--- id: chatgpt-projects lang: en track: chatgpt title: "Projects" seoTitle: "ChatGPT Projects: a home for ongoing work" description: "How ChatGPT Projects keep files, instructions, and chats together for ongoing work, how project memory works, and how to share a project with your team." part: working-smart partTitle: "Working smart" partOrder: 4 order: 3 level: Intermediate durationMinutes: 5 outcome: "Set up a ChatGPT project so an ongoing piece of work keeps its files, instructions, and history in one place." summary: "A project is a home for one piece of ongoing work: its files, its instructions, and its chats. Open a chat inside it and ChatGPT already knows the brief." draft: false updated: "2026-10-12" furtherReading: - title: "Projects in ChatGPT" url: "https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10169521-projects-in-chatgpt" note: "Creating projects, file limits, project memory, and sharing." - title: "Moving to the new ChatGPT desktop app" url: "https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001276-moving-to-the-new-chatgpt-desktop-app" note: "Starting Chat or Work from a project in the desktop app." - title: "Memory in ChatGPT" url: "https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8590148-memory-faq" note: "How memory works inside and outside projects." - title: "Uploading files and audio to ChatGPT" url: "https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8555545-file-uploads-faq" note: "File types and size limits for project files." keywords: - ChatGPT Projects - ChatGPT project instructions - ChatGPT project memory - share ChatGPT project - organise ChatGPT chats quiz: intro: "Five quick questions. Ace them all and your work has a home." passScore: 5 questions: - q: "What does a ChatGPT project keep together?" options: - "Files, instructions, and chats for one job" - "Your saved memories, grouped neatly by topic" - "Shared folders synced from your drive" - "Settings that apply to all your chats" answer: 0 explain: "A project is a home for one stream of work: the files it leans on, a standing brief, and all the chats about it." - q: "Your custom instructions say 'casual tone', but a project's instructions say 'formal, for the board'. Which wins inside the project?" options: - "Custom instructions, since they apply everywhere" - "Whichever one was written most recently" - "The project instructions, inside that project" - "Neither; ChatGPT blends the two" answer: 2 explain: "Project instructions apply only inside the project and take priority over your custom instructions there. Outside the project, your normal instructions apply." - q: "What does 'project-only memory' do?" options: - "It keeps the project's files out of your memory" - "It fences the project off from your other chats" - "It shares the project's memory with all members" - "It deletes the project's chats after a while" answer: 1 explain: "With project-only memory, chats in the project don't reference outside conversations or saved memories, and outside chats don't reference the project. Shared projects always use it." - q: "You share a project with a colleague and want them to use it, but not change the files or the instructions. Which access do you give?" options: - "Owner" - "Edit" - "Public link" - "Chat" answer: 3 explain: "Chat access lets someone see and use the project's chats, files, and instructions. Edit access lets them change instructions and files and invite others." - q: "How do you keep a project useful over time?" options: - "Add every related file you have, so nothing is ever missing" - "Remove old files and keep the brief short and current" - "Lock the instructions once they work" - "Keep all your work in one big project" answer: 1 explain: "Old files get quoted, long briefs get vague, and a project about everything helps with nothing. Keep it current and focused." pass: badge: "Projects unlocked" title: "Your work has a home now." body: "Full marks. You can set up a project, write its brief, choose its memory, and share it. Next: ChatGPT Work, where ChatGPT takes on whole tasks and hands you finished work." retry: "Check the marked answers and give it another go. You've got this." --- > **Level:** Intermediate ยท **Reading time:** ~5 min > > **What you'll be able to do:** set up a ChatGPT project so an ongoing piece of work keeps its files, instructions, and history in one place. A one-off chat is fine for a quick question. It's a pain for work you keep coming back to: the same client, the same report, the same pitch, week after week. Memory helps a little, but it's general. You still end up **re-attaching the same files and re-explaining the same background.** A **project** ends that. Think of it as a home for one piece of work, where the context is always already in the room. Open a new chat inside it and ChatGPT starts out knowing the brief, the files, and the history, before you type a word. ## What a project holds A project keeps three things together: - **Files.** Documents you add once: the brief, the brand guide, past examples, the data. ChatGPT can use them in every chat in the project. - **Instructions.** A standing brief for this work: who it's for, the goal, the tone, what to avoid. Set once, applied to every chat inside. - **Chats.** Its own history. All the conversations about this work live here, not scattered across Recents.
