OpenAI is expanding the capabilities of ChatGPT’s free users by opening up Projects to them. It allows you to organize chats around a specific topic and customize the assistant’s work for specific tasks. Previously, Projects were only available to paid subscribers.
While projects look like regular chat folders, they have additional features: the user can set their own instructions, control which files and data the AI can use, and customize the appearance of the project by changing the color and icon. In addition, OpenAI is increasing the number of files that can be added: free users get a limit of 5 files, Plus subscribers get 25, and Pro subscribers get 40.
This move continues OpenAI’s trend of gradually making premium features available to everyone. For example, Deep Research and ChatGPT Voice were also initially exclusive, but later became publicly available. At the same time, the company is leaving restrictions on free accounts to encourage the transition to paid subscriptions. The same was the case with the GPT-5 model, which was initially available to everyone, but with stricter limits for free users.
The Projects feature is already available in the ChatGPT web version and Android app. The iOS version will receive it in the coming days.