ChatGPT can now read your Chrome tabs (and act for you)
With the updated extension, ChatGPT compares the pages open in your browser and, in Work mode, fills in forms, sends messages and downloads files. Handy, with a few precautions.
by Mattia Panatta
OpenAI has updated the ChatGPT extension for Chrome. Now, from the ChatGPT app on the web or desktop, you can “call in” Chrome and ask the assistant to look at the tabs you have open: for example, comparing three sofas you’re considering on different sites, or summarising the articles you left open yesterday.
What it can do
- Read the open pages and work across all of them: comparisons, summaries, tables.
- Organise tabs, grouping them by topic.
- In Work mode, act inside tabs: fill in forms, send messages, download files.
- Stay in Chrome’s sidebar, with conversation history, without leaving the page.
The update comes after OpenAI shut down Atlas, the browser it launched last year: rather than convincing us to switch browsers, ChatGPT moves into the one we already use.
My take
It’s one of the most concrete steps towards agents that work for us: no copy and paste, the assistant sees what you see. That’s exactly why it needs judgement. The extension works in your Chrome profile, so it can act on sites where you’re already signed in: email, social media, business tools, your bank.
Three rules I follow:
- I use tab reading freely, but actions only for clear, low-risk tasks;
- I always check before it sends a message or submits a form;
- I don’t let it work on unknown pages alongside important accounts: a malicious page can contain hidden instructions for the agent (so-called prompt injection, which I cover in the lesson on agents, MCP and skills).
