What happened to ChatGPT group chats?

OpenAI retired ChatGPT group chats in 2026. Since July 9, nobody can create a group chat, turn a conversation into one or join one by invite link, old links included. Existing group chats stay open until they turn read-only, on a timing OpenAI says may vary; after that, members can still read the messages, files and images, and OpenAI gives no deletion date. OpenAI said the feature launched as a pilot and that it is simplifying ChatGPT, and it named no replacement. Group chats launched as a pilot on November 13, 2025 and reached every logged-in user within a week. This page covers what they were, what happens to yours, and where a group can talk to one AI together now.

Key takeaways

• No new or joined ChatGPT group chats since July 9, 2026. Existing ones turn read-only, and their history is kept and can be exported.
• OpenAI named no replacement. Shared projects and Pages let people collaborate, but each person uses their own ChatGPT.
• Microsoft retired consumer Copilot's group chats from August 18, 2026 too, and their history did not carry forward.
• Group chats with an AI still work in Poe, Meta AI (WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram), Snapchat, Jenova, Mindtrip and Poly, and at work in Claude Tag.

What were ChatGPT group chats?

They put up to 20 people and ChatGPT in one conversation, according to OpenAI's original help article:

• Who: one to twenty people per chat, on Free, Go, Plus and Pro, joined by an invite link anyone in the group could share.
• When ChatGPT spoke: it decided when to reply; mentioning it always got an answer, and a mention-only mode was available.
• What it could do: search, create images, read uploads and take dictation, with GPT-5.1 Auto. No Canvas, voice mode, Deep Research or agent mode.
• Privacy: personal memory and custom instructions stayed off; each group could set its own instructions.
• Usage: a reply counted against the limit of the person ChatGPT was answering, and messages between people didn't count.
• Teens: if a teen joined, under-18 protections applied to everyone in the chat.

When and why did OpenAI retire them?

The pilot started on November 13, 2025 in New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and OpenAI extended group chats to logged-in users worldwide on November 20 (Engadget). The retirement appears in OpenAI's release notes on July 9, 2026, and its help article gives the reason: "As ChatGPT evolves, we're simplifying the experience." OpenAI says it will apply what it learned to experiences that can serve more people over time. It gave no date for anything new.

What happens to my old ChatGPT group chats?

• They stay open, then turn read-only. OpenAI says the timing may vary. After that, members can read the messages, files and images but can't post.
• Nothing is deleted on a schedule. OpenAI gives no deletion date, and members can request an export through ChatGPT or OpenAI's Privacy Portal.
• Invite links are dead. Since July 9, nobody can join a group chat by link, including links made earlier.

If your group wants to keep going, copy what you need and pick a new home from the options below.

What does ChatGPT offer instead?

Nothing that does the same job. Shared projects, on every plan since October 2025, let collaborators work in one project, with up to 5 people on Free, 10 on Plus and Go and 100 on Pro. Pages and Space, from September 29, 2026, are shared documents people edit and comment on, each person using their own ChatGPT; Space is only for Pro, Business and Enterprise, on desktop and the web. Neither is one conversation that a group and ChatGPT share.

Where can a group talk to one AI together now?

• Poe group chats hold up to 200 people and several AI bots; a bot answers when someone mentions it, and whoever asks pays with their own points.
• Meta AI answers when anyone mentions it in a WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram group, in the countries where it's available.
• Snapchat's My AI answers @myai in group chats, and some groups can add it as a member.
• Jenova puts a group in one live thread with one AI, each person paying for their own use.
• Mindtrip, for travel, brings its AI into a group chat when someone mentions @mindtrip.
• Poly (usepoly.co) gives a group a room with one AI, Claude, GPT, Grok, Kimi or Muse, that everyone talks to in one live conversation, with a group chat beside it the AI never reads. Friends use it to plan a trip together while the AI builds the trip board; teams use it to build apps. Free to start, and only the people who run the AI pay.
• At work, Claude Tag puts Claude in a Slack channel for Claude Team and Enterprise organizations.

How each works, step by step: How to group chat with AI and your friends. For work tools: Multiplayer AI tools.