ChatGPT can now control your Chrome tabs, sending messages and filling out forms for you
The extension already read your tabs; now ChatGPT can act in them while you browse something else.
On October 15, 2026, OpenAI gave ChatGPT's Chrome extension the power to act inside your browser tabs. In Work mode, ChatGPT can now control them to send messages, fill out forms and download files for you.
The news came from ChatGPT's own account on X, a little after 4 pm Eastern.
A few big upgrades for Chrome users today! We’re bringing the power of computer use to anyone who uses Chrome. First up: ChatGPT can now use your tabs in Chrome to make answers more useful and get things done for you. If you’re in Chat, it can look across your open tabs and gather info. If you’re in Work, ChatGPT can control your Chrome tabs to get things, like sending messages, filling out forms, or downloading files. It can even help you organize and group that pile of tabs you have open.
What's new, and what isn't
Reading your tabs isn't the new part. Back on July 30, the same account said Side Chat in the extension could already reference open tabs.
Good news for anyone with too many tabs: ChatGPT is getting better around the web. 🧩 Chrome extension: In Side Chat, ask about a YouTube video, reference your open tabs, or highlight text on a page and ask away. 💻 Desktop app: Get URL suggestions as you type, revisit your browser history, and choose how it’s managed. Rolling out today.
The change is the doing. In Chat, ChatGPT looks across your tabs and gathers information. In Work, it acts in them, and the extension's store listing says it works in the background without taking over the session you're using.
- Users
- 7,000,000
- Rating
- 2.4 out of 5, from 915 ratings
- Updated
- October 15, 2026
- Developer
- OpenAI
What it can see
OpenAI's data disclosure on the Chrome Web Store listing runs to nine kinds of data, from personal communications and web history to health and payment information. It's a long list for an extension, but it's what you'd expect from something that reads whatever page you have open.
Permission is where the listing draws its line:
ChatGPT will always ask for your permission when referencing your browser history and downloading/uploading files so you stay in control.
That covers history and files. Neither the listing nor the post says whether ChatGPT checks with you before it sends a message or submits a form. I'd try it on something low-stakes before pointing it at your inbox.
The listing says the extension also runs in other Chromium-based browsers, Edge and Brave among them. Its 915 ratings average 2.4 out of 5 (the store warns they may not reflect the most recent reviews), and OpenAI last updated it on October 15.
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- Eight states sue OpenAI, saying it sold ChatGPT to parents as safe for childrenOctober 15, 2026
- OpenAI says an ex-employee sent himself device files, then presented its plans to AppleOctober 14, 2026
- OpenAI says the FBI arrested an employee who hid a recording device in its officesOctober 13, 2026