Choose "all sites" once and ChatGPT in Chrome stops asking before it uses a website

Picture six Chrome tabs open: the company mailbox, a timesheet, a bank page, a news article, an order you are tracking and a customer spreadsheet. You type to ChatGPT: “summarize my open tabs”. According to OpenAI’s guide to the extension, that is a request ChatGPT can carry out, but not every tab is one you should let it read.

What ChatGPT can see in your tabs

The extension is installed and managed from the ChatGPT desktop app, and it adds a side chat next to the page inside Chrome. OpenAI’s guide to the ChatGPT browser extension says ChatGPT can use the content of your open tabs when the task needs it, when you mention a tab in the conversation, or when you highlight a passage to include. ChatGPT can also read or act on pages where you are already signed in; OpenAI gives LinkedIn, Salesforce and Gmail as examples. The extension’s page on the Chrome Web Store lists an update on October 15, 2026 (version 1.26.1005.11759) and says ChatGPT always asks before using browsing history or uploading and downloading files. Neither page says which countries or plans can use it; OpenAI writes only that availability depends on the rollout and on an organization’s settings.

Four things to do before you ask

1. Close any tab you would not hand to a colleague to look at. Banking, payroll, health records, customers’ personal data. A tab you are signed in to is a tab ChatGPT can read, and closing it is faster than hoping it will not be touched.
2. At the first permission prompt for each website, choose “Allow once”. OpenAI offers four choices: allow once, allow for this site, allow for all sites, or deny. With “Allow for all sites”, ChatGPT no longer asks before using a website; OpenAI says to choose it only if you trust ChatGPT to use any site that is open, and labels this option “Elevated Risk”.
3. Decline the permission to see your browsing history if the task does not need it. History can contain internal addresses and search terms. OpenAI says ChatGPT asks every time and that this permission has no always-allow option, because malicious or misleading content could raise the risk of ChatGPT copying this data somewhere you did not intend.
4. Read the result as you would read something from a page you are not sure you can trust. OpenAI advises treating page content as untrusted context and reviewing the page before letting ChatGPT continue. Highlighted passages and video captions count too. If ChatGPT proposes something beyond what you asked for, stop and reread the page.

An illustrative example

This example was made up for this article; it is not the result of a real run. A small shop owner wants to compare prices from two suppliers. The window holds five tabs: two quote pages, the bank page, the customer spreadsheet and the mailbox. The owner closes the last three, reopens the two quote pages, then asks: “Based on these two tabs, build a table comparing unit price and delivery terms.” At the permission prompt for each site, the owner chooses “Allow once”. When the comparison table appears, the owner opens each quote page and checks exactly two figures: the unit price and the delivery fee. Only if those two numbers match is the table used to place an order.

Check what you have allowed

After the first use, in the ChatGPT desktop app go to Settings, then Computer Use, then click Manage next to the browser’s name to see the list of allowed and blocked sites. You are done when the list contains only the sites you meant to put there. If you chose “Allow for all sites” by mistake, edit the list here; according to OpenAI, removing a domain from the allowed list makes ChatGPT ask again next time. Turning off the browser’s switch under Computer Use removes that browser from the @ menu, where you pick a browser when you type @ in a conversation.

OpenAI also says it does not keep a separate full record of browser actions; text from a page, screenshots or tool commands are kept only once they have become part of the conversation’s context. So if a tab holds customer data or company secrets, read your internal policy before letting ChatGPT read it, even when you choose “Allow once”.

Sources

1. OpenAI, “Chrome extension” (learn.chatgpt.com) — use of open-tab content and highlighted passages, pages you are signed in to, the four permission choices, the “Elevated Risk” label, the browsing-history permission, the advice to treat page content as untrusted context, the allowed-sites list under Computer Use, and how OpenAI keeps browser activity.
2. Chrome Web Store, OpenAI’s ChatGPT extension — version 1.26.1005.11759 updated October 15, 2026, and the commitment to always ask permission before using browsing history, uploading and downloading files.