I loved ChatGPT Desktop until OpenAI gutted it to make room for Codex and Work
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- OpenAI added agentic tools and removed everyday features.
- ChatGPT Work arrived, but the ChatGPT desktop app got worse.
- ChatGPT still works best in the browser for most users.
Plans change. My initial plan for this article was to write a comparison between Claude Cowork and the brand new ChatGPT Work. But that wasn’t to be, because getting started with ChatGPT Work turned out to be an adventure.
What fresh hell is this?
I primarily use ChatGPT on my Mac. On the Mac, there are two main ways (not counting all the third-party apps and extensions) to use ChatGPT: in the browser and as an app. I use both because each has its own features. For example, the Mac app has never been able to define and edit GPTs, but it can run them. You can create GPTs in the browser.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Also: OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 and ChatGPT Work aim to beat Anthropic on price, speed, and productivity
Mostly, I use the ChatGPT desktop app. Because it’s a separate app, it’s convenient when I have 100 browser tabs open. Plus, one of the great unsung features of the ChatGPT desktop app — until now — has been the ability to take screenshots from within the app and immediately drop them into chat. You can see the process in the image below, at the bottom of the screen:
During this process, the screenshot was dropped into the chat. This approach saved the step of loading your screenshot program and using it to take and place an image. Here’s what that step looked like:
I found this approach incredibly useful and convenient, especially when working with ChatGPT to diagnose some system issue or another. I would rapid-fire screenshots right into the chat, and this step became almost a rhythm. But now, that feature is gone.
Also: How to use ChatGPT: A beginner’s guide to mastering OpenAI’s chatbot in 2026
But that’s not the only ChatGPT Desktop feature I relied upon that’s gone. The ChatGPT desktop app used to have another incredibly helpful tool called “Work with“. This feature would allow ChatGPT to see the contents of the current window of apps like Notion, Notes, and TextEdit, as below:
You could tap the Work With button and then give ChatGPT a prompt. Its context would then include everything in the associated app’s current window. That was another incredibly powerful, time-saving interface that’s now gone.
In fact, for all intents and purposes, the ChatGPT desktop app is gone. It’s been replaced by a hacked version of Codex, with an astonishingly fugly pop-up window reminiscent of the worst third-party apps floating around in the App Store.
Also: I connected ChatGPT to my bank, and it’s my go-to finance app now
A Windows version of the reconstituted ChatGPT Desktop app will be coming soon. So you Windows users aren’t safe from inevitable, feature-destroying, disappointing, unnecessary, and generally more expensive changes, either. But I’m not bitter.
What were they thinking?
Actually, I know what they were thinking. Chat mode is the cheap seats. Folks using just ChatGPT chat use the free plan, or possibly the $8/mo Go plan or the $20/mo Plus plan. That’s the tier I’m on.
Also: I tested ChatGPT Plus vs. Gemini Pro to see which is better
But vibe-coding Codex users can’t get much done unless they sign up for at least the $100/mo Pro plan. Agentic AI takes a lot of tokens.
You know what else uses agents? ChatGPT Work. Yep, the lower-tier plans will likely throttle down quite rapidly after using Work for just a short while. So the more people use Work, the more money OpenAI makes. Those massive data centers nobody wants in their neighborhood are pretty costly.
Here’s where it gets weirder and more hellish. The updated ChatGPT app isn’t the ChatGPT app at all. It’s the Codex app. When you run it for the first time after upgrading, you get this splash screen:
Notice that the tool even encourages you to use the Codex icon instead of the ChatGPT one. And no, I didn’t confuse my apps. When you pull up the about screen for this Codex-claiming-it’s-ChatGPT usurper app, it does, in fact, say that it is ChatGPT:
At (1), it says Codex. But at (2), it says ChatGPT. This is the new default interface for the app. The list of tasks on the left was the last things I did in VS Code with Codex, as part of my urgent spam mitigation project.
Also: Claude Cowork heads to the cloud as data shows 90% of sessions aren’t for coding
I’m not saying Codex is bad. Codex is the programming tool that lives in my development environment. Codex is not the tool I have been using to help fix my prescription for glasses. I want that tool back.
You can easily switch from Codex to the new agentic ChatGPT Work mode (which, to be clear, is not ChatGPT) in this desktop app interface. Just click Codex and select ChatGPT Work from the drop-down menu. Here’s what you get:
As you can see, it’s the same screen. You’re just in Work mode. The ChatGPT Work desktop app is basically still the Codex app with a new mode. Some months back, OpenAI started integrating non-coding agent work and desktop control into Codex:
As you can see (at 1), even the list of projects is the same as it was in Codex. Notably, none of my normal ChatGPT history is there. You get that history by tapping the tiny little Chat button (at 2).
So where is the chat part of ChatGPT?
Hovering over the Chat button shows you the five most recent ChatGPT queries. In my most recent ones, I was trying to find out if there’s a kitchen scale I can talk to over Bluetooth with my app. Everyone’s chat history is different:
If you click the Chat button, you get this little pop-up window:
Yep, it’s a little pop-up window that looks like one of the many pop-up prompts third-party apps offer. But what happened to the robust ChatGPT interface? You can click the tiny ‘Open’ icon in a new window. If you do, you get this:
Where’s my carefully curated chat sidebar? You can make the window wider, but all you’ll get is a wider window. If you click See all, you still won’t get a sidebar:
Instead, you’ll get a history of your previous chats taking up the whole window. No list of projects. No list of GPTs. No Library. Nothing. Worse, my favorite productivity tools in ChatGPT, the Take Screenshot and Work With options, are gone. These tools are also not in the Codex or Work interface.
The bottom line here is pretty simple and very unfortunate. If you were an avid user of the ChatGPT desktop app, you probably won’t want to be any longer. Yes, Work and Codex add value, but it’s not the same thing.
Also: How ChatGPT Lockdown mode protects you from data theft
The Codex app is (and has been) pretty great for what it’s meant to do. Codex, on its own, actually rocks. Adding the agentic Work mode is fine. But did OpenAI have to kill the ChatGPT desktop functionality to do that? Couldn’t they have added the feature in another tab or with a third mode switch? It’s not like they don’t have any agentic coding tools to help make that happen.
All is not lost
ChatGPT does live on, in the browser interface. All the pinned items, projects, and chat history still exist in the sidebar. The growing list of ChatGPT-specific features, such as GPTs and Library, also live on in the sidebar:
If you switch to the Work tab, you can use Work to do multi-step agentic projects in the cloud. The feature won’t run things on your desktop, but that’s what the desktop app is for.
Also: This simple ChatGPT trick helps you spot scams before you click
So, the good news is that if you are used to using ChatGPT in the browser, you can keep on keeping on. The bad news is that if you relied on ChatGPT Desktop, you’re screwed.
I’ve reached out to OpenAI about this change, asking whether the company plans to fix its desktop app so regular ol’ ChatGPT users can use it the way they’ve become accustomed. I’ll let you know what OpenAI says.
I also do intend to take both the cloud and local versions of ChatGPT Work for a spin, and compare them to Claude Cowork. Stay tuned. That’s coming up once my bereavement period concludes.
Is ChatGPT Work valuable enough to justify replacing the traditional desktop experience? Let us know in the comments below.
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