ChatGPT's new Locked Chats hides selected conversations behind a four-digit PIN or Face ID and Touch ID, moving them out of regular history, pinned chats and search. It protects against someone glancing at your screen, not against the platform itself: OpenAI says locking creates no end-to-end encryption and changes neither retention nor the training setting.
What happened, and when
On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, OpenAI started rolling out Locked Chats in ChatGPT, according to its release notes and a same-day report from TechCrunch. The mechanics are simple. Open a chat's menu, choose Lock chat, and the conversation moves into a Locked Chats section under Projects, out of your regular history, pinned chats and search results. Opening that section requires a four-digit account PIN, or Face ID, Touch ID or device unlock on supported phones.
The help center article adds the details that matter on a shared device. On iOS and Android, access ends after one minute away from the app. On web and desktop, it ends when the tab is refreshed or closed, or when the window is left. Forget the PIN and you lose the chats: resetting it permanently deletes all locked chats and anything protected only by the old PIN.
Availability is broad but not universal. The help article lists Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, excluding ChatGPT for Healthcare, across web, iOS, Android and the new desktop app for macOS and Windows. The release note describes the gradual rollout to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users and does not mention the business tiers, so expect a staggered arrival. Codex and local Work conversations cannot be locked. Voice works in locked chats on web and mobile but not on desktop. Temporary, archived, group, shared-link, scheduled-task and meeting-recording chats are excluded.
How the memory works
Locked Chats gets a memory of its own. Locked conversations can draw on relevant information from regular Memory, but information from messages sent after locking can be remembered for use in other locked chats, and not in regular ones. Locking also does not erase what ChatGPT already remembered. If you keep client context inside ChatGPT's memory, that split is worth understanding before you rely on it.
What locking does not do
OpenAI is clear that a lock is not a vault. Its help article says locking does not "create end-to-end encryption or a separate encrypted vault." Retention stays the same, and so does the "Improve the model for everyone" setting. If you want training off, switch it off yourself. TechCrunch's reporting makes the same point: a lock on the screen does not answer the bigger question of how sensitive information is stored and handled.
What it means for solo operators and marketers
Most of us now run chat as a working desk: client briefs, rate cards, half-finished proposals, the awkward email you have not sent yet. Locked Chats is a sensible answer to the most common everyday risk, which is someone else looking over your shoulder. Present from a shared display, hand over a laptop for a minute, or work in a coffee shop with a stranger leaning in, and a PIN gate does real work.
It does less for the risks that cost agencies money. Because the PIN is tied to your personal OpenAI account rather than a workspace, your team's admin cannot unlock your chats or reset the PIN. That is good for personal privacy and awkward for handoffs. If a chat holds context a teammate needs, it has become a single point of failure, and a forgotten PIN deletes it. Keep client deliverables in systems your business owns, not in a chat you have locked and hoped to remember.
Our take
I like this feature the way I like a padlock on a filing cabinet in an office with a glass front door. It solves the hallway problem, where someone walks past your screen mid-thought. It does not solve the bigger problem, which is what happens to the paperwork inside the cabinet. The word "Locked" invites a vault reading, and OpenAI's own help article spends real effort correcting that instinct.
After 26 years in digital marketing, including the early days of Urchin, I have learned that the question about user data is rarely "who can see this screen." It is "what gets stored, for how long, and who else can reach it." Locked Chats answers the first question nicely. My advice is to treat it as a privacy screen, not a compliance control, and test the PIN reset on a throwaway account before you trust it with anything you cannot rebuild. Whether this becomes a real vault depends on what comes next, and I will be watching that space more closely than the padlock.