ChatGPT’s Chrome extension takes over tabs and handles tasks on its own

OpenAI announced on October 15, 2026 that the ChatGPT Chrome extension had received a major update. The extension now gathers information by looking at the user’s open tabs, can control tabs to complete tasks, and can organize tab groups. The company shared the announcement on its X account, saying it was bringing “computer use capability to everyone who uses Chrome.” The Chrome Web Store listing shows the extension has 7 million users.

Chat answers questions, Work gets things done

According to OpenAI, in Chat mode the assistant scans information in open tabs to make the answer more useful. In Work mode, designed for longer and more complex tasks, ChatGPT can take over tabs and perform steps such as sending messages, filling out forms, and downloading files. It can also group and organize open tabs by topic. While working alongside the site in the browser, the user can access their entire ChatGPT history.

The example prompts OpenAI shared show the practical side of the feature. You can ask the assistant to compare chairs across three separate tabs by size, material, delivery time, and return conditions, explain the main argument of an article in plain language, compare pricing pages against specified requirements, or fill out a registration form using event details and stop at the submit step.

Permissions are asked site by site

The extension can read and act on sites where the user is signed in; OpenAI’s documentation lists LinkedIn, Salesforce, Gmail, and internal company tools as examples. The default behavior is to ask for permission for each new site. The user can choose one of the options “allow once,” “allow this site,” “allow all sites,” or “deny”; allow and block lists are shared across supported browsers. OpenAI’s documentation marks “allow all sites” and access to browser history as high risk, noting that history access is asked separately for each request and cannot be granted permanently.

On Chrome’s installation screen, the extension may show permissions such as reading and changing data on all sites, cross-device browsing history, bookmarks, downloads, notifications, tab groups, and debugger access. OpenAI says it does not keep a separate, complete log of browser actions, and activity is stored only when it enters the ChatGPT context. The documentation also recommends treating page content as untrusted and not sending sensitive information in browser tasks unless required.

The extension replaces the Atlas browser

This update continues the shift in OpenAI’s browser strategy. The company announced on July 9, 2026 that it would retire the Atlas browser, and the browser stopped working on August 9, 2026. Users were directed to the ChatGPT extension or side panel for help in Chrome. Release notes from August 31 said the extension had been expanded to Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. OpenAI said the new version is available on all ChatGPT plans and can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.

Source: Unite.AI