How ChatGPT group chats work

ChatGPT group chats are a collaborative feature introduced by OpenAI that allows multiple users—along with ChatGPT itself—to participate in a single, shared conversation. This enables real-time planning, brainstorming, decision-making, and creative work in a dynamic, interactive environment.

Unlike traditional one-on-one chats with ChatGPT, group chats blend human-to-human interactions with AI assistance, where ChatGPT acts as a proactive yet context-aware participant. The feature emphasizes privacy, with no sharing of personal memories or individual chat histories across the group.

Basics and Core Concepts

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At its core, a ChatGPT group chat is a dedicated conversation space limited to 1–20 participants (including ChatGPT). It operates similarly to a standard ChatGPT chat but with multi-user support, where messages, files, and images are visible to everyone in the group. ChatGPT joins automatically as a participant, observing the flow and contributing when relevant—such as summarizing discussions, generating ideas, or answering questions—without interrupting human exchanges.

Key foundational principles:

• Separation from Personal Chats: Group chats are isolated; they don’t access or influence your individual ChatGPT conversations, custom instructions, or account-level memory. No new personal memories are created from group interactions.
• Participant Roles: Humans are the primary drivers, while ChatGPT is an AI collaborator. All users must have a ChatGPT account and accept an invite to join.
• Powered by Advanced Models: Responses from ChatGPT are generated using GPT-5.1 Auto, OpenAI’s dynamic model selector. This system evaluates the prompt’s complexity, context, and your subscription plan (Free, Go, Plus, or Pro) to choose the optimal model—ranging from lighter variants for simple queries to more powerful ones for in-depth analysis.
• Usage Limits: Only ChatGPT’s responses count toward rate limits, based on the plan of the user who triggers the response (e.g., by mentioning it). Human messages are unlimited. Free users may experience lighter interactions if limits are hit, while paid plans offer enhanced quotas.

Group chats support a wide range of content types, including text, images, files (e.g., PDFs, docs), links, and voice dictation, making them versatile for collaborative workflows.

Creating a Group Chat

Starting a group chat is straightforward and can be done from scratch or by converting an existing solo chat. Here’s a step-by-step process:

1. Open ChatGPT: Launch the app on web (chatgpt.com), iOS, or Android. Ensure you’re using the latest version—if the feature isn’t visible, restart the app or update it.
2. Initiate the Chat:
   • For a new group: Start a fresh chat, then tap the people icon in the top-right corner. Select “Start group chat” to enter a blank group space.
   • For an existing chat: Open your solo conversation, tap the people icon, and choose “Start group chat.” This creates a copy of the current chat history as the new group (the original remains private and unchanged).
3. Set Up Your Profile: On your first group chat interaction, you’ll be prompted to create a profile with a display name, username (e.g., @yourhandle), and optional photo. This helps ChatGPT personalize responses (e.g., generating images featuring group members) and makes interactions more social.
4. Generate and Share Invite Link: Once created, tap the “Invite” button (visible in new groups) or go to the chat header > “Add people” to get a unique invite link. Share it via email, messaging apps, or any channel. The link allows anyone with it to join instantly, viewing the full chat history upon entry.

Group chats appear in a dedicated “Group chats” section in your sidebar for easy access, showing recent activity and member counts.

Joining and Participating in a Group Chat

Participation is invite-only, ensuring controlled access:

• Joining: Click or tap the invite link from any device. You’ll need to log in to ChatGPT and accept the invite. Upon joining, you’ll see the entire conversation history, including past ChatGPT responses.
• Group Size Dynamics: Up to 20 humans + ChatGPT. As the group grows, ChatGPT adapts by prioritizing high-relevance contributions to avoid overwhelming the thread.
• Daily Interactions: Send messages, react with emojis (long-press or right-click a message), or reply inline for threaded discussions. Upload files/images for ChatGPT to analyze (e.g., “What does this PDF say about our project?”). Use voice input via your device’s microphone for hands-free collaboration.

Human-to-human exchanges flow naturally, with ChatGPT chiming in contextually—e.g., if the group debates restaurant options, it might suggest pros/cons without prompting.

Managing a Group Chat

Group admins (primarily the creator) and members have tools for oversight:

• Adding/Removing Members: Any member can share the invite link. To add directly: Tap “Add people” in the header. View members via “People” in the header—remove others (except the creator) with a tap. The creator can only leave, not self-remove.
• Invite Link Controls:
  • Reset: Generates a new link, invalidating the old one to revoke access.
  • Delete: Disables joining until a new link is created; old links become invalid.
• Renaming the Group: Tap the chat name in the header, edit, and save—a system notification alerts everyone.
• Notifications and Leaving: Mute via group settings. To leave: Header > “Group info” > “Leave group chat” > Confirm. This hides the chat from your sidebar, stops notifications, and removes your access (but doesn’t delete the group).
• Group-Specific Custom Instructions: Set via header > Settings > “Custom instructions.” Tailor ChatGPT’s behavior, e.g., “Respond concisely” or “Always summarize decisions.” These override account-level instructions but don’t affect personal chats.

Features and Capabilities

Group chats unlock collaborative AI in a shared space, with these standout features:

These enable scenarios like co-authoring outlines, debating options with AI mediation, or visualizing ideas collectively.

How ChatGPT Participates Technically

Under the hood, ChatGPT’s involvement is governed by sophisticated context processing:

• Context Awareness: It analyzes the full thread history, recent messages, and user profiles to decide response relevance. For instance, it stays silent during casual chit-chat but jumps in for queries like “Pros/cons of this plan?”
• Response Generation: Leverages GPT-5.1 Auto, which routes prompts to the best-suited model (e.g., GPT-4o-mini for quick replies on Free plans, full GPT-5.1 for Pro). Inputs include all visible group data (messages, uploads, instructions) but exclude external personal info.
• Mention Mechanics: Typing “ChatGPT” or “@ChatGPT” forces a response, overriding auto-mode. In mention-only, it ignores ambient context.
• Personalization Layer: Profile photos/names feed into multimodal capabilities, e.g., DALL·E integration for custom visuals (“Draw us as superheroes”).
• Rate Limiting Integration: Each response deducts from the initiator’s quota (the user whose message prompted it), ensuring fair usage across plans.

No advanced tooling like code execution or agents is available—responses are purely conversational and generative.