OpenAI is starting to rethink what ChatGPT is actually for. Instead of just a one-on-one assistant, the company has begun testing a new group chat feature that lets up to 20 people talk to the AI at the same time. It’s the kind of thing that could end up being handy for everything from planning a trip with friends to hashing out ideas with coworkers.
The feature was quietly announced on November 13 in an OpenAI blog post. The idea is simple: everyone in the group can type freely, and ChatGPT will jump in whenever it thinks it can help. If you want an immediate answer, you can call it directly with “@ChatGPT.” Otherwise, it mostly tries to stay out of the way until something relevant pops up.
Most of ChatGPT’s usual tools carry over into these shared rooms, including web browsing, file and image uploads, voice input, and image generation. The system runs on GPT-5.1 Auto, which automatically chooses the best model for each person based on their plan—Free, Go, Plus, or Pro—so you don’t have to fiddle with model settings. OpenAI also says the AI won’t draw on any personal memories from individual users while in a group, which is meant to keep things from getting awkward or overly specific.
Starting a group is easy enough. You can spin up a fresh chat or turn an existing one-on-one thread into a group using the little person icon. Invites are simple links, and anyone joining just has to pick a name, username, and picture. If you convert a private chat, ChatGPT makes a duplicate first so you don’t lose the original conversation.
Availability:
For now, the whole thing is still in early testing and limited to four regions: Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. It’s available across all subscription tiers in those markets. OpenAI says it’ll expand the rollout over time, depending on the feedback it gets from this first batch of users.
With real-time, multi-person chats now possible, ChatGPT is creeping into territory usually dominated by Slack, Teams, and even Google Docs—except this time the AI can actually participate instead of just sitting on the sidelines. If the trials go well, don’t be surprised if group chats end up becoming one of the busier parts of ChatGPT sooner rather than later.
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(Source: OpenAI)
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