ChatGPT Shared Links: What Others See and How to Delete

A ChatGPT shared link lets someone else view a conversation without signing into your account. To create one, open the conversation, select Share, and choose Create link or Copy link. To remove access later, go to Settings > Data controls > Shared links > Manage and delete the individual link.

The important part is what the link does not do. It does not give anyone your password or account access, but it also is not private in the way a private message is private:

A link does not provide access to the creator’s account, but anyone permitted to open it can view its shared content.

Source: OpenAI, Sharing conversations and scheduled tasks in ChatGPT, checked November 5, 2026. The page was updated about two weeks before that check.

This guide covers who can actually open a link, what is visible inside it, why deleting a link does not undo everything, and how to clean up before closing an account. Menus change between versions, so use the labels shown on your own account.

Two kinds of links, two different URLs

OpenAI now documents sharing for both conversations and scheduled tasks, and they are not the same thing.

Shared links let people view a ChatGPT conversation or an eligible scheduled task.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

A shared conversation can include the conversation history, a single assistant response, supported images, or uploaded files, depending on what the sharing experience allows. You can sometimes share just one response instead of a whole thread. A response that is still generating may not appear until it finishes, which is one reason OpenAI says to review the full preview before sending anything.

A shared scheduled task is different. Its link includes the task title, the full instructions, the schedule, and the original time zone, and may preserve a mode or model where available. Active or paused tasks can be shared, including event-triggered ones; completed tasks cannot be newly shared. A recipient has to sign in before scheduling a shared task, and needs their own task capacity and any required workspace or connected-app permissions.

You can tell them apart by the address:

Shared conversation links begin with https://chatgpt.com/share/. Shared scheduled task links begin with https://chatgpt.com/s/.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

That distinction is also a safety check. OpenAI advises confirming that a link uses the chatgpt.com domain and comes from a trusted sender before opening it. A lookalike domain is a reason to stop, not to click through.

Who can open your link depends on your account type

This is the single biggest difference in how sharing behaves, and it is easy to miss.

For a personal account:

Anyone who has a link created from a personal account can view the shared conversation or scheduled task.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

There is no per-person access list. OpenAI’s FAQ is explicit that shared links do not offer recipient-by-recipient access controls, and that personal-account links are available to anyone who has the link. If you send it to one colleague and they forward it to a group, everyone in that group can open it.

For a managed workspace — ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, or ChatGPT for Healthcare — a link can be opened only by eligible members of the same workspace. People outside the workspace cannot view it. A link created in a workspace stays restricted to that workspace.

There is one asymmetric detail worth knowing: a Business or Enterprise member can view a public scheduled task shared from a personal account, but cannot schedule it inside their workspace. Whether they can open personal-account conversation links at all depends on workspace settings.

Enterprise and Edu admins can also turn sharing off for the whole workspace through Workspace settings > Permissions & roles, using Share chats and scheduled tasks in the workspace. ChatGPT Business does not offer that same workspace-wide switch.

What viewers see — and what they do not

The reassuring part first. Shared conversation links are anonymous by default, and a shared task does not carry your profile name, chat history, previous task results, saved memories, custom instructions, uploaded or local files, connected-app data, or connected-app credentials. Recipients use their own account and permissions.

Shared conversation links are anonymous by default. Some existing or older sharing experiences may display the creator’s name, so review the preview before sending a link.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

“By default” is doing real work in that sentence. Older sharing experiences may show your name, so the preview is the only reliable check. This also means Custom Instructions and Memory are not exposed to people holding a link — a common worry, and one OpenAI answers directly.

Now the part that should make you pause. Supported images and uploaded files can appear in a shared conversation. Names or personal information typed into the conversation, a task title, or task instructions can be visible too, and a task title may show up in a link preview. OpenAI’s instruction is blunt:

Do not include health information, financial details, passwords, account numbers, or other sensitive personal information in shared content.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

So the risk is not “someone will see my settings.” It is “someone will see exactly what I pasted into that chat.” Before sharing, scroll the entire conversation, not just the last answer. A chat that starts with an innocent question and ends with a pasted bank statement is not safe to share wholesale. If you only need to show one answer, use the option to share an individual response where it is available.

