ChatGPT Launches Year-End Recap Highlighting User Behavior

OpenAI is bringing a familiar consumer-tech ritual into the AI world. ChatGPT has begun rolling out “Your Year with ChatGPT”, a year-end recap feature that offers users a reflective snapshot of how they engaged with the chatbot over the past 12 months.

The feature, inspired by Spotify Wrapped–style summaries, is now available to eligible users in select English-speaking markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The rollout spans free, Plus, and Pro plans, provided users have chat history and memory features enabled and meet minimum activity thresholds.

The move signals OpenAI’s growing focus on personalisation as a product layer, not just a technical capability.

From Conversations to Context

Once activated, “Your Year with ChatGPT” appears as a banner on the app’s home screen. The experience unfolds in a Stories-like format, highlighting recurring themes, usage patterns, and moments that defined how individuals interacted with the AI.

Users are also assigned light-hearted “awards” based on behaviour. Someone who leaned heavily on problem-solving or idea refinement, for example, may receive a title such as Creative Debugger. The recap also generates a short poem and an AI-created image inspired by the user’s most common topics.

The feature is available across web and mobile apps on iOS and Android and can also be triggered manually by prompting ChatGPT.

Importantly, OpenAI says the recap is optional and user-controlled, designed to be lightweight rather than intrusive.

What It Says About OpenAI’s Product Direction

While playful on the surface, the launch reflects a deeper shift in how OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT. Over the past year, the company has steadily leaned into memory, personalisation, and continuity, turning ChatGPT from a transactional chatbot into a more persistent digital companion.

The year-end recap reinforces that strategy by reframing usage data as self-reflection, not analytics. Instead of dashboards or metrics, OpenAI presents insights as narratives, awards, and visuals, a familiar consumer-tech language.

At the same time, the company has drawn clear boundaries. Enterprise, education, and team accounts are excluded, underscoring that the feature is aimed squarely at individual consumers rather than professional or regulated environments.

Privacy and Guardrails Built In

OpenAI says the experience is designed to be privacy-forward, relying only on saved interactions from users who have explicitly enabled memory and chat history. If the banner does not appear automatically, eligible users can choose whether to engage by requesting the recap directly.

The company has also avoided auto-launching the feature, a notable choice at a time when many platforms aggressively push year-end summaries to drive sharing.

AI Meets the Year-End Ritual

With “Your Year with ChatGPT,” OpenAI joins a long list of platforms tapping into the emotional pull of year-end reflection. But unlike music streams or fitness apps, this recap reflects something more personal: how users think, ask questions, and solve problems with AI.

As generative AI becomes embedded in daily workflows and personal routines, OpenAI appears to be betting that reflection can build retention, turning usage history into a reason to stay.

For users in supported regions, the feature offers a simple prompt: not just what you listened to or watched this year, but how you thought, learned, and worked with AI.