If you've been using ChatGPT for free and wished you could get an automatic daily briefing or reminder without paying for Plus, that wish came true this week. OpenAI confirmed on August 26, 2026 that Scheduled Tasks — the feature that lets ChatGPT message you on a schedule — is now available on every plan, including Free.
What free accounts get. Free and Go accounts can now create up to 3 active scheduled tasks. Each task can run once, or repeat no more than once a day — so you can set up a morning news summary or a weekly reminder, but not something that checks in every hour. This is the same 3-task limit Go subscribers already had; Free now matches it.
What's still paid-only. Two things did not come to the Free plan. First, event-based triggers — having ChatGPT automatically run a task when something happens in Gmail, Slack, or GitHub — remain exclusive to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise accounts. Free and Go can only schedule tasks by time, not by event. Second, the higher task limits are unchanged: Plus still gets 5 active tasks, and Pro and Enterprise still get 15.
Why this matters. Scheduled Tasks first appeared as a paid-only beta in January 2025, then got a bigger relaunch with a dedicated sidebar section in June 2026 — and until this week, even that redesigned version required a paid plan just to see it at all. Free users can now try it without spending anything — a daily briefing, a weekly meal-planning prompt, a reminder to stretch — the same way Plus and Pro users have been able to for months, just with a lower ceiling on how many tasks can run at once.
For a full walkthrough of setting up your first task, including examples you can copy and adapt, see our guide on ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks, updated today with the new free-plan limits.
One thing to watch for. Whenever OpenAI opens up a previously paid feature, expect ads and social posts offering to "unlock" it for a fee, or fake browser extensions promising to "activate" scheduling. You don't need to install anything or pay anyone — if you have a ChatGPT account, the Scheduled section should already be sitting in your sidebar. Treat any offer that asks you to pay for a free feature as a scam.
Sources
- OpenAI Brings ChatGPT Scheduling Tool To Free Users — Dataconomy
- OpenAI brings ChatGPT scheduling tool to free accounts — TechBriefly