If you have a ChatGPT subscription, you have access to a model that can create scheduled tasks within the ChatGPT app. You can do far more than simply turn ChatGPT into a glorified reminder app, however; Tasks have plenty of helpful uses.
What Are Tasks in ChatGPT?
Tasks is a feature in ChatGPT that lets you schedule actions for specific dates and times or set recurring actions. This means that you can use ChatGPT for tasks such as reminders. You give ChatGPT a prompt containing the action you want ChatGPT to take and when you want it to happen, and when the specified time occurs, ChatGPT will generate a new message in the chat based on your prompt.
Tasks are OpenAI’s first step in attempting to make ChatGPT more than just an AI chatbot by turning it into an AI-powered virtual assistant. Using Tasks, you can get ChatGPT to generate a weather report at the same time every day, get a reminder to put the dishwasher on before you go to bed, or schedule almost any other task that ChatGPT can do, such as creating an image or telling you a joke.
How to Create a Task in ChatGPT
Creating a task in ChatGPT is incredibly simple to do; all you need to do is ask. However, you’ll need to use the correct ChatGPT model for this to work. The GPT-4o with Scheduled Tasks model is currently only available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Teams users in beta, although Tasks should be coming to free users at some point in the future. You can create tasks on the ChatGPT apps for iPhone, Android, and macOS, as well as the ChatGPT web app, although it’s not currently available in the Windows desktop app.
Open ChatGPT in a supported app or on the web. Open a new chat and select the GPT-4o with Scheduled Tasks model. Enter a prompt that contains both the action that you want ChatGPT to take and a schedule for that action. ChatGPT will then process the information and create a new Task, which will appear in your chat. The action should then occur at the time or times you have specified.
How to Manage ChatGPT Tasks
There are two ways to make changes to a Task in ChatGPT. The first is to add another prompt in the same chat with an update to the action or schedule for your task. ChatGPT should then automatically update the Task to match your prompt. You can also manually edit your Tasks, although this is currently only possible in the ChatGPT web app.
Open the ChatGPT web app and sign in. Click the Profile icon at the top of the screen. Select “Tasks.” To pause or delete a task, hover over the task you want to edit and click the three-dot menu icon. Select “Pause” or “Delete.”
To make changes, hover over the Task and click the pencil icon. You can rename your Task in the “Name” field. If you want to update the instructions, you can edit or replace the text in the “Instructions” field. To change the schedule for your Task, use the two dropdowns to change the date, time, and recurrence of your Task. When you’re happy with your changes, click “Save” to update the Task.
Configuring Notifications for ChatGPT Tasks
When the scheduled time for a Task arrives, the action will be taken in the same chat that you used to create the Task. However, if you’re not using ChatGPT at that time, you may not see ChatGPT’s response.
That’s why OpenAI has built notifications into Tasks; when a scheduled task is run, you can choose to receive an email or push notification. You can turn both types of notifications on and off, but any changes you make are applied across all platforms; if you turn off push notifications on desktop, they will turn off on mobile, too.
Click or tap the Profile icon in ChatGPT. On mobile and desktop, this is at the bottom of the screen; in the web app, it’s at the top. On desktop or web, tap “Settings.” Select “Notifications,” and select “Tasks.” Check or toggle “Push” and “Email” to enable or disable the notifications. If you don’t receive push notifications, you may need to grant permission on your device or browser to allow ChatGPT to send notifications.
Useful Ways to Use Tasks in ChatGPT
The most obvious way to use Tasks in ChatGPT is for reminders. If you need a reminder to take your medication each evening, for example, just ask ChatGPT to remind you at the same time each evening, and you’ll get a notification every day at your chosen time reminding you to take your pills. You can also ask ChatGPT to regularly remind you about the tasks on your to-do list.
ChatGPT is capable of doing a lot more than most reminder apps, however. You can ask ChatGPT to do most actions you can ask in a live chat. For example, you can ask ChatGPT to generate a daily weather report for your location, in a format that you specify. To make it even more interesting, you can ask ChatGPT to generate an image that represents that day’s weather forecast instead of generating a written weather report.
You can also use the creative capabilities of ChatGPT in your Tasks. For example, you can ask for a different prompt for your journal every day to give you ideas to write about. You can let ChatGPT know some of your favorite musical artists and ask for a new music recommendation based on your tastes each week.
You can also use Tasks to help you learn. For example, you can create a Task to test you on the capital cities of the world each morning, or to start the day by responding to you only in French, so that you can practice your French reading and writing skills.
Limitations of ChatGPT Tasks
There are some things that you can’t do with ChatGPT Tasks. Currently, you’re not able to use voice with Tasks meaning you can’t create a Task just by asking aloud. You also can’t upload any files such as documents or images that Tasks can access. It’s also not possible to access any custom GPTs using Tasks.
You can also only create tasks using GPT-4o. It’s not currently possible to create a Task that can use another model, such as o1, to perform your requested action. GPT-4o is OpenAI’s most capable all-round model, but o1 has better problem-solving skills, and for now, it’s not possible to schedule a Task that uses the o1 model.
The biggest limitation, however, is that you are limited to a maximum of 10 Tasks. Once you hit 10, you’ll need to delete a Task before you can create any more. It may be possible to combine some of your Tasks if they have the same schedule, but ultimately you may find that you run out of Tasks before you run out of ideas for them.
Tasks in ChatGPT have the potential to be incredibly useful. The current beta version shows a lot of promise, but it is held back by limitations, most notably the limit of only 10 Tasks. Hopefully, OpenAI will continue to add features, such as the ability to use voice with Tasks, that would help ChatGPT to become an effective virtual assistant.
