How To Use Chatgpt Agent Mode

What it is (and isn’t)

ChatGPT agent mode is OpenAI’s hosted agent: tell it what to do, it browses, clicks, reads, and comes back with a result. It’s the easiest way to run an agent today — no code, no SDK, no infrastructure. It lives inside a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Team conversation.

Step 1 — Confirm you have access

This guide walks you through enabling it, a first real task, and the guardrails you’ll want to set before you trust it with anything sensitive. Written April 2026 against the current ChatGPT agent experience.

Step 2 — Turn it on inside a chat

Agent mode ships on Plus, Pro, and Team plans. Free-tier accounts don’t see it. If you’re on Enterprise or Education, your admin may have toggled it off; ask them first before you spend an afternoon debugging.

Step 3 — Write a good first prompt

Agent prompts aren’t chat prompts. They should include:

Step 4 — Watch the first run end to end

Agent mode can ask you to log into sites. Do it inline, in the agent’s browser window, for that single session. Don’t save passwords in the agent; use your password manager and type them in when asked. Never share two-factor codes or banking credentials with an agent — not this one, not any other.

Step 5 — Approve sensitive actions manually

Step 6 — Log in only when you need to

Good tasks for agent mode

Bad tasks for agent mode

When to graduate off it