For a broader review of what to keep out of AI tools in the first place, see Is ChatGPT Safe? A Beginner Guide to Data and Privacy.

Is the link a snapshot or a live view?

Another difference between account types that surprises people.

A personal-account conversation link includes the content available when the link is created or updated. Messages added later are not included automatically.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

For a personal account, the link is a snapshot. If you keep chatting after creating it, viewers see the old version until you deliberately update the link. To refresh it, open the conversation, select Share, and choose Update link.

Workspace conversation links behave differently: they can include messages added after sharing, and OpenAI says to review the sharing notice before adding new information to a shared workspace conversation. In other words, in a managed workspace, assume the thread you are still typing into may already be visible to link holders.

Shared scheduled tasks are snapshots too. Selecting Copy link again refreshes the snapshot at the same URL, but does not change a task someone else has already scheduled.

Locking a chat does not remove its link

This one is a genuine trap. People who want to stop sharing often lock the chat instead of deleting the link, and the link keeps working.

Locking a chat does not delete an existing shared link. People who can open the link can still view its previously shared content, but new messages sent while the chat is locked are not added. Delete the link separately to stop access to its shared content.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

To create a new shared link from a locked chat, you have to permanently unlock it first. Locking is a control over new content, not an off switch for existing access.

How to create and update a shared link

To share a conversation:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Select Share.
3. Review the conversation and the available sharing options.
4. Select Create link or Copy link, whichever appears.
5. Send the link to the person you intend.

On mobile, ChatGPT may open the device share sheet; available destinations depend on the device and browser. OpenAI also notes that a new link can take a short time to become available — if someone opens it immediately and sees a loading state, wait briefly and try again. You can also use the sharing option in the sidebar or on an individual response where available.

To share a scheduled task:

1. Go to Scheduled.
2. Open the task’s more-options menu (•••).
3. Select Share.
4. Review the details in Share task.
5. Select Copy link and send it.

To update a personal-account conversation link, use Share > Update link. To refresh a shared task, open it in Scheduled, select Share, and select Copy link again — the URL stays the same.

How to find and delete shared links

You cannot manage links from inside the conversation. The list lives in settings:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Select Data controls.
3. For Shared links, select Manage.

The list includes both shared conversation links and shared scheduled task links. From there, select Delete shared link on an individual item. To remove everything at once, open More actions and select Delete all shared links. For a task, the creator can also open the original task’s Share task dialog, select the trash-can icon next to the link, and choose Delete share.

There is no expiry setting to fall back on. OpenAI’s FAQ says shared links do not have configurable expiration dates, and its advice is to delete a link when access is no longer needed. If you treat a shared link as temporary, you have to make it temporary yourself.

What deleting a link does not undo

Deleting a link closes the door going forward. It does not collect the copies already outside.

Deleting a shared link stops future access to that link but does not delete the original conversation or task. It also does not remove a conversation or task another person already saved.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

Two things are happening here. First, someone who opened a shared conversation and chose to continue it now has a separate, private conversation in their own account — deleting your link does not touch it. Likewise, someone who scheduled a shared task has their own task using their own account and app connections. Second, as the FAQ notes, anyone who can access a link can forward it; if they saved the URL or the content before you deleted it, that copy is beyond your control.

So the order of operations matters: review the content before sharing, because after the fact you are limiting access, not recalling information. If something sensitive did go out, deleting the link is the right first step, but it is not the same as a fix.

Deleting the original conversation or task

These behave differently from each other, which is worth knowing if you are cleaning up.

Deleting a conversation removes its shared conversation link. But if that conversation had an associated scheduled task, the task pauses while its shared task link remains available — you have to delete the task link separately.

