OpenAI is finally merging ChatGPT’s chat and Work tabs

The rollout will begin narrowly. OpenAI said the merged experience will first reach select users for feedback before a wider release, though the email did not specify a timeline for either phase. The company framed the merge as a workflow change rather than a cosmetic one, describing a path from exploring an idea to having ChatGPT execute on it within a single surface.

The email detailed what the unified view is meant to hold: users can attach files and plugins and ask ChatGPT to build a website, create a presentation, or take actions on the web, while staying in a position to review and guide the agent's work as it proceeds. Codex, OpenAI's coding-focused product, will not be folded in — the company stated Codex will remain a separate experience within the ChatGPT desktop app.

The most consequential part of the change may be the accounting behind it. OpenAI said that with this transition, ChatGPT and Codex will draw tokens from the same allowance pool. The company said the shift should not affect most users, but acknowledged that for some, depending on usage and the model in play, waits for resets could become more frequent — meaning heavier Codex or ChatGPT use could now consume budget the other would otherwise retain.

OpenAI is not alone in converging its interfaces. Anthropic merged Claude's chat and Cowork functions onto one screen in September, giving the industry two major assistants pushing toward a single canvas that mixes conversation with delegated work.

Several details remain open: how the shared allowance pool will be structured across models, whether usage-based pricing changes accompany the merge, and whether Codex's separate placement holds long term or eventually folds in as well. The answers will matter for builders who plan workloads around token allowances and for teams watching whether a unified chat-plus-agent surface becomes the default shape for assistant software.