# ChatGPT Work, cloud vs desktop: what it can operate and what each plan allows

> ChatGPT Work replaced agent mode, and it runs in two places. On the web and your phone it uses a cloud computer. In the desktop app, Computer Use operates your own Mac or Windows PC: a Mac can work in the background, while Windows takes over the pointer. Work shares one allowance with Codex. Free and Go have Work in the desktop app only.

Mindket editors · Published 2026-11-08 · Updated 2026-11-08 · https://mindket.com/blog/chatgpt-work-computer-use

## In short

- Check ChatGPT's Scheduled list for any recurring jobs you had in agent mode, and rebuild the ones that are missing.
- On Windows, start Computer Use only when you can leave the PC alone until the task ends.
- Before a long screen task, check how much usage is left: the task draws on the same allowance as Codex.
- Choose Pro for a dot or to drop the five-hour limit, and Plus otherwise.

## ChatGPT agent mode is gone, and Work took its place

Agent mode is gone. OpenAI's help page now reads [ChatGPT agent is no longer available](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11752874-chatgpt-agent), and [a guide that checked it on 26 October](https://omidsaffari.com/blog/chatgpt-agent-retired) found no retirement date on it. The page points to two replacements. ChatGPT Work, which launched in July, takes the longer multi-step jobs and the finished files. The cloud browser inside Work handles supported website workflows.

The Atlas browser is closed as well. OpenAI [sent its users](https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/04/openai-explains-what-will-happen-when-chatgpt-atlas-shuts-down-this-weekend/) to the built-in browser in the new desktop app, and to the Chrome extension for any task that needs an existing Chrome profile, a signed-in session or open tabs.

Long documents and multi-step errands go to Work. Browser tasks split three ways. The built-in browser keeps a profile of its own, the cloud browser runs on a separate computer, and the extension uses the browser you already sign in to.

**ChatGPT's agent in 2026**

1. **July 9, 2026** ChatGPT Work launches. Pro, Enterprise and Edu get it first on web and mobile, and Plus and Business follow over the next days.
2. **August 9, 2026** Atlas stops working. The desktop app's built-in browser and the Chrome extension take over its jobs.
3. **August 11, 2026** Linux preview. The desktop app reaches Linux with Work and Codex, and without Computer Use.
4. **September 29, 2026** Dots launch. Always-on agents with a cloud computer of their own, for Pro and Business Premium.

Sources: [The Next Web: OpenAI launches ChatGPT Work](https://thenextweb.com/news/openai-chatgpt-work-agent-launch) (read 2026-11-08), [9to5Mac: what happens when ChatGPT Atlas shuts down](https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/04/openai-explains-what-will-happen-when-chatgpt-atlas-shuts-down-this-weekend/) (read 2026-11-08), [The Decoder: ChatGPT desktop app for Linux](https://the-decoder.com/openai-launches-chatgpt-desktop-app-for-linux/) (read 2026-11-08), [SiliconANGLE: OpenAI launches dots](https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots-always-on-ai-agents-in-chatgpt-with-their-own-cloud-computers/) (read 2026-11-08)

## The cloud computer and your own: where Work runs

Work runs in two kinds of place. On the web and on your phone it uses a computer in OpenAI's cloud, which [VentureBeat describes](https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-introduces-chatgpt-work-a-cloud-based-ai-agent-that-manages-tasks-across-email-slack-and-calendars) as a persistent virtual machine on OpenAI's servers, reachable from whichever device you're on. Its browser is separate from yours. [OpenAI's Work overview](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-overview) says the cloud browser can't see your local tabs, extensions, browsing history or saved passwords, and a cloud environment doesn't inherit your computer's files or apps.

Logins are the awkward part. Since late August, eligible plans can [continue a task that needs a website account](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new) from the web, iOS or Android, and Enterprise and Edu workspaces don't get that sign-in. Some sites block cloud browsers or ask for extra verification anyway.

On the desktop you choose. Pick Work and select Work locally before you send, and ChatGPT can use the apps and files on your own machine through Computer Use, as [OpenAI's walkthrough](https://developers.openai.com/training/walkthroughs/using-your-computer-and-browser) puts it. The two can also work together. With local computer access turned on for Work Cloud, the cloud coordinates the task and calls your connected computer for the steps that need it. That computer [must be online and connected](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-local-security) for those steps.

