How to share a ChatGPT project with others, and when you can't

Share a ChatGPT project, step by step

1. Open the project and select Share to open the sharing pane.
2. Invite people. On Free, Go, Plus and Pro you invite individuals under Only those invited; on Business, Enterprise and Edu you can also invite workspace groups. Enter a name, email address or group, pick chat or edit access, and select Invite. You and each person get a confirmation email.
3. Or share the link. The owner can switch Only those invited to Anyone with a link, and any logged-in ChatGPT user who has the link can join. On Business, Enterprise and Edu a workspace link adds members with chat access, which you can raise to edit afterwards.
4. Manage people in the same pane: the owner can change anyone's access or remove them at any time, even before they've joined.

From OpenAI's help, Projects in ChatGPT, read 6 November 2026 through the archived copy of 23 October, because help.openai.com refuses automated reads.

Why you can't share a ChatGPT project

What a shared project leaves out

• Each member's own setup. A shared project uses project-only memory and can't see a member's custom instructions, memories or chats outside the project, and it can't be switched back to default memory.
• Training settings, everyone's. On personal accounts, OpenAI may use shared project data to improve its models only when the owner and every contributor have Improve the model for everyone on. By default it doesn't train on Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace content.
• One chat, shared by link, shows that chat only: not the project's other chats, files or instructions.

A worked example: the wedding-fair project four planners share

Illustration: a made-up business. Harbourside Events plans weddings on ChatGPT Business. The lead planner, Mara, creates a "Spring wedding fair" project, adds the vendor list and the floor plan, and invites three planners with chat access. Their first vendor emails come out in three different voices: one planner's own custom instructions say "British English, short sentences", and the shared project can't see them. So Mara gives the context-engineering-brief skill this:

A project for Harbourside's four planners working on the spring wedding fair at the Old Mill: vendor emails and run-sheet entries. Sources: the vendor list (prices, contacts) and the floor plan. British English, short sentences. Never confirm a price or a date the vendor list doesn't show. Mara approves anything over budget.

The skill's answer begins:

# Spring wedding fair assistant — instructions

## Role and goal
You draft vendor emails and run-sheet entries for Harbourside's planners on the spring wedding fair at the Old Mill. A good draft can go to the vendor after one read, and commits Harbourside only to what the vendor list shows.

## Audience and tone
- Audience: florists, caterers and venue staff, most reading on a phone
- Tone: British English, short sentences — e.g., "Could you confirm your load-in time for Saturday?"

## You can
- Draft vendor emails and run-sheet entries

## You can't (and what to do instead)
- Confirm a price or a date the vendor list doesn't show → write "[check with Mara]" and stop

Mara pastes it into the project's instructions, which every chat in the project starts from. Two months later the autumn fair needs the same rules in a new project, and that's the cue for the next step.

AI Skill Pod is this site's product. Pod pricing: Free up to 3 members and 10 skills; Team $5 per seat a month from 3 seats.

Next step: the team's rules outside one project

Project instructions live in that one project. When the same rules apply across projects, or a colleague works in Claude or Cursor, put them in a shared pod once, and each person uses them in their own Claude, ChatGPT (Pro, Business, Enterprise) or Cursor: share AI skills with your team. What else goes in a project is in ChatGPT Projects explained.

Questions

Can you share ChatGPT projects?

Yes. OpenAI lists project sharing on Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu, on the web and in the mobile apps. Select Share in the project and invite people with chat or edit access, or have the owner switch it to Anyone with a link.

Can I share a ChatGPT project for free?

Yes. On the Free plan a shared project can have up to 5 collaborators and 5 files. The limits come from the owner's plan and rise to 100 collaborators and 40 files on Pro and in Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces.

Why can't I share my ChatGPT project?

Usually one of four things: your workspace limits invitations to its members or turns project sharing off for your role, you have chat access, which can't invite, only the owner can open the link to anyone, or the project has reached the collaborator limit of the owner's plan.

Do people in a shared project see my custom instructions or memories?

No. A shared project is set to project-only memory and can't see any member's custom instructions, memories or chats outside the project, so anything the whole team needs goes in the project's own instructions.