ChatGPT Work, launched July 9th by OpenAI, is an agentic product for knowledge work that runs on the Codex harness inside isolated cloud microVMs. It connects to external services via plugins (Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, etc.) using MCP servers, supports browser automation through a managed Chrome service, and offers scheduled/recurring tasks. Memory and cross-task continuity are managed through an opinionated ChatGPT product layer rather than a shared filesystem. The product already has 10M users and is set to merge with standard ChatGPT Chat mode by end of year, making its design choices the default for ~1B weekly users. Key gaps include plugin discovery, seamless local-cloud sync, and a meta-layer agent for coordinating across tasks.
Table of contents
What is Work?Persistence & MemoryHints of useful proactivityScheduled TasksBrowser UsePlugins, skills, and toolsWhat’s Next3 Impressions