Repeated background
You keep explaining the same client, initiative, course or research topic.
Projects
Give ongoing work a home
Use a Project when the background should persist across multiple chats, but each question or deliverable still deserves its own conversation.
ContextFilesMemory
Create one when context should persist
Repeated sources
You keep uploading the same files or referring to the same connected material.
Separate workstreams
Several chats should share context without becoming one very long conversation.
Set up the context once
Choose memory deliberately
Project-only memory keeps the context self-contained. Shared Projects use it automatically. Remember that deleting a Project permanently removes its chats, files and instructions.
Decide what belongs at each level
A well-organized Project separates standing context from individual pieces of work so future chats remain understandable.
Project instructions hold local rules
Put guidance here when it should apply to every chat in this body of work. These instructions override your global Custom Instructions while you are inside the Project.
Project sources hold reusable material
Store files, supported links and saved responses that you expect to reference repeatedly. Keep one-off material inside the relevant chat when it does not belong to the wider context.
Chats hold specific deliverables
Use a separate chat for each substantial question, analysis or output. This preserves shared context without turning the Project into one unmanageable conversation.
Projects
Keep Project memory clear and contained
Choose how widely context can travel, understand what collaborators can see, and use Projects as a context container rather than as a substitute for every other reusable feature.
Memory modesSharingFeature choice
Default memory or Project-only memory?
The choice determines whether a Project can draw on relevant personal context from outside the Project and whether its conversations can influence work elsewhere.
Setting
What the Project can use
What stays contained
Default memory
The Project uses its own chats and files and may also use relevant personal context, depending on your plan and settings.
The Project is organized, but it is not completely isolated from your wider ChatGPT context.
Project-only memory
Chats use conversations and sources from the same Project.
Outside memories are not used, and Project conversations do not contribute context elsewhere.
Sharing changes the boundary
Shared context
Collaborators can work from the Project's shared chats, files and Project instructions, giving the group one consistent body of background information.
Contained memory
Shared Projects automatically use Project-only memory. This keeps personal context outside the Project from being mixed into the shared workspace.
Controlled access
The owner manages whether access is invite-only or available through a supported sharing link. A single chat can also be shared without exposing the entire Project.
Project, GPT, Skill or Personalization?
Your main need
Use
Why
Ongoing files, history and context
Project
It keeps one body of work together across several chats.
A separately named assistant
Custom GPT
It packages a role, instructions, knowledge and selected capabilities.
A method that should repeat
Skill
It preserves how ChatGPT should perform a type of work.
A broad personal preference
Personalization
It influences ordinary conversations across ChatGPT.
A Project is primarily a context container
It becomes most valuable when the same files, history and instructions matter across several separate conversations. Keep distinct deliverables in distinct chats so the Project remains easy to navigate.
Operational details worth remembering
A few boundaries affect how Projects interact with other ChatGPT features and connected sources.
Move eligible work into the right place
Existing eligible chats can be moved into a Project when they belong to that body of work. Chats created with a custom GPT cannot currently be moved into a Project.
Apps can still be used
Connected Apps can be used inside Project chats, although ChatGPT may ask before searching beyond the Project boundary. Supported Drive links and Slack channels can also become Project sources.
Deletion is consequential
Deleting a Project permanently removes its chats, files and instructions. Review what needs to be retained or exported before removing the Project.