A one-off chat or a project Left: a one-off chat, where you re-attach files and re-explain the background each time and the history ends up scattered in Recents. Right: a project, which keeps files, instructions and chats together so every new chat starts already briefed. A one-off chat or a project One-off chat EVERY TIME FROM SCRATCH Re-attach the same files Re-explain the background History scattered in Recents Fine for a quick question You repeat yourself. Project ONE HOME FOR ONE PIECE OF WORK Files added once Instructions: a standing brief All its chats in one place Can be shared with your team Every new chat starts briefed. vs
## Why it beats a one-off chat In [lesson 2.5](/learn/chatgpt/getting-started/giving-chatgpt-context) you met **three places for context**: this message, this project, everything. The project is the **middle level**, and the one people underuse. Broader than a chat, so you stop repeating yourself. Narrower than your custom instructions, so this client's world doesn't leak into every other chat. One rule to know: **project instructions override your custom instructions** inside the project. If your general setting says "casual," a board-report project can still say "formal," and it wins there. **Plans:** projects are unlimited on every plan. What changes is how many files each can hold: 5 on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, **40 on Business**, Enterprise, Edu, and Pro. ## Setting one up It takes a couple of minutes: 1. **Create a project** in the sidebar and give it a clear name ("Acme account", "Q3 board report"). 2. **Add the files** this work leans on, up to ten at a time. The lean-format tip still pays: `.md` or `.txt` for big reference material. 3. **Write the instructions** in the project settings: the same five-line brief from lesson 2.5, scoped to this work. 4. **Start chatting.** Every new chat begins with the full picture. Already have a useful chat? **Drag it into the project**, or use "Move to project" from its menu. It picks up the project's instructions and files from then on. In the **desktop app**, a project also works as a starting point for bigger jobs: from inside it you can open a normal chat or a **Work** chat, and both start with the project's context. A worked example: a project called "Acme account" holds the contract, the brand guide, and last quarter's report, with instructions that say "formal, British spelling, never promise dates without checking with me." Monday's chat asks for a status email; Thursday's asks for talking points for the call. Neither needs a word of background. ## Choose the project's memory Each project has a memory setting, and it's worth a conscious choice. **Default memory** lets chats in the project draw on your saved memories and on other conversations in the project. Handy when the work and the rest of your ChatGPT life overlap. **Project-only memory** draws a fence. Chats inside don't reference your outside conversations or saved memories, and your other chats don't reference the project. Use it for confidential client work, or anything that shouldn't colour, or be coloured by, the rest. One trade-off: ChatGPT **Work isn't available** in a project with project-only memory. ## Sharing with your team This is where projects come into their own on Business. Share a project with colleagues or a group, and everyone works from the same files and the same brief, the closest thing ChatGPT has to a shared playbook. You choose the access. **Edit** lets people change the instructions and files and invite others. **Chat** lets them use the project's chats, files, and instructions without changing them. The owner keeps full control. Two things to know: **shared projects always use project-only memory**, so nobody's personal memories leak into the team space, and the same fence means Work isn't available inside a shared project. ## Keep it tidy A project's files are a **fridge, not an attic.** Remove what's out of date, or ChatGPT will happily quote last quarter's numbers. Keep the instructions **short and current**; a bloated brief works worse than a tight one. And give **each real piece of work its own project**. A project about everything is a project about nothing. ## Where this goes next Put lessons 4.2 and 4.3 together and you have the power-user setup: **skills** are *how* a job gets done your way; **projects** are *where* a body of work lives, context on tap. Next, in [lesson 4.4](/learn/chatgpt/working-smart/chatgpt-work-on-your-files), ChatGPT stops answering and starts doing: **ChatGPT Work** takes on whole tasks and hands you finished files. ## Try it Pick something you come back to often: a client, a recurring report, an ongoing pitch. Create a project for it, add two or three files it always needs, and write a five-line brief in the project instructions. Decide on its memory: default, or project-only? Then open a fresh chat inside the project and ask for something real, without pasting any background. **It answers as if it already knew the story, because you told it once instead of every time.** *(General exercise. Role and industry versions come once accounts are in.)* ## Key terms [Project](/glossary#chatgpt-project), [Context](/glossary#context), [Custom instructions](/glossary#chatgpt-custom-instructions), [Memory](/glossary#chatgpt-memory)