ChatGPT Tasks are scheduled prompts that ChatGPT runs for you on a chosen cadence and time. Type a task-style prompt with an explicit schedule (for example, "Every weekday at 8am, summarize..."), confirm when ChatGPT prompts you, and the task appears in the Schedules panel. Edit, pause, or delete from there. Tasks require a paid plan (Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise). Verified May 2026.

How to Use ChatGPT Tasks: Schedule AI Workflows (2026)

ChatGPT Tasks turn the chat into a recurring assistant. Instead of typing the same morning briefing or weekly planning prompt by hand, you schedule it once and ChatGPT runs it on cadence, dropping the output in a new chat plus an optional email or push notification. This guide walks every Tasks control with current screenshots, covers the paid-plan requirement upfront, and shows where AI Toolbox (formerly ChatGPT Toolbox) complements Tasks with a prompt library you can paste into any new task with the // shortcut, prompt chaining for multi-step task workflows, and full-text search across every task-generated chat. With 20,000+ active users and a 4.5/5 Chrome Web Store rating, AI Toolbox is the most installed productivity layer for ChatGPT.

What Are ChatGPT Tasks?

Tasks are scheduled prompts that ChatGPT runs automatically at a chosen day and time. You create a task by typing a prompt that includes a cadence and a time (for example, "Every Monday at 9am, ask me what my top three priorities are for the week"). ChatGPT detects the schedule, asks you to confirm, then stores it in the Schedules panel. When the task fires, ChatGPT creates a new chat with the output and surfaces an in-app notification, plus optional email or push notifications if you have those enabled in Settings.

Tasks support daily, weekly, monthly, and one-time runs. Each task has a name (auto-generated from the prompt, editable later), the prompt itself (called Instructions in the edit modal), and a When schedule made up of a frequency dropdown and a time picker. Times respect the timezone set in your account settings.

Plan Requirement: Tasks Are Paid Only

ChatGPT Tasks require a paid plan: Plus, Pro, Team, or Enterprise. Free accounts cannot create, view, or run scheduled tasks. There is no free trial of Tasks and no per-task pricing, the feature is bundled into the plan. If you are on free and want to automate recurring prompts, your options are to upgrade or to call the ChatGPT API from an external scheduler (Zapier, Make, a cron job calling the API). The native UI is reserved for paid plans.

If you already use ChatGPT enough that you are typing the same prompt multiple times per week (a morning summary, a Monday planning prompt, a daily reminder), Tasks alone often justifies the Plus upgrade. The break-even point is roughly 3-5 recurring prompts per week, multiplied by the time it takes you to retype each one. For lower volume, an API + cron approach can be cheaper if you are comfortable wiring it up.

How to Schedule a ChatGPT Task

In a fresh chat, type a prompt with an explicit cadence and time, then click confirm when ChatGPT asks. The cadence and time are what tell ChatGPT to treat the prompt as a Task instead of a one-off message. Concrete language works best: "Every weekday at 8am", "Every Monday at 9am", "Tomorrow at 3pm", "Every other Friday at noon". Vague language ("daily", "sometime in the morning") usually still parses, but you will have less control over the exact schedule, so prefer explicit times.

After you submit, ChatGPT replies with a confirmation card showing the proposed task name and cadence. Click confirm to create the task. ChatGPT then writes a short "Done! Your schedule is now set up." message and quotes the prompt it will use, so you can verify it captured the request correctly before the first run.

Save the prompts behind your best tasks so you never lose them. AI Toolbox adds folders, full-text search across every chat (including the chats your tasks generate), a prompt library with the // shortcut, and prompt chaining for multi-step workflows you can plug into a task. Free plan covers 2 folders, 2 pins, and 2 saved prompts. Unlock unlimited everything on Premium ($9.99 per month) or pay once for Premium Lifetime ($99). Working across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude? All Access Lifetime ($149) covers all three modules and saves $148 versus three single-platform Lifetimes ($99 × 3 = $297). Add AI Toolbox to Chrome free →

Where to See Your Scheduled Tasks

Open the Schedules panel from the ChatGPT sidebar to see every active task in one place. The page is split into two sections. Scheduled lists every active task with its name on the left and the cadence label on the right ("Daily at 9 AM", "Weekly on Wednesday", "Every Monday at 9 AM"). Hovering a row reveals a pencil icon for editing and a three-dot menu for additional actions. Recent below it lists the most recent task-generated chats so you can re-open the latest outputs without digging through your sidebar.

