ChatGPT's Chrome extension now lets ChatGPT use the tabs you have open, whether you start from its web app or its desktop app. In Chat it can read across the tabs and pull out what you need. In Work, the part of ChatGPT that carries out tasks, it can send messages, fill in forms, download files and group your tabs. The Chrome sidebar also now holds the full ChatGPT, with your whole conversation history, next to the page you are on.
The tabs are the valuable part
ChatGPT already had other ways to browse. The built-in browser in its desktop app keeps its own browser state, so it starts without your logins. The extension is the route for tasks that need your existing Chrome profile and signed-in sessions.
That difference matters more than it sounds. The prices a wholesaler shows only to account holders, the order history in a supplier portal and the appointment page of a clinic all sit behind a login. A public search cannot reach any of them, and an assistant in a fresh browser has to be signed in again first. An assistant in your own Chrome starts where you already are.
Think of a shop owner who needs to restock. She has four supplier portals open, each showing her trade price, minimum order and delivery time. Copying those into one sheet takes her about ten minutes per supplier, so roughly 40 minutes. She can now tell ChatGPT to put the vendors in those tabs into a comparison sheet with prices, delivery times and links back to each page. Her remaining work is the part that needs her: choosing the supplier, and checking one or two figures against the pages. Done every month, that is most of an hour back, and the same pattern holds for a recruiter comparing candidate profiles or a school office comparing quotes for a trip.
Every plan can use it
The extension is available on every ChatGPT plan. Gemini's auto browse in Chrome is only for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the United States, and Claude's Chrome extension is included only with paid plans. Someone on a free ChatGPT plan can now use an assistant that works inside their own browser, and that is a much bigger group than the people paying for any of these tools.
It acts as you
Everything the assistant does in your tabs happens with your accounts. A message it sends goes out under your name, and a form it submits carries your details. Every page is untrusted input, because a web page can contain text written to steer an assistant, and the assistant reads every page it opens.
That points to a simple habit. Install the extension in a Chrome profile that is signed in only to accounts you would be comfortable handing over, and keep your bank and main email in another profile. Start with tasks that only read, like comparing pages, before you let it fill in or send anything. Then check the recipient and the figures before you approve the step that cannot be undone.