OpenAI is once again enhancing ChatGPT’s memory capabilities.
According to a recent changelog and support documentation posted on OpenAI’s website, a new feature called “Memory with Search” has been introduced. This feature enables ChatGPT to use personalized details — like a user’s preferences or past conversations — to refine web search queries, making them more relevant and tailored.This update follows a previous improvement that allowed ChatGPT to reference an entire chat history. Both upgrades appear to be part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to make ChatGPT stand out from competing AI models, such as Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, which also includes memory features.
Here’s how it works: when Memory with Search is turned on and a user submits a query requiring online information, ChatGPT can enhance that query by incorporating related details from its memory. For example, if it remembers a user is vegan and based in San Francisco, a general question like “what are some restaurants near me that I’d like” might automatically be rephrased as “good vegan restaurants, San Francisco.”Users can turn off this feature by disabling the Memory option in the settings menu. It’s still unclear how widely available this feature is, though some users on X have reported seeing it as early as this week.
