Have you ever wanted to ask ChatGPT something mid-task, only to realize you would have to walk it through everything that led up to that point? On August 13 (US time), OpenAI added Computer History to the ChatGPT desktop app, a feature that keeps a timeline of what you do across apps and websites. It is macOS-only for now, off by default, and available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers.
It Records Interaction Events, Not Your Screen
Computer History builds a chronological record of which apps you used and which websites you had open. The key detail is what it does not do: it takes no screenshots and captures no audio through the microphone. What gets stored are interaction events, not the contents of what was displayed on screen.
Two products can share the same premise of handing your computer activity to an AI and still feel very different depending on what they capture. For anyone who was uneasy about a system recording the screen itself, the narrower granularity here is the deciding factor.
Both ChatGPT and Codex Can Read It
The stored history is available to Codex as well as ChatGPT. OpenAI lists four uses: asking about work you just finished, picking up a task you had set aside, understanding your own work patterns, and turning workflows you repeat into skills or automations.
The point is to cut down on re-explaining context at the start of every conversation, and to hand the machine a readable version of a workflow that until now lived only in your head. Putting automation of repetitive work at the end of that list signals ambitions beyond simple context assistance.
Off by Default, With Exclusions and a Pause Switch
Computer History ships disabled, and each user has to turn it on. Once enabled, the menu bar lets you delete history, name apps and sites that should be excluded from recording, and pause or resume logging.
Given the kinds of information handled on a work machine, an all-or-nothing switch would be hard to adopt. Shipping the exclusion list and the pause control from day one is a practical choice for anyone deploying this in a real workplace.
A Replacement for the Chronicle Research Preview
OpenAI previously offered a similar capability as a research preview called Chronicle, which relied on screenshots and continuously captured what was on screen. Computer History drops that approach and limits itself to logging interaction events. In effect, an experimental release has been narrowed in scope and turned into a shipping feature.
Plans Covered and What Comes Next
The feature is available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers, and there is no announced timeline for Windows or any platform other than macOS. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland should receive it over the next few weeks.
The macOS-only limit likely comes down to the need to continuously read system-level interaction events. Building the equivalent on Windows requires separate engineering work, so a quick port is not a given.
Summary
Computer History, newly added to the ChatGPT desktop app, keeps a timeline of activity across apps and websites and makes it available to both ChatGPT and Codex. It logs interaction events rather than screenshots or audio, ships off by default, and includes exclusions and a pause control. It covers Pro, Business, and Enterprise on macOS. Designed as a stepping stone toward automating repetitive work, its value will hinge on how much of the constant re-explaining it actually removes.
