ChatGPT Library Explained: Dropbox, Box and SharePoint Now Connect, and How Much Storage Your Plan Gets

If you have ever uploaded the same PDF to ChatGPT twice, this is the feature you were missing. ChatGPT Library is the folder where everything you upload to or create in ChatGPT is kept, and on September 10, 2026 OpenAI's release notes added Box, Dropbox and SharePoint to it, alongside Google Drive. Connect one and its files appear inside ChatGPT, ready to drop into a conversation without uploading them again.

The two things people actually need to know are which plans get the connected drives, and how much of your own stuff ChatGPT will store. OpenAI answers both, and the answers are not the same for every plan.

Key Takeaways

• Library is on every plan, including Free. OpenAI's help article says it is available to Free, Go, Plus, Pro and Business users and to Enterprise, Edu and Healthcare workspaces, including in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, on the web.
• Dropbox, Box and SharePoint arrived September 10, 2026, from Go upward. OpenAI's availability line names Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, Healthcare and Enterprise, web only. "Mobile support will follow."
• Google Drive in Library starts at Plus. The help article lists Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Edu, Healthcare and Business; Go and Free are not on it.
• Storage by plan: Free 500 MB, Go 4 GB, Plus and Business 20 GB, Pro 100 GB. It is separate from your daily attachment and chat limits.
• Per-file limits: 512 MB, 20 MB for an image, roughly 50 MB for a spreadsheet, and 2 million tokens of text per document.
• Temporary Chat uploads are never saved. Neither are files uploaded inside ChatGPT Health.
• Deleting a chat does not delete its files. They stay in Library until you delete them there, then leave OpenAI's systems within 30 days.

What Is ChatGPT Library?

Library is ChatGPT's file drawer. OpenAI's help article puts it in one sentence: "The files you upload to and create in ChatGPT are saved to your Library, so you can find and reuse them later." Documents, spreadsheets, presentations and images you upload in a chat are saved automatically; files ChatGPT generates for you are saved too. Generated images keep their own Images tab.

You reach it from the left-hand sidebar. Inside, you can browse uploaded and generated files, search them, filter by type (images, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs), drag new files straight in, and check how much of your storage you have used with the Storage button. To use a saved file in a new chat, open the attachment menu in the composer and pick Add from library, or type @ and mention it.

The one behaviour that surprises people: Library is separate from your chats. Deleting a conversation does not delete the files you uploaded in it. They stay in Library until you delete them there.

Which Plans Get Dropbox, Box, SharePoint and Google Drive

Connected drives are a paid-plan feature, and the two rollouts start at different tiers. This is OpenAI's own wording, read from the September 10, 2026 release note and the Library help article:

One wrinkle worth being straight about. OpenAI's September 10 entry states availability twice. The first line, headed "Availability", says the Box, Dropbox and SharePoint integrations are "rolling out to Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, Healthcare and Enterprise users on the web". A second line underneath repeats the list without Go, and it is word-for-word the Google Drive availability sentence from the Library help article. We read the first line as the one written for this release and the second as a carried-over Drive line, so the table puts Go on Dropbox, Box and SharePoint. If you are on Go and cannot see the connection yet, that is the sentence to blame, and "rolling out" means it may simply not have reached you.

Free is on neither list. A free account gets Library, the 500 MB, and the saved files, but OpenAI has not said free users can connect any cloud drive.

What You Can Do With a Connected Drive

Once a drive is connected, its files show up in Library next to your uploads, and you never re-upload them. OpenAI describes three things you can do:

• Add a file to a chat without uploading it. Browse or search it in Library, pick it from the composer, or @-mention it. Citations point back to the source file.
• Work with a file open beside the conversation. Keep the Dropbox, Box or SharePoint file open next to the chat while you ask ChatGPT to "summarize, analyze, compare, or create something new" from it.
• Point ChatGPT at a folder. Select a folder and ask it to work across every file inside.

