ChatGPT Projects explained: how to use them at work

What goes where

From OpenAI's docs and help pages, read 5 November 2026.

A worked example: a client project

Illustration: a made-up business. A 6-person agency sets up one project per client. For Brightwell, a bakery chain, the account lead writes the instructions and adds the brand guide, last quarter's results and the product list as sources:

Role and goal: You help our team write for Brightwell Bakeries. A good answer sounds like Brightwell and is ready for the client to approve.

Audience and tone: families in three towns who shop at Brightwell. Warm and short, for example "Still warm when you get it home." No puns about bread.

You can: write posts, emails and in-store signs.
You can't: promise prices or opening hours. Instead, point to the shop page.

Sources of truth: the brand guide for voice, the product list for names and ingredients, last quarter's results for numbers. If they disagree, use the product list and say so. If none answers, say you don't know and ask the account lead.

Format: the draft, then one line starting "Check:" on anything to confirm.

Examples:
User: A post for the new rye loaf.
You: Our new rye is here: a dark crust and a soft middle. Check: which shops stock it, and from when.

User: An email about holiday opening hours.
You: Holiday hours for each shop are on its page: [link]. Check: the link.

Edge cases: a discount → write it only if the brief names one. A complaint → don't draft; pass it to the account lead.

Hand off: allergy questions never go into a draft; the account lead passes them to the client's shop manager.

The account lead shares the project with the two writers with chat access and keeps edit access herself, so the instructions change in one place.

Set one up

1. Create a project for one client or one piece of work.
2. Write short instructions: role and goal, audience and tone with an example phrase, can and can't, sources of truth, the format with two or three examples, edge cases and hand-off.
3. Add the documents as sources, instead of pasting them into the instructions.
4. Share it: chat access for most people, edit access for the owner.
5. Keep confidential client data out of personal accounts; see what not to paste.

Next step: the team working the same way

A shared project gives a team the same background; it doesn't give them the same way of doing each task. Getting your team to use AI the same way covers that. For Claude's equivalent, see Claude Projects explained.

Questions

What are ChatGPT Projects?

A way to keep related chats together with shared context. A project's instructions apply to every chat in it, and the files and connected sources you add are available across its chats, so you don't paste the same background each time.

Can I share a ChatGPT project?

Yes. OpenAI's help, read through search results, describes giving people chat access, to use the project's chats, files and instructions, or edit access, to change them and invite others. You can invite people one by one, or turn on Anyone with a link, which lets any signed-in ChatGPT user who has the link join; on Business, Enterprise and Edu you can also invite groups. The limits by plan, and why sharing fails: How to share a ChatGPT project with others.

What's the difference between a project and custom instructions?

Custom instructions apply to every chat you have; a project's instructions apply only inside that project. Put what's true everywhere in custom instructions, one client's or one piece of work's context in a project, and a task you repeat across projects in a skill.