OpenAI to merge ChatGPT's Chat and Work tabs and share one usage allowance with Codex

A combined Chat and Work view in testing

OpenAI has told users by email that it will test a single ChatGPT view that merges the Chat and Work tabs. The test begins in the weeks following 2 November 2026 with a small group of users, and wider access depends on the feedback they give. Once the merged experience reaches everyone, people will be able to hand a project from a conversation to ChatGPT, which can build a website, draft a presentation or carry out tasks on the web while they review its work. Codex keeps its own place in the desktop app, and OpenAI's email described the purpose this way:

“This will enable you to move from exploring an idea to having ChatGPT carry it through, all in one place.”

One allowance for ChatGPT and Codex

At present, Work and Codex share a usage allowance while ordinary chat models run on separate limits. From December 2026, ChatGPT and Codex will draw from the same allowance pool on the Plus, Pro and Business plans. Instant conversations stay outside that pool, but more demanding tasks consume more of it. OpenAI says most subscribers should not find themselves waiting for limits to reset more often than they do today, although the company has not disclosed how large the new allowances will be. For some users, research chats and Codex work could end up competing for the same resources.

ChatGPT Classic goes away

Users who opened the ChatGPT Classic app on 2 November 2026 saw a banner stating that it will retire on 30 January 2027. The regular ChatGPT app was renamed Classic after a newer desktop release placed ChatGPT, Work and Codex under one interface. The banner sends people to the ChatGPT downloads page for the current app and promises that full chat history moves with them. Earlier, the newer app had replaced a native macOS build with an Electron-based version and drew complaints about navigation that made it hard to tell ChatGPT, Work and Codex apart. The Classic app itself received little change and grew less reliable as newer models relied on features exclusive to the new app, such as choosing different reasoning effort levels.

Criticism and the wider market

OpenAI president Greg Brockman previously called the interface a mess and said the company wanted to remove the Work tab by the end of 2026, folding its functions into regular ChatGPT. Thibault Sottiaux of OpenAI said on X that the team is working on the change, which is not rolling out just yet. Anthropic merged Claude's chat and Cowork functions into one screen in September, according to TechCrunch. A TechRadar columnist argued that subscribers may grow irritated when a familiar service reorganises itself around customers with very different needs, noting that ordinary users rarely think about how many tokens a coding agent consumes.

Open questions

Several details remain unannounced. OpenAI has not published the size of the new allowances, so the company's claim that most subscribers will not notice more frequent resets cannot yet be checked. The sources give no size for the test group and no date for the wider release of the combined view. Codex is set to stay a separate experience for now. The only firm date in the announcements is 30 January 2027, when the ChatGPT Classic app is retired.