shows ads, they may appear inside locked chats, because locking does not touch your ad settings. Our guide to what ChatGPT collects and who can see it covers the retention and training settings that do change what OpenAI keeps.
Locked Chat vs Archive vs Temporary Chat vs Delete
ChatGPT now offers four ways to get a conversation out of view, and only locking keeps a chat saved while removing it from search. The table compares them using OpenAI's own help pages for each feature.
| Option | In history and search | Needs a PIN | Kept for you | Memory | Model training | Undo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lock chat | Hidden from history, pins and search | Yes, or Face ID / Touch ID | Yes, under Projects > Locked chats | Uses regular Memory; new memories stay inside locked chats | Follows your setting | Permanently unlock any time |
| Archive | Off the sidebar, still searchable | No | Yes, under Settings > Data controls | No change documented | Follows your setting | Unarchive any time |
| Temporary Chat | Never enters history unless saved | No | No; OpenAI may keep a copy up to 30 days for safety | Creates no memories | Not used while temporary | Save it as a regular chat |
| Delete | Gone from your account immediately | No | No; scheduled for deletion within 30 days | Saved memories from it can remain | Not applicable | None |
Archiving looks like the obvious way to hide a ChatGPT chat, and it hides less than it seems. OpenAI's archive documentation says archiving removes a chat from the sidebar without deleting it, and that archived chats remain searchable.
Anyone who types a word from the conversation into ChatGPT's search finds it.
Temporary Chat solves a different problem. OpenAI's Temporary Chat page describes a conversation that stays out of history and out of training while it remains temporary. That suits a one-off question you never want to see again. You cannot lock a Temporary Chat while it is temporary. Saving it turns it into a regular chat, and you can lock that.
Which One to Use
Lock a chat you want to keep and come back to: a medical question you are still working through, a draft resignation letter, a money conversation. Use Temporary Chat for anything you would rather not save at all. Archive only for tidying, never for privacy. Delete what you are finished with.
A lock hides an answer; it does not check it. For the sensitive questions people tend to lock, a second opinion is worth more than a second hiding place. With Fello AI, you ask Claude or Gemini the same question in the same window, without a second subscription. It puts GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and other models in one Mac, iPhone and iPad app.
How to Lock Chats in ChatGPT on Mac
Locking chats on a Mac requires the new ChatGPT desktop app, the version that puts Chat, Work and Codex in one window. OpenAI's locked-chats page points desktop users to that app specifically. If you see two ChatGPT icons in your Applications folder, the one called ChatGPT Classic is the previous app. Our guide on how to get ChatGPT Classic back on Mac explains how the two came to sit side by side.
The steps are the same as on the web: the ••• menu, Lock chat, confirm, PIN. Three limits are specific to the desktop app.
Voice is off. Voice works in locked chats on the web, iPhone and Android, but not in the desktop app. Codex is out too: you can lock cloud conversations in Chat or Work mode, while Codex conversations, cloud Codex included, and local Work conversations cannot be locked.
Access is per window. The PIN unlocks the window you typed it in, not the whole app.
Screen sharing is the first case OpenAI names for the feature, and on a Mac that usually means a video call. Before a call, open Projects and check that Locked chats shows no titles, or press Lock now. A conversation you locked on your iPhone may still show its title on a Mac that has not refreshed its chat list yet.
Why You Cannot See Lock Chat
The most common reason Lock chat is missing is the gradual rollout: OpenAI says the option may simply not have reached your account yet. If other chats show it and one does not, that chat is a type ChatGPT cannot lock.
Chats ChatGPT Cannot Lock
OpenAI lists these conversation types as ineligible. Four of them have a way round:
| Chat type | What to do |
|---|---|
| Temporary chat | Save it as a regular chat, then lock that |
| Archived chat | Unarchive it in Settings > Data controls first |
| Chat with a scheduled task | Delete the task, paused tasks included |
| Codex or local Work conversation | Only cloud Chat and Work conversations lock |
| Group chat | No workaround documented |
| Chat created from a shared link | No workaround documented |
| Chat with meeting recordings or background tasks | No workaround documented |
| Chat with responses saved as project sources | No workaround documented |
| Chat in the earlier Health experience | No workaround documented |
ChatGPT also cannot create a scheduled task from a locked chat at all. Project chats vary by platform, so a project chat that refuses on one device may lock on another. ChatGPT for Healthcare does not offer the feature.
