How do you lock a ChatGPT chat with a PIN — and what does locking actually protect?

OpenAI's Locked Chats, rolling out from October 20, 2026, hide a conversation behind a 4-digit PIN or Face ID/Touch ID, move it out of your regular history and search, and give it its own separate Memory. But locking is not encryption — here is what it does and does not protect, and why forgetting the PIN is costly.

You use ChatGPT like a notebook — health worries, money questions, a half-written resignation letter — and then you hand your phone to a friend so they can look at a photo. Short answer: OpenAI began rolling out Locked Chats on October 20, 2026, and a locked chat is hidden behind a 4-digit PIN, or Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices. The chat moves into a dedicated Locked Chats section and disappears from your regular history, your pinned chats and search results, and locked chats keep their own separate Memory that does not update your regular Memory.

Why the limits matter: the lock guards the door of the app, not the building behind it. Locking does NOT add end-to-end encryption, does NOT change how the chat is retained, does NOT erase anything ChatGPT remembered about you before you locked the chat, and does NOT change the “Improve the model for everyone” setting. It protects you from people holding your device — a curious coworker, a kid with your tablet — not from the service itself.1.

Open the chat you want to protect. Locking works per conversation, so pick the sensitive ones rather than everything.2. Tap the three-dot menu at the top of the conversation.3.

Choose “Lock chat” and set a 4-digit PIN, or confirm with Face ID or Touch ID where your device offers it.4. Know what cannot be locked. Temporary, archived, group, shared-link, scheduled-task and meeting-recording chats are not eligible, and the feature is rolling out across the Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans — not Healthcare — so it may not have reached your account yet.Pro tip: Treat the PIN like a safe combination and never forget it.

Resetting the PIN permanently deletes every locked chat and its files, with no recovery — the lock’s strongest protection is also its sharpest edge.Ad’s take: This is a genuinely useful privacy feature, as long as you file it in the right drawer: it stops eyes in the room, not servers in the cloud. Lock the chats you would not read aloud — and still think twice before pasting real secrets into any chatbot.