Deleting the original scheduled task removes its shared task link. Copies already saved by other people remain in their accounts either way.

If a conversation seems to have disappeared from your sidebar but you did not delete it, check archived chats before assuming the worst — archiving and deleting are not the same action.

Before you delete your ChatGPT account

OpenAI gives one specific instruction here, and it is about task links rather than conversation links.

Shared conversation links are deleted when their creator deletes the account. Shared scheduled task links are not covered by that — OpenAI says to delete them from the original tasks or from Shared links in Data controls before deleting the account. Copies saved by other people remain in their accounts.

That is one more item on the pre-deletion checklist, alongside downloading an export of your data and canceling any store-billed subscription. The full walkthrough is in How to Delete Your ChatGPT Account.

Do shared links show up in Google?

Not by design, but do not read that as privacy.

Shared link pages are not intended for search-engine indexing, but this does not make a link private. Anyone who can access a link can also forward it.

Source: same page, checked November 5, 2026.

The practical risk is not a stranger finding you through a search engine. It is a link pasted into a public Slack channel, a forum post, a forwarded message, or a screenshot. Treat the URL itself as the secret.

Two other common questions: changing Improve the model for everyone does not delete existing shared links or change who can open them, and a link can be reported. For a shared conversation, look for Report conversation; for a shared task, Report. If no in-product option appears, OpenAI points to its content reporting form.

What a data export records about sharing

A personal-account data export includes shared conversation metadata in a file called shared_conversations.json. Each record contains the shared-link ID, conversation ID, title, and anonymity setting. Scheduled tasks, shared task links, and their saved snapshots are not currently included in personal-account exports. Data export is not available from a ChatGPT Business workspace.

That is useful if you are auditing what you have shared: the export gives you a list of links, not the shared pages themselves. See How to Export Your ChatGPT Data for the request steps and the 24-hour download window.

Enterprise readers should note that the Compliance API includes underlying scheduled tasks, but not shared task links or their saved snapshots. If you are in a managed workspace, your administrator is the right person to ask.

A short checklist before you share anything

1. Scroll the whole conversation, including earlier prompts and any uploaded files.
2. Remove health, financial, password, and account details from anything you plan to share.
3. Share a single response instead of the full thread when that option is available.
4. Read the preview, and check whether your name appears.
5. Confirm whether you are on a personal account (anyone with the link) or a workspace (members only).
6. Send the link only to the intended people, and assume it can be forwarded.
7. Delete the link when it is no longer needed — there is no automatic expiry.

Questions beginners often ask

Can I limit a shared link to one specific person?

No. Shared links do not offer recipient-by-recipient access controls. A personal-account link works for anyone who has it; a workspace link works for eligible members of that workspace.

Can I set a shared link to expire?

No. OpenAI says shared links do not have configurable expiration dates. Delete the link from Settings > Data controls > Shared links > Manage when you are done with it.

Will people see my Memory or Custom Instructions?

No. OpenAI states that a shared scheduled task does not include saved memories or custom instructions, and its guidance elsewhere confirms custom instructions are not shared with link viewers. What is visible is the conversation content itself, including names or details you typed and any supported images or uploaded files.

If I lock the chat, does the link stop working?

No. Locking does not delete an existing shared link; viewers can still see previously shared content. Delete the link separately.

Does deleting the link delete what the other person saved?

No. Continuing a shared conversation creates a separate private conversation in the recipient’s account, and deleting your link does not remove it. The same applies to tasks other people scheduled.

Will my shared links appear in Google search results?

Shared link pages are not intended for indexing, but OpenAI explicitly says that does not make them private. A forwarded link is still accessible.

The one habit that matters most

Sharing a ChatGPT conversation is closer to publishing a small web page than to sending a private message. The link has no password, no recipient list, and no timer. It stops working only when you delete it, and even then it does not recall what someone already saved.

Read the preview, share the smallest useful piece, and clean up afterward. Those three steps cover almost every problem in this guide.