ChatGPT Work is an agent that takes action across your apps and files, stays with a project for as long as it needs, and turns a goal into finished work. The difference from regular ChatGPT is simple: Chat gives you an answer and you go do the work; Work does the work and hands you a finished deliverable — a document, spreadsheet, deck, report, or web app — for review.
It runs on GPT-5.6. You use it differently from a normal prompt: you describe an outcome, not a step-by-step request. Instead of "write me three subject lines," you say "build a competitive analysis of these five brands" or "process this month's supplier invoices into a clean spreadsheet," and it breaks the job into steps and works through them.
Work sits alongside two siblings in the ChatGPT desktop app. Chat is for fast, conversational help and everyday questions. Work is the agent for longer, multi-step jobs and finished deliverables. Codex is for software development. For marketing and e-commerce teams, Work is the one you'll reach for to get actual output done.
One principle to set from the start: treat Work's output as a strong draft to review, not finished truth. It asks for approval before sensitive actions and cites its sources, and you decide what it can access. Keep a human in the loop on anything that sends, publishes, spends, or deletes.
Projects with source folders. Every task should live in a dedicated project. On desktop you can attach one or more local folders that Work can read and edit. When a project has multiple folders, you set a primary folder — that's where it looks for your instructions, skills, and configuration.
Local and cloud modes. On desktop, each task can run locally or in the cloud. In local mode, Work operates directly on your machine and files, and those tasks stay on that computer. In cloud mode, tasks keep running after you close the app and sync across web, mobile, and desktop. Local file access exists only in the desktop app; on web and mobile you add files to the conversation or project instead of giving it a folder.
AGENTS.md. A short markdown file kept in a project's primary folder that Work reads first, every session. Store your folder structure, rules, and standing context there so it stops re-discovering things and repeating work. This saves both time and usage.
Plugins = apps + skills. This is the concept most people get wrong. A plugin packages capabilities. It can contain apps, which connect a tool such as Gmail, Slack, Google Drive, or your CRM and tell Work where to work, and skills, which teach it how to work. Some plugins are skills only, with no app to connect.
Skills. Reusable, shareable workflows that make Work complete a specific task consistently. A skill can hold instructions, examples, and reference files, and Work uses it automatically when relevant. You can create a skill by walking through the task in chat, build one in the editor, or upload one, and you can share skills across your team so everyone gets the same output.
Sites. Build and deploy interactive websites, dashboards, and internal web apps straight from Work, shareable by URL and kept updated. Access can be locked to your workspace or opened more widely.
Built-in browser. The desktop app includes a browser that Work can drive itself — reading pages directly, filling forms, and operating inside tools that have no connector. It includes a password manager so it can log in where needed.
Scheduled tasks. Ask Work to run something once, on a repeating schedule, or when an event occurs, and to monitor for changes over time. Scheduled tasks can use your connected apps and browser — for example, checking a dashboard each morning and sending a summary, reviewing weekly updates and refreshing an agenda, or watching for changes and alerting you only when something moves.