🔒 How to lock a ChatGPT chat so nobody sees it when you share your screen

ChatGPT’s new locked chats hide any conversation behind a PIN or Face ID. Here’s the 60-second setup, the prompt worth locking up and the one mistake that erases every locked chat for good.

What’s new: OpenAI started rolling out locked chats to everyone. Lock a conversation, and it disappears from your chat history, your pinned chats and search. It moves into its own locked chats area, which opens with a four-digit PIN, Face ID, Touch ID or your Android phone’s unlock.

This is a bigger deal than it sounds. Microsoft found 78% of people who use AI at work bring their own tools, and for most of us, that means a personal ChatGPT account. So one sidebar holds a client’s sales forecast, last night’s breakup advice and “Can you freeze a casserole with sour cream in it?” 

ChatGPT writes a title for every chat, and it’s not discreet. Share your screen, and the client sees all three. Nobody hires the person whose sidebar reads like a diary.

This is different from a temporary chat, which I walked you through in August. A temporary chat vanishes from your history when you close it. A locked chat sticks around. You can come back to the raise you’re planning, the coworker problem you’re working through or the résumé you’re polishing while still employed, and nobody glancing at your screen sees a thing.

⏱️ The 60-second setup

On web, the desktop app, iPhone and Android

1. Open the chat you want hidden and tap the three dots (•••).
2. Choose Lock chat, then confirm.
3. First time only: Choose Create PIN, enter four digits and confirm.

To get back in, go to Projects > Locked chats and enter your PIN. The same PIN works on every device signed in to your account. On the web, it stays unlocked only in that tab and relocks after you step away. On your phone, it relocks after a minute in the background. Hit Lock now before you click Share Screen.

Skip the PIN on your phone: On iPhone, turn on Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID) under Settings > Security and login > Account PIN. On Android, choose Use device unlock when it asks.

Don’t see locked chats? OpenAI is rolling it out gradually, so update the app and check back in a few days. Some chats can’t be locked at all: temporary, archived, group chats and those with a scheduled task attached.

📋 Try this prompt

List everything you remember about me that I wouldn’t want a client or coworker to see on my screen. Look for anything about my job search, salary, health, relationships or money. Group it by topic and quote each memory exactly.

Run it in a regular chat before you lock anything. Locking a chat doesn’t erase what ChatGPT memorized from it, and those memories can pop up in any chat, including the one you’re screen sharing. Delete what you don’t want in Settings > Personalization. 

From then on, start sensitive conversations inside locked chats. They can still use your regular memory, but anything ChatGPT learns inside them stays inside them.

⚠️ The catch: A lock hides the chat from your screen, not from your employer. If your company gave you ChatGPT, locked chats still show up in its compliance logs. Plan the job hunt on your personal account.

The mistake that erases every locked chat: Never tap Reset PIN to get back in. Resetting your PIN permanently deletes every locked chat, plus anything ChatGPT remembered inside them and files protected only by the PIN, and OpenAI support can’t bring them back. Forgetting your PIN deletes nothing. Resetting it deletes everything. If you want new digits, use Change PIN in the same menu. That keeps every chat.