Your existing permissions carry over. OpenAI says "existing file permissions and workspace controls apply", and for Google Drive it spells out that you only see content available to the Google account you connected, that shared drives are not included yet, and that where supported ChatGPT can update the source file directly. Connected files stay connected to their original source, so you can always go back to the real thing.

How Much Storage You Get, and the File Limits

OpenAI publishes both the per-plan storage and the per-file caps in the Library help article:

Library storage "is separate from daily attachment/chat limits", so filling it does not eat into how many files you can attach in a day, and vice versa. If you are on Free and hit the 500 MB wall, Go's 4 GB is an eightfold jump for $8 a month; Plus at $20 takes you to 20 GB and adds the Google Drive connection.

What Is Not Saved, and How to Delete Things

Two kinds of upload never land in Library. Temporary Chat: OpenAI says "files uploaded while using Temporary Chat are not saved to your account or Library", which makes Temporary Chat the right place for a document you do not want kept. Our guide to ChatGPT's temporary chat controls covers the rest of what that mode does. ChatGPT Health: where the feature is available, files uploaded inside it are not saved to your account either.

To delete a saved file: open Library, select it, and click Delete or the trash icon. It leaves your main view immediately. If your Library has a Recently deleted area you can restore it from there or choose Delete forever. OpenAI says deleted files are "scheduled for permanent deletion from OpenAI systems within 30 days", with two exceptions it names: a chat that has already been de-identified, or a security or legal obligation to keep it longer.

Connected drive files are the exception to deleting: Google Drive items shown in Library "can't be deleted from ChatGPT". You delete them in Drive.

On training: OpenAI says it may use files you upload to improve its models if "Improve the model for everyone" is on, and that you can turn it off in Settings, then Data Controls. If Memory is on, saved files and chats can also feed what ChatGPT remembers about you.

Sharing From Library

OpenAI's September 9, 2026 release note added sharing: you can share a file or folder with specific people as Viewer or Editor, share it across "your workspace", review who has access, and use shared items from a Shared with me area. Two ownership rules are worth knowing before you use it. Files uploaded to a shared folder belong to the folder's owner, and if the owner later removes your access, "the file stays in their folder and you lose access to it."

OpenAI does not say which plans get sharing. The wording ("your workspace") reads as a Business and Enterprise feature, and the older Library article still says Library "does not introduce external sharing", so treat sharing as unconfirmed on personal plans until OpenAI says otherwise.

Should You Do Anything?

If you keep re-uploading the same files, open Library once and look. Everything you have ever uploaded is already there, and @-mentioning it is faster than finding the file on your computer again.

If your documents live in Dropbox, Box or SharePoint and you pay for Go or above, connect it. You get search across those files from inside ChatGPT, folder-wide questions, and no re-uploading. Use the web app; the mobile apps do not have it yet.

If you are on Free, the connection is not on offer. Library still works, with 500 MB. If that is the only thing pushing you toward paying, Go at $8 is the cheapest step up and the lowest plan OpenAI names for the Dropbox, Box and SharePoint connections. Whether the $20 Plus plan earns its price is a different question, and we weigh it in is ChatGPT Plus worth it in 2026.

If you upload things you would rather ChatGPT did not keep, use Temporary Chat. Nothing uploaded there is saved. And check "Improve the model for everyone" in Data Controls, because saved files fall under it.

Google's equivalent is Gemini's connected apps, which reach into Drive and Gmail rather than a file drawer; see Gemini connected apps, explained.

Sources

• OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT Release Notes, entries dated September 9 and September 10, 2026, read September 13, 2026.
• OpenAI Help Center, File storage and Library in ChatGPT, for plan availability, storage and file limits, deletion, Temporary Chat and Health exclusions, and the Google Drive section; read as of August 27, 2026, the newest copy available to us.
• OpenAI, ChatGPT pricing, for the $8 Go and $20 Plus prices, read September 13, 2026.