ChatGPT Can Now Automate Tasks and Send Smart Alerts

Published on: June 18, 2026, 5:05 AM EDT

OpenAI has launched a new Scheduled Tasks system in ChatGPT, allowing users to automate reminders, monitor changes, and receive smart notifications without needing to manually check for updates.

Quick Summary – TLDR:

OpenAI has rolled out a dedicated Scheduled Tasks feature in ChatGPT.
Users can automate reminders, recurring workflows, and monitoring tasks.
ChatGPT can now check for changes and send notifications when something important happens.
OpenAI is retiring ChatGPT Pulse within 14 days and replacing it with the new system.

What Happened?

OpenAI has introduced Scheduled Tasks, a new feature that enables ChatGPT to perform actions automatically at specific times or under predefined conditions. Alongside the launch, the company is also retiring ChatGPT Pulse, its proactive information delivery feature introduced last year.

The new system gives users more control over how ChatGPT works in the background, helping it move beyond a reactive chatbot and closer to a proactive AI assistant capable of handling routine tasks and monitoring updates on behalf of users.

New in ChatGPT: a better way to schedule tasks.

Scheduled tasks are faster, more reliable, and easier to manage from the new Scheduled page.

The new scheduled tasks experience is rolling out to Go, Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users on web and mobile. pic.twitter.com/YC7JON6Hxn
— ChatGPT (@ChatGPTapp) June 17, 2026

OpenAI Introduces a Dedicated Scheduled Tasks Hub

One of the biggest changes is the addition of a dedicated Scheduled Tasks page inside ChatGPT. Available through the ChatGPT interface on both web and mobile, the new hub centralizes task management into a single location.

Users can create tasks directly from the Scheduled Tasks page or simply ask ChatGPT in natural language. For example, a user can request a daily AI news briefing every morning or ask ChatGPT to send a reminder at the beginning of each month.

The dashboard allows users to:

View all active tasks.
Check upcoming execution times.
Review previous task outputs.
Pause or resume workflows.
Edit existing tasks.
Delete tasks when no longer needed.

According to OpenAI, the updated interface makes scheduled automations easier to create, manage, and customize.

ChatGPT Can Now Work in the Background

The launch represents another step toward OpenAI’s vision of more agentic AI systems. Instead of waiting for users to start a conversation, ChatGPT can now perform actions automatically in the background.

Users can schedule one time tasks or recurring activities such as:

Setting reminders.
Generating regular reports.
Summarizing emails.
Tracking important topics.
Monitoring external information sources.

A major addition is conditional monitoring. ChatGPT can periodically check websites or external data sources and notify users only when meaningful changes occur.

For example, a traveler could ask ChatGPT to monitor airfare prices and receive an alert when prices drop below a specific threshold. Similarly, professionals could track updates related to projects, products, or industry developments without manually checking multiple sources.

OpenAI Is Retiring ChatGPT Pulse

As part of the rollout, OpenAI confirmed that ChatGPT Pulse will be discontinued within the next 14 days.

Pulse was introduced last year as a proactive feature that delivered personalized daily updates based on a user’s interests, chat history, feedback, and connected services such as Gmail and Google Calendar. It provided information through easy to read cards covering reminders, learning suggestions, travel recommendations, and other personalized updates.

Explaining the decision, OpenAI said:

“

Proactive work remains an important part of making ChatGPT more useful. With Pulse, we learned that proactive experiences are most useful when they’re personalised, action-oriented, and steerable by the user. We also saw strong engagement with tasks after introducing them into the Pulse surface, showing that people value having a dedicated place for proactive work.

We’re bringing those learnings back into scheduled tasks so users can keep getting useful updates and recurring help in a more focused experience.

Usage Limits and Safeguards

Because Scheduled Tasks run on OpenAI’s infrastructure, the company has introduced limits based on subscription plans.

Go users can create up to 3 active tasks.
Plus users can create up to 5 active tasks.
Business and Edu users can create up to 10 active tasks.
Pro and Enterprise users can create up to 15 active tasks.

OpenAI has also implemented several safeguards. Tasks can run at a maximum frequency of once per hour to prevent excessive resource consumption. Recurring tasks may be automatically paused if users stop interacting with them for extended periods.

If a chat linked to a scheduled workflow is deleted, the task will be paused rather than permanently removed, allowing users to manage it safely through the Scheduled Tasks interface.

SQ Magazine Takeaway

I think this is one of the most important ChatGPT updates of the year because it pushes the platform beyond simple conversations and into real automation. The retirement of Pulse shows OpenAI is focusing on tools that users can fully control rather than passive information feeds. If OpenAI continues expanding these capabilities, ChatGPT could become a genuine personal assistant that handles everyday digital tasks with very little user involvement.