OpenAI Pilots Group Chat Feature for ChatGPT Collaboration

OpenAI, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence firm, announced a major evolution for its flagship product on November 13, 2025. The company is now piloting a "group chats" feature in ChatGPT, fundamentally shifting the tool from a one-on-one personal assistant to a shared, collaborative environment. This new capability allows multiple users to interact with the AI simultaneously within a single conversation, opening up new possibilities for team projects, planning sessions, and even group debates.

​The new feature permits up to 20 participants to engage in a single chat thread. However, this is not a global launch. OpenAI is taking a measured approach, rolling out the pilot program in four specific markets: Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. The company stated this phased deployment will help gather user feedback before a wider release is considered for all subscription tiers, including its Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans.

​These group conversations are powered by GPT-5.1 Auto, the model designed to select the best-suited AI for a given prompt and user subscription level. The AI itself has been upgraded with new social awareness. It can track the conversational flow, determine when to interject helpfully, or stay silent until it is explicitly tagged with an @ChatGPT mention. The AI can also participate in a more human-like way, such as using emoji reactions to messages, a feature common in modern messaging apps.

​OpenAI has emphasized stringent privacy protocols for the feature. Group chats are completely segregated from a user's private, one-on-one conversations. The company confirmed that ChatGPT's "Memory" feature is disabled in these threads—the AI will not learn from or create new memories based on group discussions. This separation is so strict that even if you add a new person to an existing 1:1 chat, the system creates a new, duplicated group conversation to protect the privacy of the original. Despite these restrictions, core functionalities like web search, file and image uploads, and dictation remain fully available.

​To ensure fluid human interaction, rate limits apply only to the AI's responses, not to messages sent between participants. Furthermore, for groups that include users under 18, ChatGPT automatically enforces content restrictions, a safeguard that can be managed via parental controls. OpenAI is framing this pilot as the first step in transforming ChatGPT from an individual productivity tool into a shared digital space, with the user experience in these four initial markets guiding its future expansion.