Simon Willison Explains What ChatGPT Work Actually Does
Willison's teardown identifies the seven cloud-only capabilities that justify ChatGPT Work's price, and warns the product combines all three elements he considers fatal for AI agents: private data access, exposure to untrusted content, and the ability to communicate externally.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
OpenAI's ChatGPT Work, launched in July 2026, is really two products, according to AI developer Simon Willison: a cloud version accessed through chatgpt.com or the mobile app, and a local version that runs through the desktop app. Willison found the cloud version more interesting. It is limited to paid plans of $20 or more per month and carries seven capabilities regular ChatGPT lacks, from a headless Chrome browser to scheduled prompt automation.
Willison also got ChatGPT Work to document itself. Prompted to build a site listing every tool it has, the system produced a reference page showing 44 skills and 223 tools. He built a sample site with the deployment feature, mapping London locations with a pelican in her piety from a single prompt.
He flags security risk. ChatGPT Work Cloud holds private data access, exposure to untrusted content, and external communication, the three elements he calls fatal for AI agents. He expects OpenAI uses the same automatic review mechanism as Codex, but wants more disclosure on prompt injection protection.
Willison says the product is hard to understand because OpenAI explains it by use case rather than function, and keeps system prompts and tool descriptions private.
- Expanded model choices: GPT-5.6 Sol, Luna, Terra and GPT-5.5, with Ultra mode delegating more to sub-agents
- Code execution with internet access: an evolved Code Interpreter that can install packages and call APIs
- Full-featured headless Chrome browser: loads sites, fills forms, takes screenshots, runs JavaScript, and can prompt for passwords and 2FA codes
- Persistent shared file system: each session gets a folder under /workspace/scratch/ shared across sessions
- ChatGPT site building and deployment: uses Cloudflare Workers to publish sites with HTML, JavaScript, and server-side functions
- Sub-agent execution: Sol, Luna, and Terra models can run as sub-agents for complex projects
- Scheduled prompt automation: runs prompts on a schedule and sends notifications, usable for regular site updates
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- GIGAZINE 「ChatGPT Work」の仕組みに関する考察