Short answer
Use ChatGPT Health for what OpenAI designed it to do, which is understanding your own information and preparing for conversations with your care team, not for diagnosis or treatment. Before you connect anything, review its separate memories, connected apps and custom instructions, share only what a question needs, and take every answer back to a clinician.
Follow-up question What health information should you keep out?
ChatGPT Health, announced by OpenAI on January 7, 2026, is a separate area inside ChatGPT for health and wellness conversations. You can upload files there and, if you choose, connect medical records and wellness apps such as Apple Health, Function or MyFitnessPal, so that answers take your own data into account. OpenAI says more than 230 million people already ask ChatGPT health questions every week; Health is its attempt to give those conversations a more structured and better-protected home.
OpenAI is explicit about the limit: Health is meant to support medical care, not replace it, and it is not designed to diagnose or treat anyone. The safest way to use it follows from that sentence. Treat it as a well-informed helper for understanding and preparing, and keep decisions about tests, medicines and treatment with the people who are responsible for your care.
Who can use it, and how it is separated
Access is starting with a small group through a waitlist, open to Free, Go, Plus and Pro users except in the UK, Switzerland and the European Economic Area. Medical record connections and some apps work only in the United States, and syncing Apple Health requires an iPhone.
Once you have access, Health appears in the ChatGPT sidebar. Its conversations, files, connected apps and memories are stored apart from your other chats. ChatGPT may borrow some context from ordinary chats, such as a recent move, but nothing from Health flows back the other way. OpenAI also says it does not train its foundation models on Health conversations, and that Health adds its own layer of encryption and isolation on top of ChatGPT's standard protections.
A worked example: preparing for an appointment
Preparing questions for a visit is one of the uses OpenAI highlights, and it is a good first task because you stay in charge of every decision. Suppose you have a routine check-up next week and a recent blood test report as a PDF.
- Open Health from the sidebar and upload the report, rather than connecting every app you own.
- Send a prompt that asks for explanation and questions, not conclusions:
I have a routine check-up next week. Attached is my latest blood test report.
1. Explain in plain language what each section of the report measures.
2. Point out any values the report itself marks as outside its reference range, without guessing at causes.
3. Draft five short questions I could ask my doctor about these results.
4. List anything you are unsure about, so I know to ask rather than rely on you.
Do not suggest a diagnosis or change any treatment.- Read the answer against the original report. Check that every number it mentions matches the PDF.
- Edit the questions in your own words, print them or save them to your phone, and bring them to the appointment.
What you should get is a clearer picture of what the report covers and a short list of questions, not a verdict. If the reply drifts into telling you what you have or what to take, steer it back or stop there: that is a conversation for your clinician. If anything feels urgent, contact a health professional or emergency services rather than continuing the chat.
Try it: Before your next appointment, write down three things you want to understand, ask Health to turn them into clear questions, and compare its list with the one you would have written alone.
Privacy settings to check first
Spend five minutes on these before you connect any data:
| Setting | Where | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Health memories | Inside Health, or Settings → Personalization | See and delete what Health remembers about you |
| Medical records and apps | Settings → Apps | Remove access at any time; a disconnected app loses access immediately |
| Health custom instructions | Inside Health or Settings | Tell it which topics to avoid or how to frame answers; they apply only to Health |
| Multi-factor authentication | Account security settings | Adds a second check if someone learns your password |
Apps must ask your explicit permission before they can reach your health data, even if you already use them elsewhere in ChatGPT, and the first time you connect one, ChatGPT explains what kinds of data the third party may collect. Read that screen before you agree.
What health information should you keep out?
Share the least that answers your question. If you want help understanding one test, upload that report, not your full history. Connecting every wellness app may be convenient, but each connection is one more company handling your data under its own terms, so add them only when a question truly needs them.
Leave out information that belongs to other people. A partner's diagnosis, a child's records or a parent's medication list are theirs to share, and with children in particular, it is wiser to ask a pediatric professional directly.
Leave out identifiers the question does not need. An explanation of cholesterol results does not require your insurance number, your health card number or your home address. When a file carries those details, consider covering or removing them before you upload it, or type the relevant values instead.
Finally, keep out anything you would not want stored at all. Health adds protections, but it is still an online service, and the people best placed to handle a crisis, a sensitive diagnosis or a decision about treatment are clinicians you can talk to. ChatGPT Health can help you arrive at that conversation better prepared; it cannot take its place.
Sources
- Introducing ChatGPT Health — OpenAI, January 7, 2026
- OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health: 5 Things to Know — MedCity News, January 7, 2026