**What each way of running Work can reach, by OpenAI's own pages on 8 November 2026**

| | Cloud computer | Desktop, Mac | Desktop, Windows | Chrome extension |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Operates desktop apps | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Can use your signed-in browser sessions | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Keeps working while you use your computer | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Needs your computer on and connected | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Where it is offered | Paid plans, supported regions | Supported regions | Supported regions | Rollout and workspace settings |

Sources: [OpenAI docs: Computer Use](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/computer-use) (read 2026-11-08), [OpenAI docs: ChatGPT Work overview](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-overview) (read 2026-11-08), [OpenAI docs: browser extension](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/chrome-extension) (read 2026-11-08), [OpenAI docs: what's new](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new) (read 2026-11-08), [ChatGPT pricing page](https://chatgpt.com/pricing) (read 2026-11-08)

> The extension's page names no plan, so its last row says only what the page says.

## On your desktop: how Computer Use starts and stops

You start a task by naming what ChatGPT should drive. Type @ in a Work or Codex chat and choose Computer for desktop apps, or name a single app, and describe the exact app, window or flow in the prompt, as [OpenAI's Computer Use page](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/computer-use) asks. The first time, you switch it on under Settings, then Computer use. On a Mac that also means granting Screen Recording, so ChatGPT can see the app, and Accessibility, so it can click and type. ChatGPT then asks before it uses each app, and Always allow remembers the ones you trust.

Mac and Windows part ways on background work. On a Mac, [supported tasks can run in the background](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-local-security), and an opt-in locked use mode keeps approved tasks going after the Mac locks. Windows has no background mode. ChatGPT works on the active, visible desktop, moves the pointer, types and takes the foreground until the task ends. For an unattended Windows run, OpenAI suggests keeping the PC awake and connected, controlling it remotely from your phone, or running the desktop app in a Windows virtual machine. On a laptop you also work on, we'd pick the Mac arrangement, because a Windows task claims the machine.

OpenAI says you can stop the task or take over your computer at any time, and to cancel if ChatGPT starts interacting with the wrong window. The docs name no button or shortcut for either. The one rule about your own input is for locked use: if ChatGPT detects local keyboard or pointer input, it relocks the Mac.

Computer Use can't automate terminal apps or ChatGPT itself. It also can't authenticate as an administrator or approve your system's security and privacy prompts, so those wait for you.

Linux got its own desktop app in preview on 11 August, for Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. It carries Work, Codex, the built-in browser and extension support, but [Computer Use isn't available in the preview yet](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new), so it can't operate other apps on a Linux desktop. [The Decoder's report](https://the-decoder.com/openai-launches-chatgpt-desktop-app-for-linux/) gives no date for it.

## The Chrome extension, for sites you're signed in to

The extension covers the web side of your desktop. It lets ChatGPT read or act on sites where you're already signed in, in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera or Vivaldi. OpenAI's changelog says it [can work across tabs in the background without taking over your browser](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new). To start, open a Work or Codex chat in the desktop app and pick the browser from the @ menu. [OpenAI's own example](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/chrome-extension) reads "@Edge open Salesforce and update the account from these call notes."

ChatGPT asks before it uses each new site. The answers are Allow once, Allow for this site, Allow for all sites or Decline, and the third switches the confirmations off. Side chat, a panel beside the page where you can mention open tabs, works in all of those browsers except Opera. The page names no plan or region and says only that availability can depend on rollout and workspace settings.

## One allowance, shared with Codex

Work has no task cap of its own. OpenAI's pricing docs say its usage [follows the same pricing, credits and limits as Codex](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing), the coding agent that merged into the same desktop app on 9 July. Local messages and cloud chats draw on one allowance, counted in five-hour windows, and weekly limits may apply as well. A long screen task spends what you'd otherwise spend on code, and a more complex task uses more of it.

OpenAI publishes estimates, and only for Plus and Standard Business seats. Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit. [The Decoder reported](https://the-decoder.com/openai-introduces-125-premium-seats-for-chatgpt-business-as-agentic-ai-burns-through-more-tokens/) in August that a Business Premium seat has five times a standard seat's usage with no five-hour limit. After the included usage runs out, Plus and Pro subscribers can buy credits, and Business, Edu and Enterprise workspaces on flexible pricing can buy workspace credits.

