OpenAI has introduced a significant upgrade to ChatGPT by adding a new feature called “Memory with Search,” which leverages past interactions to provide more personalized web search results. The company quietly shared details of the feature through update logs and support documentation this Thursday.
“Memory with Search” enhances ChatGPT’s ability to recall information previously discussed with users—such as favorite foods or lifestyle preferences—and incorporate these insights into internet search queries. For instance, if ChatGPT knows from prior interactions that a user is vegan and located in San Francisco, it will refine a broad prompt like “restaurants near me” into a specific search for “good vegan restaurants, San Francisco.”
According to the company’s support information, ChatGPT achieves this functionality by rewriting user prompts, blending context from stored conversational memories to create more pertinent and helpful queries. Users who prefer privacy or wish to avoid the personalized element can easily disable the “Memory” function within ChatGPT’s settings.
This update is the latest in an ongoing series of enhancements specifically designed to distinguish ChatGPT from competing AI chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, both of which provide similar capability to recall user interactions. OpenAI has previously expanded ChatGPT’s memory features to reference complete chat histories, and this latest step further deepens the chatbot’s personalization capabilities.
Although OpenAI hasn’t specified a timeline for when the feature will roll out universally, several users have reported seeing “Memory with Search” appear in their ChatGPT settings this week, suggesting that OpenAI is currently in the early stages of deployment.