Treat the Schedules panel as the source of truth for what ChatGPT is doing on your behalf. If a task is missing, it never made it past the confirm step (re-enter the prompt in a fresh chat). If a task is in the list but never runs, check the timezone in your account settings, since cadence runs against the account-level timezone, not the device clock.

Edit, Pause, or Delete a Task

Hover the task row in the Schedules panel and click the pencil icon to open the Edit schedule modal. The modal exposes four editable fields and three actions. Editable: Name (the label that shows in the Scheduled list), Instructions (the prompt itself, multi-line, edit freely), When frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.), and When time (a 24-hour or 12-hour time picker depending on your locale). Actions: Pause stops the task without deleting it (paused tasks still count toward your 10-task cap), Delete (red, outlined) removes it entirely, and Save commits any changes.

Editing is the right control when the task is mostly working but needs a tweak (different time, slightly different prompt, longer summary). Pause is the right control when you are going on vacation, switching context, or testing whether the task is actually useful. Delete is the right control when you want the slot back for a new task. The 10-task cap counts active and paused tasks together, so paused-but-stale tasks should be deleted when you know you will not resume them.

Notifications: How You Know a Task Fired

When a scheduled task runs, ChatGPT creates a new chat with the result and surfaces an in-app notification. If you enabled email or push notifications in Settings > Notifications, you also get an email or mobile push at the scheduled time. The notification links straight to the new chat so you can read the output without hunting for it. The chat itself appears in your normal chat sidebar with a title derived from the task name, and it stays there indefinitely (until you delete it manually).

If you are not seeing notifications when a task fires, three things to check: (1) the task is in Scheduled (not Paused) in the Schedules panel, (2) the timezone in your account settings matches the time you actually want the task to run, and (3) email or push notifications are enabled in Settings if you expect those channels. Browser-tab notifications also need permission granted at the OS level for ChatGPT to pop them.

Common Task Patterns Worth Scheduling

The 10-task cap forces you to pick the highest-leverage prompts. The patterns that pay off most often:

• Morning briefing: "Every weekday at 8am, give me a 100-word summary of the top AI productivity news from the previous 24 hours."
• Weekly planning kickoff: "Every Monday at 9am, ask me what my top three priorities are for the week."
• Content repurposing: "Every Wednesday at 10am, ask me which piece of content I want to repurpose this week and suggest three formats."
• Recurring brainstorm: "Daily at 9am, give me five alternate uses for one common object to keep my brain fit."
• Time-bound reminder: "Tomorrow at 3pm, remind me to review the new blog post drafts."
• Monthly review: "On the first of every month at 9am, ask me what my biggest win and biggest blocker were last month."

Pair the task with a saved prompt template in the ChatGPT module of AI Toolbox so you can update the wording in one place and reuse it across multiple new tasks (for clients, projects, or contexts). Use the // shortcut inside any new chat to paste the template before adding the cadence.

Get More From Tasks with AI Toolbox

Tasks handle the schedule. What they do not do is help you save the exact prompt wording that produced a great output, search across every task-generated chat for a phrase from weeks ago, or organize task chats into folders. That is what AI Toolbox (formerly ChatGPT Toolbox) adds on top.

• Full-text search across every conversation, including the chats every scheduled task creates. Use Cmd+Shift+F (Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows) to search by message content, role, or date range with exact-match toggle.
• Folders and subfolders to group task outputs by topic, project, or client. Folders use search-based adding: you search the conversation list and add matches to the folder, no drag-and-drop required. Free plan supports 2 folders. Unlimited on Premium.
• Prompt library with the // shortcut. Save your best task prompts with {{placeholder}} variables and paste them into a fresh chat before adding the cadence. Free plan: 2 saved prompts. Unlimited on Premium.
• Prompt chaining with the .. shortcut. Chain up to 10 prompts into a multi-step workflow that a single task can run on cadence (for example, "summarize last week → identify the top theme → draft three social posts about it").

