A Project groups chats around one piece of work — a client, a codebase, a manuscript — with files and instructions shared by every conversation inside it. Projects are available on all plans including Free, at no extra cost, which is the change most guides missed.
1. Create a project
In the sidebar, choose New project and name it. One project per context — per client, per app — keeps the shared knowledge relevant instead of a junk drawer.
2. Upload the files every chat should know
The style guide, the spec, the data export. Chats inside the project draw on them without you re-uploading anything. The per-project file allowance depends on your plan:
Free 5 files
Plus, Go, Edu 25 files
Pro, Business, Enterprise 40 files
What it does: sets your ceiling. Hitting it usually means the project is too broad — split it rather than pruning good source material.
3. Write project instructions once
This project is our Q3 marketing plan. Audience: small-business owners.
Tone: plain, no jargon. Always give options as a short list, never paragraphs.
Never invent numbers — if a figure isn't in the uploaded files, say so.
What it does: standing context every new chat in the project inherits, so you stop pasting background into each conversation.
4. Move existing chats in
Drag an existing chat into a project and it inherits the project’s instructions and file context — the fastest way to rescue a conversation that has drifted.
Project or a custom GPT?
A Project is your own workspace — private by default, instant to set up, best for ongoing work. A custom GPT is a configured assistant with a fixed prompt and optional API actions, but creating one now requires a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace. If you just want to stop re-explaining background, a Project is the answer.
Project sharing is available to everyone, including Free and Go users: collaborators work from the same files, instructions and history, and everyone sees updates in real time.
Verify it worked
Start a new chat inside the project and ask about something only the uploaded files cover. If it answers from general knowledge instead, the file is in the wrong project. Like RAG, the answer is only as good as what actually got retrieved. Claude’s equivalent is Claude Projects; for account-wide preferences use custom instructions.
Source: Using projects in ChatGPT.