GPT-6.1 Terra, which [OpenAI describes](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-6.1-terra) as a fast model for visual reasoning and precise computer use, is in Work on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. On OpenAI's estimates it gets about twice Sol's range per window and several times Astra's.

| Model | Estimated local messages per five hours |
| --- | --- |
| GPT-6 Astra | 5 to 45 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | 15 to 160 |
| GPT-6.1 Terra | 35 to 285 |
| GPT-6 Sol | 15 to 150 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 350 to 3,000 |

> The web sidebar shows how much Work usage is left, on personal plans and on Business.

## What Free, Go, Plus, Pro and Business get

Every plan from Free up includes Work, in different amounts. Free and Go get a limited share, and only in the desktop app. Plus and Pro add the web and the phone. [OpenAI's cloud browser article](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001280-using-cloud-browser-in-chatgpt) says the cloud browser is for paid plans in supported regions, not Free or Go. Computer Use is marked as limited to specific regions on every plan, and the docs give no plan-by-plan list.

Plus is where we would start. Pro differs by the missing five-hour limit and by dots, and it costs several times as much, so it pays only if the five-hour window is what stops you or you want a dot. This table covers ChatGPT alone. [The comparison](https://mindket.com/blog/computer-use-agents-compared) puts Claude, Gemini and Copilot beside it.

| Plan | US price | ChatGPT Work | Also worth knowing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | Limited, in the desktop app only | The built-in browser is included. No dots |
| Go | $8 a month | Limited, in the desktop app only | The built-in browser is included. No dots |
| Plus | $20 a month | Desktop, web and mobile | The five-hour estimates above apply. No dots |
| Pro | $100, $200 or $500 a month | Desktop, web and mobile, with no five-hour limit | Dots, outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. Ultrafast speed on the $500 tier |
| Business | $20 per user a month billed yearly, $25 billed monthly | Work and Codex included | Premium seats are $100 yearly or $125 monthly per user, with five times the usage and a first dot |
| Enterprise and Edu | Contact sales | Work and Codex included | Admins can switch off Computer Use and the cloud browser. Dots are in eligible workspaces |

## Dots: an agent with a cloud computer of its own

OpenAI describes a dot as an always-on agent that keeps work moving and asks for your input when a decision needs you. It [lives in the cloud](https://learn.chatgpt.com/codex/dots) with its own computer and browser, so it keeps working when your computer is off. Dots are rolling out gradually to eligible Pro and Business Premium accounts.

Pro users need to be 18 or older and outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, on all three tiers. Free, Go and Plus have no dots. The first dot comes [at no added cost](https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots-always-on-ai-agents-in-chatgpt-with-their-own-cloud-computers/). Conversations with your dot don't count toward your usage limits, but the tasks it hands to Work or Codex do.

You create a dot in the mobile app, the desktop app or a desktop browser, though not on mobile web. The desktop app can also connect your computer, one personal computer at a time, and that computer must be online with the app open. Slack and Microsoft Teams reach a dot as well, and texting it through iMessage, or RCS on Android, is [a beta for US Pro users](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new).

You follow a dot in Activity View, where you can correct an instruction or [ask it to stop](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/dots-security). Pause halts its main task, delegated tasks stop in Activity, and recurring ones in Scheduled. Auto-review checks consequential actions before they run, and the dot can't turn off a required check.

> Your dot can make mistakes, and stopping a task doesn't undo actions it has already completed.
>
> OpenAI, ChatGPT documentation, [the dots page on learn.chatgpt.com](https://learn.chatgpt.com/codex/dots) (read 2026-11-08)

## What OpenAI's docs tell you to watch

Computer Use treats whatever is visible as input. OpenAI's page says visible app content, browser pages, screenshots and files opened in the target app are context ChatGPT may process, and its advice follows from that.

- Keep tasks narrow, and keep sensitive apps closed unless the task needs them.
- Avoid tasks that need secrets unless you're present to approve each step, and stay present for account, security, privacy, network, payment or credential settings.
- ChatGPT can act on pages where you are signed in, so review what it does as if you had done it yourself. OpenAI suggests a different browser if you want to keep using yours.
- Allowing a website doesn't approve every action on it: ChatGPT can ask separately before financial, legal, account or other consequential steps.
- Screenshots that Computer Use takes fall under your ChatGPT data controls.
- Work Cloud with local computer access doesn't provide strict zero data retention, and OpenAI's page says not to enable it if your organization requires that.

