OpenAI today announced a new collaborative experience for ChatGPT users in select regions. The new group chats in ChatGPT will allow users to collaborate with each other alongside ChatGPT so that AI assistance can be used whenever required.
Here"s how group chats work in ChatGPT:
- ChatGPT users can start a group chat by tapping the new people icon in the top-right corner of any new or existing chat.
- If a user is joining or creating their first group chat, they must set up a short profile with their name, username, and photo.
- Users can invite others by directly sharing a link, and each group can include up to twenty people.
- Participants can also share the group link with others to let them join the conversation.
- When users add someone to an existing chat, ChatGPT creates a copy of the conversation as a new group chat so the original remains separate.
- Group chats can be found in a new, clearly labeled section of the sidebar for easy access.
The responses in group chats are powered by OpenAI"s new GPT‑5.1 Auto model which can select the best GPT 5.1 model based on the prompt and the models available to the ChatGPT user according to their ChatGPT subscription. All the usual ChatGPT features including search, image and file upload, image generation, and dictation are available inside the group chat experience as well.
OpenAI highlighted that the rate limits only apply when ChatGPT responds and the messages between users in the group chat will not be counted towards the limit.
To make ChatGPT perform better in a collaborative experience, OpenAI has tweaked ChatGPT with new social behaviors. For example, it won"t automatically respond to all the chats in the conversation. Instead, it will follow the conversation and decide when to respond and when to stay quiet. Users can also force ChatGPT to respond by mentioning ChatGPT in their message. Also, ChatGPT can now react to messages with emojis to make it more human-like.
Finally, users can customize the group name, add or remove people, mute notifications, and even set custom instructions for how ChatGPT responds in each group chat.
This new ChatGPT group chat experience is now rolling out to ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users on mobile and web in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. Based on feedback from early users, OpenAI will further refine the experience and expand it to more regions and ChatGPT plans.