OpenAI is retiring group chats in ChatGPT, a collaborative feature that let up to 20 users brainstorm alongside the AI in a shared conversation. The retirement process kicks off on July 9, 2026, roughly eight months after the feature first went live. Starting July 9, users won’t be able to create new group chats or add participants to existing ones, and current group conversations will shift into a read-only format. Individual ChatGPT conversations remain completely untouched. The group chats feature originally launched as a pilot on November 13, 2025, in a handful of markets including Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, and by November 20, it had rolled out globally. OpenAI framed the decision as part of its broader effort to simplify the user experience, noting that insights from the pilot will inform future collaborative features.