When the Whole App Is the Problem
On a Mac, a missing button usually means you are in ChatGPT Classic rather than the new app. On a shared family device, the lock covers one person's conversations on one account. That is a different job from parental supervision, and our guide to ChatGPT parental controls covers what parents can and cannot see.
Files, Memory and Projects After You Lock a Chat
Locking a chat also locks the files made or uploaded in it, separates its memories from your regular ones, and pulls it out of any project. Each of those has a catch.
Files and Space
Files uploaded or created in a chat are protected the moment you lock it, including files added later. While the chat is locked, you open those files only inside that chat: they disappear from Space and its search, and other chats, other locked chats included, cannot reach them. Files you brought in from elsewhere in Space stay where they were, unprotected. Deleting a locked chat does not necessarily delete a separate copy in Space, so check there too. Our explainer on what ChatGPT Space and Library keep covers how those saved copies work.
Memory
Locked chats read your regular Memory, but what they learn stays among locked chats. ChatGPT may remember information from messages sent after the lock for use in other locked chats, never in regular ones. Unlocking does not merge those memories back. The reverse leak is the one to watch: whatever ChatGPT remembered before you locked the chat is still in your regular Memory, so remove it there if it matters.
Projects and Shared Links
Locking a chat that lives in a project moves it out of the project, and it stops using that project's instructions, files and memory. Permanently unlocking it later returns it to regular history, not to the project. A shared link survives the lock: whatever you already shared stays visible to anyone with the link, while new messages are not added. Delete the link separately if you want it gone.
How to Unlock, Rename or Delete a Locked Chat
To permanently unlock a chat, open it, select the ••• menu, choose Unlock chat (Unlock on iOS) and confirm. The chat returns to regular history and, after a short delay, to search. If memory is on, the full conversation may then feed your regular Memory.
Renaming works from the same ••• menu while the chat stays locked. Deleting does too: open the chat, choose Delete and confirm, and the conversation is gone for good. You cannot archive, pin, move or share a locked chat; unlock it first. You also cannot search across locked chats. Browse the list instead, or use Find on iOS to search inside one open chat.
The Verdict
Locked chats are the only ChatGPT option that keeps a conversation saved while taking it out of the sidebar, out of pins and out of search, behind a PIN. For screen sharing and a borrowed phone, that is the right protection, and archiving never gave it. Turn it on, but treat the PIN like a password, because a reset deletes every locked chat at once, including the ones you meant to keep. For anything you would not want OpenAI to keep at all, a lock is the wrong tool. Use Temporary Chat, then read whether ChatGPT is safe for that kind of question in the first place.
FAQ
Are locked chats in ChatGPT encrypted?
No. OpenAI says locking does not create end-to-end encryption or a separate encrypted vault. It hides the chat from your history, pinned chats and search, and requires a PIN or Face ID to open it. Retention and your training setting stay exactly as they were.
What happens if I forget my ChatGPT PIN?
You can reset it, but the reset permanently deletes every locked chat, memories stored only in locked chats, and files protected only by the old PIN. OpenAI Support cannot recover them. If you still know the PIN, change it under Settings > Security and login > Account PIN instead, which keeps your chats.
Can my employer see my locked ChatGPT chats?
On a ChatGPT Enterprise or Edu workspace, yes, through compliance logs. Administrators cannot unlock your chats, reset your PIN or disable the feature. Still, locked chats in ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu workspaces appear in the message logs available through the OpenAI Compliance Platform.
Can I lock a whole ChatGPT project or folder?
No. You lock individual chats. Locking a chat that sits in a project removes it from the project, and it stops using that project's instructions, files and memory. Unlocking it later sends it back to regular history, not to the original project.
Why is my screenshot of a locked chat black?
On Android, ChatGPT hides protected content from screenshots, so a screenshot of a locked chat may come out blank or black. OpenAI documents this for Android only.