AI Toolbox is also available for Gemini and Claude as part of the same unified install. The Gemini module adds full-text search across every synced Gemini conversation with date, role, and exact-match filters. The Claude module adds full-text search with exact-match toggle and message-level bookmarks. Pricing details are on the AI Toolbox pricing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are ChatGPT Tasks?

Tasks are scheduled prompts that ChatGPT runs on your behalf at a chosen day and time. You create one by typing a task-style prompt like "Every weekday at 8am, give me a 100-word summary of..." and confirming the schedule. ChatGPT runs the prompt on cadence and surfaces the result in a new chat plus optional notifications. The full list lives in the Schedules panel.

How do I schedule a Task in ChatGPT?

Type a task-style prompt that includes a cadence and a time, for example "Every Monday at 9am, ask me what my top three priorities are for the week." ChatGPT detects the schedule and asks you to confirm. After you accept, the task appears in the Schedules panel as a row with its name and cadence label.

Are ChatGPT Tasks free?

No. ChatGPT Tasks require a paid plan. The feature is available on Plus, Pro, Team, and Enterprise. Free-plan accounts cannot create, view, or run scheduled tasks. If you are on free and want to automate recurring prompts, you need to upgrade or use an external scheduler with the ChatGPT API.

Where do I see my scheduled ChatGPT Tasks?

Open the Schedules panel from the ChatGPT sidebar. The page lists every active task under a Scheduled section with its cadence label (Daily at 9 AM, Weekly on Wednesday, etc.), and your most recent task-generated chats under a Recent section. Click any row to open its detail view or hover to reveal the edit and overflow actions.

How do I edit or pause a ChatGPT Task?

Hover the task row in the Schedules panel and click the pencil icon to open the Edit schedule modal. The modal lets you rename the task, rewrite the prompt instructions, change frequency (Daily, Weekly, etc.) and time, then click Save. The Pause button stops the task without deleting it. The red Delete button removes it entirely.

How many ChatGPT Tasks can I have?

ChatGPT supports up to 10 active tasks per account at the same time. To add an 11th, pause or delete one of the existing ones first. Paused tasks still count toward the cap. Cadence options include daily, weekly, monthly, and one-time runs, and times respect the timezone set in your account settings.

How will I know when a ChatGPT Task fires?

When a scheduled task runs, ChatGPT creates a new chat with the result and surfaces an in-app notification. If you enabled email or push notifications in Settings, you will also get an email or mobile push at the scheduled time. You can rerun any past task manually from the Recent section of the Schedules panel.

Can I use ChatGPT Tasks for reminders?

Yes. Tasks work as both content-generating schedules ("summarize the news") and as plain reminders ("remind me to review the draft tomorrow at 3pm"). One-time scheduled prompts work the same way as recurring ones, they just run once and then disappear from the active Scheduled list, with the result kept under Recent.

Conclusion

Tasks make ChatGPT recurring instead of one-shot. Type a prompt with an explicit cadence and time, click confirm, and ChatGPT runs it on schedule. Manage everything from the Schedules panel: hover a row to edit, pause, or delete. Watch the 10-task cap and prune paused-but-stale schedules so the slots stay valuable. Tasks are a paid-plan feature (Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise); free accounts need to upgrade or use the API with an external scheduler. To save the prompts behind your best tasks, search across every task-generated chat, and organise task outputs into folders, install AI Toolbox for Chrome: free plan covers 2 folders, 2 pins, 2 saved prompts, and full-text search with up to 5 results per query. Premium ($9.99 per month) or Premium Lifetime ($99 one-time) unlocks unlimited everything plus bulk export.

References and Further Reading

• OpenAI Help Center: Tasks in ChatGPT (Retrieved May 2026)
• OpenAI ChatGPT Release Notes (Retrieved May 2026)
• How to Use ChatGPT Projects (2026) — the other native productivity layer; pair Projects with Tasks for scoped recurring work
• How to Manage ChatGPT Memory (2026) — Memory and Tasks compose well; Memory keeps the context, Tasks runs the prompt
• ChatGPT Models Explained (2026) — which GPT-5.x model runs your tasks
• ChatGPT Limits: Messages, Tokens, Rate — per-plan caps that apply to task runs
• How to Search ChatGPT History — full-text search across every task-generated chat
• How to Export ChatGPT Conversations — bulk export of task outputs

Last updated: May 31, 2026