TLDRs;
- OpenAI is testing collaborative ChatGPT Rooms in select Asian markets, enabling up to 20 users to work with AI together.
- Group Rooms keep personal ChatGPT memory separate, ensuring privacy and preventing cross-conversation data blending.
- The feature supports planning, brainstorming, and idea generation, with strong member-management and notification controls.
- Feedback from Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, and South Korea will shape the global rollout of the multi-user feature.
OpenAI has begun quietly trialing a new feature that could redefine how groups collaborate with AI in real time.
The company is testing collaborative ChatGPT Rooms, a multi-user environment that allows up to 20 participants to engage with ChatGPT together in a shared conversation space. The experimental rollout, currently limited to select markets, marks one of the most significant expansions of ChatGPT’s social and collaborative capabilities so far.
The pilot is initially available for users in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and New Zealand, with both mobile and web users gaining early access. Anyone logged into a Free, Go, Plus, or Pro account can create or join a room, making the feature accessible across OpenAI’s entire consumer tier spectrum.
Pilot Targets Asia-Pacific
According to OpenAI, the new group-chat environment is designed for planning, brainstorming, and interactive problem-solving, areas where real-time collaboration with an AI assistant can dramatically accelerate workflow.
Teams can collectively ask questions, develop ideas, or coordinate projects while ChatGPT provides context, suggestions, and structured outputs that all room participants can view simultaneously.
While group chats operate similarly to normal ChatGPT conversations, OpenAI emphasized that personal memory does not carry over into group rooms. The model does not read or utilize a participant’s private ChatGPT memory, and it does not store new personal preferences from group discussions. This separation is meant to maintain strict privacy boundaries between solo and group interactions, an approach likely guided by regulatory expectations and user trust requirements.
Privacy Controls Strengthened
The rooms also integrate moderation features aimed at maintaining a controlled environment. Creators can manage membership, adjust notification settings, and review privacy options to ensure participants understand how their inputs are used.
The company highlighted that conversations remain private to those invited, reinforcing the pilot’s focus on secure collaboration.
This multi-user rollout notably arrives on the heels of another major upgrade: the introduction of GPT-5.1, OpenAI’s newest model generation. The company has positioned GPT-5.1 as more responsive, more intuitive, and better at complex reasoning. With two variants, Instant (fast and conversational) and Thinking (slower and analytical), OpenAI is signaling a shift toward adaptive AI behavior tuned to context and task complexity.
Feature Expands Collaboration
Given that GPT-5.1 is also being deployed gradually for stability reasons, many observers see the group chat pilot as part of a broader evolution toward more dynamic, socially integrated AI use cases.
The combination of improved reasoning with multi-user conversation spaces could position ChatGPT as a central tool for remote collaboration, education, and even lightweight project management.
However, important details remain unknown. OpenAI has not shared performance benchmarks, token pricing, or latency ranges for GPT-5.1, nor has the company disclosed when group rooms will expand globally. For enterprises and power users, these gaps make it difficult to assess the long-term cost efficiency of adopting GPT-5.1 at scale or embedding group chat into team workflows.


