OpenAI has opened up ChatGPT’s task scheduling to free accounts since August 25, 2026: up to three recurring reminders or one-time tasks can now be set up without a subscription. Until now, the feature was reserved for paying customers only. Anyone who needs to track deadlines, reports, or incoming mail every day can skip the manual calendar entry.
ChatGPT now handles scheduling in the free account, too
The new feature is called “Tasks” at OpenAI and works like a memory-equipped alarm clock: once you describe to ChatGPT what should happen and when, the AI takes care of it from then on. A dedicated area in the sidebar shows all active tasks, their next run, and options to pause, edit, or delete them.
In the free account, up to three such tasks can be active at once, either as a one-time job or as a repeat running at most once a day. Paid plans allow for much more: the entry-level Go plan also gets three tasks, Plus gets five, Business and Edu get ten, and Pro and Enterprise get fifteen simultaneous tasks. Only paying customers can also set a task to trigger not just at a fixed time but through an event – a new email in Gmail, a message in Slack, or a change in a GitHub project. In the free account, it stays purely time-based.
How office staff can set up a first task
An example from everyday office work shows the benefit: an assistant wants a short overview of open customer inquiries from the inbox every Monday morning, without having to remember to check. Instead of a personal calendar entry, one instruction to ChatGPT is enough, and it then repeats automatically from there.
- Open ChatGPT and select the tool icon or the “Schedule task” menu option in the input field.
- Describe in your own words what should happen, such as a summary, a reminder, or a bit of research.
- Set the time and repetition, for example “every Monday at nine.”
- Review and confirm ChatGPT’s suggestion.
- View, pause, or delete active tasks at any time in the sidebar’s task area.
A fixed time isn’t guaranteed in the free account, though: ChatGPT tends to deliver results within a window like “morning” or “evening,” while paid plans hit an exact minute. Anyone already relying on the free account’s higher message limit introduced in August now gets a second free tool for everyday office work on top of it.
Cost, availability, and limits of the new feature
Task scheduling costs nothing extra in the free account and works both in the browser at chatgpt.com and in the mobile and desktop apps. It runs on the same account used for regular conversations with ChatGPT – no separate sign-up is needed.
According to consistent reports, the rollout began on August 25, 2026, and started out gradually; anyone who doesn’t see the feature yet will likely get it in the coming days. None of the reports reviewed mention a restriction specific to Germany or the European Union, though that is not independently verified. Anyone who needs more than three simultaneous tasks, wants repeats more often than once a day, or wants tasks triggered by external services still needs a paid plan starting at the entry-level Plus subscription. For simple reminders and short recurring research jobs, though, the free version already holds up in daily work.
What will matter is whether OpenAI keeps the time-triggered tasks reliable once far more people use the free feature – earlier testing phases occasionally showed delayed or missed notifications. It also remains open whether OpenAI leaves the feature unchanged in the EU or, as with other launches, follows up with adjustments for local data protection oversight. Anyone scheduling work-related tasks should avoid naming internal customer data or contract details in them without checking with their own IT department first.
