Yes, in the ChatGPT desktop app, through Work or Codex. Since July 9, 2026, the ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and Windows can open a folder on your computer and read, create and change the files in it. Codex does the same in a terminal or code editor. ChatGPT on the web and on your phone can’t reach your disk. It works with copies you upload, or with files in Google Drive, Box, Dropbox or SharePoint once you connect them.
Three things change the answer for you:
- Which desktop app you have. The new app puts Chat, Work and Codex in one place. The previous app may still be installed as ChatGPT Classic, and Work and Codex aren’t in it (OpenAI).
- Your plan and workspace. Codex is included in every ChatGPT plan, Free and Go too (OpenAI). Work on the web and phone is for paid plans, and in the desktop app it depends on your plan and workspace. In a company workspace, an admin can turn local Work and local Codex off separately (OpenAI).
- Your operating system. The app runs on macOS and Windows. A Linux version is in public preview, and it can’t control other desktop apps yet (release notes).
ChatGPT on the web and phone: uploads and cloud drives
On chatgpt.com and in the mobile apps, ChatGPT reads the files you attach. It reads a copy. If you change the file on your computer later, ChatGPT won’t see the change.
The limits, from OpenAI’s upload help page:
- Up to 512 MB per document, and 2 million tokens per text or document file. Spreadsheets top out around 50 MB, images at 20 MB.
- Up to 80 files every 3 hours. Free accounts get 3 uploads a day.
- A Project holds 5 files on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, and 40 on Pro, Business, Edu and Enterprise.
- Outside Enterprise, ChatGPT reads the digital text in a document, not the images inside it. A scanned page is an image.
If your files already live in a cloud drive, you don’t need to upload them. Connect Google Drive, Box, Dropbox or SharePoint under Settings → Plugins, and their files show up in Library (OpenAI). You can add a file to a chat with @, or pick a folder and ask ChatGPT to work across the files in it. This is rolling out on the web to most paid plans, with mobile to follow.
Work, the agent mode, runs in OpenAI’s cloud on the web and phone. It can use your uploads and connected apps, but not the files on your computer.
Your phone can reach your computer in one way: through the desktop app running on it. The Remote tab in the ChatGPT mobile app opens Codex chats running on your computer, which has to stay awake and online. Some company workspaces also let you continue a desktop Work task from your phone (OpenAI).
The ChatGPT desktop app: Work and Codex open real folders
The new desktop app is where ChatGPT works on files where they live. In Work or Codex, you open a folder, and ChatGPT can read and change the files in it (OpenAI). Chat, the regular mode, doesn’t open folders.
How to connect a folder:
- Install the new ChatGPT desktop app. If you use the Codex app, updating it turns it into the new app.
- Pick ChatGPT in the top-left menu, then Work in the toggle at the top. Or pick Codex.
- Open a local folder. To use several folders, add a local project, choose Edit project, add the folders, and mark one with Make primary.
- Choose a permission mode below the message box. Start with Ask for approval.
What the permission modes mean (OpenAI):
- Ask for approval: ChatGPT works inside the folder, and asks before it edits files outside it or uses the internet.
- Approve for me: the same limits, but an automatic reviewer checks eligible requests instead of you. You’re asked only about actions that look unsafe.
- Full access: no limits on which files ChatGPT can touch or on internet use.
Even Ask for approval only asks before ChatGPT edits files outside the folder or uses the internet. Inside the folder, it creates and changes files without asking. I use ChatGPT mostly in Work, and when I connected one of my own folders, it created files all over it. I stopped connecting folders after that. If you try it, use a folder made for the task or a copy, and tell ChatGPT where new files should go.
Work and Codex can also use other apps on your computer. With Computer Use, ChatGPT can see and operate apps on macOS and Windows, in supported regions. It asks before it uses each app, and you can choose Always allow for an app you trust. It can’t operate terminal apps or ChatGPT itself, and it can’t approve security prompts for you.
Two cautions:
- Local doesn’t mean offline. The files stay on your disk, but what ChatGPT reads is sent to OpenAI’s models. OpenAI says messages and task context may be stored in the cloud even when work runs locally (OpenAI). On personal plans, your content can be used to train models unless you turn off Improve the model for everyone in Settings → Data Controls.
- Results stay on that computer. Files a local task creates stay in your folders. They don’t automatically show up in ChatGPT on the web or phone (OpenAI).
Claude and Gemini have made the same move: their desktop apps reach your folders too. Here’s why AI is moving onto your computer. For the other ways the ChatGPT apps differ, see ChatGPT desktop vs web.
Codex: the same folder access in a terminal or editor
Codex is OpenAI’s coding agent, but it works on any folder, including notes and drafts. Besides its view in the desktop app, it runs as the Codex CLI in a terminal and as an extension in VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf. Xcode and JetBrains IDEs have their own Codex integrations.
You sign in with your ChatGPT account, and usage counts against your plan’s limits, which vary by plan (OpenAI). Codex and Work share one usage allowance.
To start in a terminal: cd into the folder, run codex, and sign in
with your ChatGPT account. The folder becomes the workspace. To reach other
folders, or to keep Codex away from files like .env, set up a permission
profile. The Codex guide walks
through it.
Work or Codex? Use Work for documents, spreadsheets, slides and research. Use Codex for code, commands and Git, or when you want to see the technical detail of each change.
Which one should you use?
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Ask about a few files once | Upload them in ChatGPT on the web or phone |
| Use files already in Google Drive, Box, Dropbox or SharePoint | Connect the app and add files from Library |
| Have ChatGPT create, edit or organize files in a folder | Work in the desktop app |
| Work on code, or stay in your terminal or editor | Codex |
| Follow a task on your computer from your phone | The Remote tab in the ChatGPT mobile app |
Writing from your own files with Codex
If you want to write from your own notes, sources and past writing, you can try StashBase, a free writing app. Open the folder, pick Codex as the agent, and sign in with the ChatGPT plan you already have. Codex finds context in your notes and past work on its own, so you don’t paste it in each time. Your documents stay open beside the chat.
StashBase also turns PDFs (scanned ones too), Word docs and images into searchable text, so Codex can find what’s inside them by keyword. Search by meaning is off until you add an OpenAI or OpenRouter key.
StashBase isn’t a ChatGPT plugin, so it doesn’t appear in ChatGPT on the web or phone. It works with Claude Code and Antigravity too. If you use those, the guides for Claude and Gemini answer the same question.