Why do files in a ChatGPT project stay in ChatGPT?
Because that is where they live. A project holds a set number of files — 5 on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, 40 on Pro, at the time we checked — and what a project knows stays inside that project. Share one with somebody and it switches to project-only memory, cut off from everything you have told ChatGPT elsewhere. The complaint that started this page is older than the current numbers: a person on OpenAI’s community forum wrote in January 2025, in a thread open since December 2024, that “20 files is nowhere near enough… it’s made me not want to use ChatGPT projects.” The limit has moved since. The thread is still going, because the number was never really the problem. The wall was.
Per-plan limits as OpenAI announced them when shared projects reached Free, Go, Plus and Pro on 23 October 2025; project-only memory on sharing per OpenAI’s “Projects in ChatGPT” help article, read 7 September 2026. Forum quote verified verbatim in our July 2026 research.