ChatGPT's Temporary Chat feature gets upgrade to retain personalization without saving history

ChatGPT's Version of Incognito Mode May Soon Remember Who You Are

With over a decade of experience reporting on consumer technology, James covers mobile phones, apps, operating systems, wearables, AI, and more. Temporary Chat on ChatGPT may soon be easier to use than ever before. The feature works similarly to Incognito Mode in Google Chrome or private browsing features in Edge, Firefox, or Safari, creating a session that won't record your history or affect future recommendations. ChatGPT's current version starts afresh, without any of your personalization changes or search history influencing its responses. A new toggle, spotted by AI engineer Tibor Blaho and shared on X, lets you enable the Personalize replies feature in a Temporary Chat. Blaho's post was first reported by Bleeping Computer. The feature doesn't appear to be available to everyone, with PCMag unable to access it at the time of writing. Blaho refers to it as a "currently hidden option," but it's unclear whether Blaho has access as part of a test or whether it was activated through other means. If you turn the feature's toggle on, it uses ChatGPT features such as memories, history, and your style and tone preferences in the private results. This lets you get similar responses from ChatGPT without it recording what you're searching for, which is helpful when you want to prevent your search from affecting its history. The way the feature currently works means you revert to a basic version of the chatbot in a Temporary Chat, which lacks the personal touch you may have spent years building with OpenAI's tools. The brand says it will retain messages for up to 30 days. However, OpenAI says this data isn't used for training, and it also warns that third-party GPT tools may also keep data for longer. OpenAI says, "If the GPT has actions, data sent to third parties through those actions is subject to the recipient's privacy policy. That means the recipient may keep that data for longer than 30 days and may use it for other purposes." Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

ChatGPT Temporary chat feature is getting a much-needed upgrade

OpenAI is testing a big upgrade for ChatGPT's temporary chat feature. The update will allow you to retain personalization in temporary chat, and still block temporary chat from influencing your account. For those unaware, Temporary Chat in ChatGPT is a mode where you start with a fresh slate. In this chat, ChatGPT won't use or reference your past conversations or any saved memories, even if you normally have memory turned on. It will still follow your Custom Instructions if those are enabled, but the conversation itself is treated as "don't remember this." Temporary Chats also won't show up in your chat history, and they won't be used to improve the models. As spotted on X, after a new update, ChatGPT's temporary chat now retains personalization (memory, chat history, style, and tone preferences). The chat remains temporary, but it will now have access to your personalization, and it can be turned off. For safety reasons, OpenAI may still keep a copy of the chat for up to 30 days. To start one, open a new chat and click the pill-shaped "Temporary" button in the top-right corner. More recently, OpenAI rolled out the ChatGPT Age prediction model to identify a user's age based on their chat pattern, conversation behaviour, among other factors. OpenAI warns that its AI model is not perfect, so it may detect that some adult users are teenagers and restrict their accounts. At the same time, it might be tricked by teenagers with adult behavior. Restricted accounts can still learn, create, and ask questions, but you won't be able to interact on topics like violence, gore, viral challenges on TikTok-like platforms, etc. If incorrectly restricted, adult users can verify their age to unlock the full GPT experience.

ChatGPT has a new hidden Temporary Chats setting

AI engineer Tibor Blaho discovered the optional feature, though OpenAI may still store chat copies for up to 30 days for security purposes. OpenAI is testing an update to ChatGPT's "Temporary Chat" feature. Temporary Chat allows you to "have a conversation with a blank slate" where "ChatGPT won't be aware of previous conversations or access memories." It's a lot like Incognito Mode in Chrome, which you can use to "privately" browse the web -- except here, it's chatting. The update to Temporary Chat will sort of tweak this, allowing ChatGPT to retain your personal customizations without the conversation itself being saved or affecting your overall account. This change was first discovered by AI engineer Tibor Blaho on social media, who found an undisclosed setting for it in the AI chatbot. He describes it as "a new, currently hidden option that lets you still use personalization (memory, chat history, style and tone preferences) even though the chat is only temporary." The new Temporary Chat setting will be optional (for now?) and can be disabled. It isn't yet available to all users. However, for security reasons, OpenAI may store copies of your chats for up to 30 days.