> Read from OpenAI's pages and the outlets in the sources on 8 November 2026. Nothing here was run.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does ChatGPT Computer Use work in the EU and the UK?

Yes, where it is offered. OpenAI's changelog says Computer Use and the Chrome extension began rolling out to the EEA, the UK and Switzerland in the week of 15 June. The pricing page still marks Computer Use as limited to specific regions, and dots for Pro leave all three out.

### What happened to my recurring agent mode tasks?

Don't assume they carried over. A guide that read OpenAI's help pages on 26 October says to open the Scheduled list in ChatGPT, or Settings, Notifications, Manage tasks, and rebuild what is missing. It adds that a task scheduled inside a Project can't use that Project's files.

### Can my company switch Computer Use off?

Yes. Admins can disable native Computer Use with the setting `features.computer_use = false`, and they can limit the in-app browser and plugins with separate controls. A user's approval can't override an administrator's denial.

### How much does an extra dot cost?

OpenAI hasn't published a price. SiliconANGLE reported on 29 September that the first dot comes with Pro and Business Premium at no added cost, and that extra agents are planned for later at undisclosed prices. The dots page lists none either.

### Did I lose my Atlas bookmarks?

Atlas bookmarks were never going to move on their own. OpenAI's help article, as 9to5Mac quoted it, said they would not transfer automatically, and people were told to export them before 9 August. Your ChatGPT conversation history is stored separately and stays in your account.

### Can I start a Work task on my computer and finish it on my phone?

Yes, for eligible tasks. OpenAI's changelog says you can start a synced Work task on desktop and continue it on web or mobile. With local computer access on Work Cloud, eligible tasks continue from any of the three. The computer still has to be online for the steps that run on it.

## Sources

- [OpenAI docs: Computer Use](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/computer-use) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: what's new](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/whats-new) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: ChatGPT Work and Codex usage and pricing](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing) (read 2026-11-08)
- [ChatGPT pricing page](https://chatgpt.com/pricing) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: browser extension](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/chrome-extension) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: ChatGPT Work overview](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-overview) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: local computer access and security for ChatGPT Work](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/chatgpt-work-local-security) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI: using your computer and browser with ChatGPT](https://developers.openai.com/training/walkthroughs/using-your-computer-and-browser) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: dots](https://learn.chatgpt.com/codex/dots) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI docs: dots security](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/dots-security) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI API docs: GPT-6.1 Terra](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/gpt-6.1-terra) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT agent](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11752874-chatgpt-agent) (read 2026-11-08)
- [OpenAI Help Center: using cloud browser in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001280-using-cloud-browser-in-chatgpt) (read 2026-11-08)
- [Omid Saffari: ChatGPT agent retired, what replaced it](https://omidsaffari.com/blog/chatgpt-agent-retired) (read 2026-11-08)
- [The Next Web: OpenAI launches ChatGPT Work](https://thenextweb.com/news/openai-chatgpt-work-agent-launch) (read 2026-11-08)
- [VentureBeat: OpenAI introduces ChatGPT Work, a cloud-based AI agent](https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-introduces-chatgpt-work-a-cloud-based-ai-agent-that-manages-tasks-across-email-slack-and-calendars) (read 2026-11-08)
- [9to5Mac: what happens when ChatGPT Atlas shuts down](https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/04/openai-explains-what-will-happen-when-chatgpt-atlas-shuts-down-this-weekend/) (read 2026-11-08)
- [SiliconANGLE: OpenAI launches dots, always-on agents in ChatGPT](https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots-always-on-ai-agents-in-chatgpt-with-their-own-cloud-computers/) (read 2026-11-08)
- [The Decoder: premium seats for ChatGPT Business](https://the-decoder.com/openai-introduces-125-premium-seats-for-chatgpt-business-as-agentic-ai-burns-through-more-tokens/) (read 2026-11-08)
- [The Decoder: ChatGPT desktop app for Linux](https://the-decoder.com/openai-launches-chatgpt-desktop-app-for-linux/) (read 2026-11-08)

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