OpenAI has officially made group chats available to ChatGPT users worldwide, extending the feature to individuals on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. The expansion follows a limited pilot conducted last week in select regions such as Japan and New Zealand. With this launch, ChatGPT is evolving from a purely one-to-one conversational assistant into a collaborative platform that supports shared user experiences.
The new capability enables multiple users to converse with each other and ChatGPT in the same thread, allowing AI to act as a facilitator during planning, creative collaboration, problem-solving, or research tasks. OpenAI notes that the feature is designed to help groups “plan, create, and make decisions” together more efficiently. The company envisions users coordinating travel, co-writing projects, resolving debates, and comparing options — all with real-time AI assistance to search, summarize, or evaluate information.
Up to 20 participants can join a single group discussion by accepting an invite. “Personal settings and memory stay private to each user, the company says.” Creating a group chat is simple: users can tap the people icon to add contacts or share an invitation link. Each participant will be prompted to set up a basic profile that includes a name, username, and photo.
Importantly, OpenAI has structured the functionality to protect existing conversations. “It’s worth noting that adding someone to an existing chat creates a new conversation, leaving the original chat unchanged.” ChatGPT’s presence in these conversations is also carefully tuned. The company explains that “ChatGPT knows when to jump in and when to stay quiet during a group conversation.” Users can directly tag “ChatGPT” to request input, and the AI can even respond with emoji reactions or reference profile photos for more natural interaction.
This update is part of OpenAI’s broader effort to make ChatGPT more social and collaborative in nature. The company says group chats represent the beginning of a shift toward continuous AI-supported teamwork rather than isolated prompts. As OpenAI stated, “Over time, we see ChatGPT playing a more active role in real group conversations, helping people plan, create, and take action together,” underscoring its ambitions beyond individual productivity tools.
The rollout arrives shortly after the debut of GPT-5.1 — which introduced both Instant and Thinking model modes — and follows the release of Sora in September, a social app enabling users to generate and share videos in a feed-driven experience.
