ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks can run prompts once or on a recurring schedule, monitor for relevant changes, and—when supported apps and account settings allow—respond to certain events. Four practical ways to use them are daily briefings, reminders, change monitoring, and follow-ups to connected-app activity. These are documented use patterns, not a claim about one person’s private routine.
What ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks do
A scheduled task runs an instruction in ChatGPT at a time or cadence you choose. Some tasks can also monitor for changes or respond to supported events in connected apps. OpenAI describes scheduled tasks as handling reminders, recurring work, daily updates, and monitoring in its Scheduled tasks in ChatGPT Help Center article.
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Availability and controls depend on your account, app version, plan, and—on work accounts—workspace settings. OpenAI’s ChatGPT release notes provide dated context for changes to scheduled tasks and monitoring.
Four useful ways to use scheduled tasks
1. Get a recurring briefing
Ask ChatGPT to prepare a compact update on a subject you care about and set a repeat schedule. For example: “Every weekday morning, give me a concise briefing on the topics I follow, with links to sources where available.” Specify the subject, time window, preferred length, and what to leave out so the result is more useful than a broad roundup.
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A recurring prompt can make an update routine, but it does not guarantee that every relevant development will appear. For tasks that check for new information, treat the output as a helpful digest rather than a complete record.
2. Set a one-time or recurring reminder
Use a task for a deadline, appointment, or repeating check-in: “Remind me tomorrow at 9 a.m. to send the expense report,” or “Remind me on the first day of each month to review my subscriptions.” Choose the schedule in the request and verify that the task appears as expected.
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To choose how ChatGPT alerts you, open Settings > Notifications and select push notifications, email, or both. Mobile push notifications require creating the task in a supported mobile app and allowing notifications for that app. Delivery also depends on device permissions and notification settings.
3. Monitor for a relevant change
A monitoring task can check for a change and notify you when it finds an update relevant to your instruction. State what to watch, which changes matter, and what should trigger an alert—for example, “Check for official announcements about the launch date and notify me if it changes.” The OpenAI Help Center says monitoring tasks “check for changes and send a notification when a relevant update occurs.”
Monitoring is not a guarantee that every change will be detected or reported. Make the trigger specific, and continue to consult authoritative sources when missing an update would have important consequences.
4. Follow up on connected-app events
Eligible work users may be able to connect Gmail, Slack, or GitHub and set up tasks around supported events, such as a new Gmail message, a Slack channel message, or pull-request activity in GitHub. The available triggers, permissions, and actions depend on the connected app and workspace policy. Slack monitoring requires @ChatGPT in each channel being monitored.
Before relying on an event-triggered task, check which app it can access, which event starts it, what conditions it uses, and what action it may take. Connected apps may read information or act according to the permissions granted. Some actions require approval; if that approval is not completed, a task can pause. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work and Codex guidance describes current Work task and event-trigger setup.
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How to create and manage a task
- Create it in ChatGPT: ask ChatGPT to perform the action and state when or how often it should run. Availability depends on your account and app version.
- Check the schedule and instruction: review the task so its timing and requested action match what you intended, especially for tasks using connected apps.
- Manage it from Scheduled: eligible tasks can be reviewed, edited, paused, resumed, or deleted there. Options to share a task are available for eligible tasks.
- Use deletion carefully: deleting the chat associated with a task pauses the task; it does not delete the task’s shared link.
A task created in a project cannot access files uploaded to or stored in that project, according to the OpenAI Help Center. If an instruction depends on a file, do not assume that placing the task in the project gives it access.
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Who can use scheduled tasks, and how often can they run?
OpenAI’s Help Center lists eligible Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu users, as well as eligible ChatGPT for Healthcare workspaces, subject to account and workspace settings. Event-triggered tasks have narrower eligibility: they are unavailable on Free and Go, and in FedRAMP workspaces. Enterprise, Edu, and Healthcare administrators may need to enable the feature.
| Account category | Scheduling frequency stated by OpenAI | Event-triggered tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Free | One-time or recurring tasks no more than daily | Unavailable |
| Go | Frequency details not stated separately in the Help Center | Unavailable |
| Eligible paid plans | Recurrence up to once per hour and exact delivery times | Availability depends on eligibility, app support, and workspace settings |
| Enterprise, Edu, and Healthcare workspaces | Subject to account and workspace settings | Administrator enablement may be required |
These limits and availability can change; check the current OpenAI Scheduled Tasks Help Center article for your account before setting up a schedule. OpenAI distinguishes ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks, which run in ChatGPT, from Codex automations, which run in Codex.
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What to check before depending on a task
- Notifications: confirm your chosen delivery method and the device or app permissions it needs.
- Schedule: verify that the cadence and delivery time are supported for your account.
- Connected apps: review access permissions, event conditions, and any actions the task is allowed to take.
- Workspace rules: check whether an administrator controls task availability or requires approval for an action.
- Files: do not assume a task created in a project can read that project’s uploaded or stored files.
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