OpenAI has launched its first-ever annual recap feature, offering users a Spotify Wrapped-style summary of their ChatGPT interactions throughout 2025
In a move that aligns with the growing trend of year-end digital recaps, OpenAI has officially rolled out “Your Year with ChatGPT,” a personalized annual review feature that provides users with detailed insights into their interactions with the popular AI chatbot throughout 2025. The feature, which began rolling out on December 22, 2025, represents OpenAI’s entry into the increasingly crowded space of year-end user engagement initiatives, joining the ranks of Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, YouTube Recap, and numerous other platforms that have made annual summaries a staple of the digital experience.
The launch of this feature comes at a particularly significant moment in the artificial intelligence landscape, as ChatGPT continues to solidify its position as one of the most widely used AI tools globally. With millions of users engaging with the platform daily for everything from creative writing and coding assistance to mental health support and problem-solving, the annual recap offers a unique window into how people are integrating AI into their daily lives.
Availability and Eligibility Requirements
According to official statements from OpenAI, the “Your Year with ChatGPT” feature is currently available to users in select English-speaking markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The company has not yet announced plans to expand the feature to additional countries or languages, though such expansion seems likely given the global reach of the ChatGPT platform.
However, not all ChatGPT users will have access to this annual review. The feature comes with specific eligibility requirements that users must meet to receive their personalized recap. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature is exclusively available to users with Free, Plus, and Pro subscription plans. Notably absent from this rollout are Team, Enterprise, and Education accounts, which will not receive the annual review feature.
To access their year-end summary, users must have two critical settings enabled in their ChatGPT account: “Reference Saved Memories” and “Reference Chat History.” These settings allow ChatGPT to analyze and reference past conversations, which forms the foundation for generating the personalized recap. Additionally, users must have met a minimum conversation activity threshold throughout the year, though OpenAI has not publicly disclosed the specific number of interactions required to qualify for the feature.
What’s Included in Your ChatGPT Recap
The “Your Year with ChatGPT” feature offers a comprehensive and visually engaging summary of user interactions with the AI chatbot. Drawing inspiration from Spotify’s wildly popular Wrapped campaign, OpenAI has designed the recap to be both informative and shareable, with eye-catching graphics and personalized elements that reflect each user’s unique relationship with ChatGPT.
One of the most distinctive features of the recap is the AI-generated pixel art-style image that accompanies each user’s summary. These custom illustrations are designed to visually represent the topics and themes that dominated a user’s conversations throughout the year. For example, one user reported receiving an image featuring an aquarium beside a game cartridge, an Instant Pot, and a computer screen—a creative visualization that reflected their queries about retro game consoles, cooking, and fish tank setup.
Beyond the visual elements, the recap includes several data-driven insights into user behavior. Users can see the total number of messages they sent to ChatGPT throughout 2025, providing a quantitative measure of their engagement with the platform. The feature also identifies the user’s most active day—the single day when they sent the most messages to the chatbot—offering insight into peak usage patterns.
In a playful touch that has garnered attention on social media, OpenAI has included a count of em dashes used in conversations between users and ChatGPT. This quirky statistic highlights the punctuation mark that has become somewhat synonymous with ChatGPT’s writing style, adding a humorous element to the otherwise data-focused recap.
Personalized Archetypes and Awards
Perhaps the most engaging aspect of the annual review is the personalized “archetype” and award system that categorizes users based on their interaction patterns with ChatGPT. This gamification element adds a social dimension to the recap, encouraging users to share their results and compare experiences with others.
The archetype system assigns users to categories that reflect their primary use cases for ChatGPT. Examples include “The Producer” for users who primarily use the chatbot for creative content generation, “The Navigator” for those who rely on ChatGPT for guidance and decision-making, and “The Creative Debugger” for users who frequently turn to the AI for problem-solving and troubleshooting assistance.
Accompanying these archetypes are customized awards that celebrate specific ways users have engaged with ChatGPT. One user received the “Instant Pot Prodigy” award, recognizing their frequent cooking-related queries. These personalized touches transform the recap from a simple data summary into a more meaningful reflection of how AI has been integrated into users’ daily routines and problem-solving processes.
The feature also includes a thematic analysis of conversations, identifying the most prevalent topics and subjects that appeared in a user’s chats throughout the year. This provides users with a bird’s-eye view of their interests and concerns over the past twelve months, potentially revealing patterns they may not have consciously recognized.
The “Poem” Feature: AI Reflecting on AI Usage
In what might be considered a meta moment in artificial intelligence, the recap includes a personalized poem generated by ChatGPT that attempts to capture the user’s “general vibe” based on their interactions throughout the year. This creative element represents an interesting intersection of data analysis and artistic expression, as the AI synthesizes months of conversations into a brief poetic summary.
While OpenAI has not released examples of these poems, the feature represents an attempt to move beyond pure statistics and create a more emotionally resonant experience. By translating data into creative expression, OpenAI is acknowledging that user relationships with AI tools like ChatGPT often transcend simple utility and enter the realm of personal connection.
How to Access Your Annual Review
For eligible users, accessing the “Your Year with ChatGPT” feature is straightforward. The recap should appear prominently on the homepage of the ChatGPT app across mobile platforms (iOS and Android) and the web interface. Users can simply tap or click on the year-in-review option to view their personalized summary.
Alternatively, users can access their recap through a conversational approach by directly asking ChatGPT to “show my year in review.” This method aligns with the platform’s core functionality, allowing users to access the feature through natural language interaction rather than navigating through menus.
It’s important to note that users must ensure their ChatGPT app is updated to the latest version to access the feature. Those who don’t see the recap option should first check for available updates in their respective app stores or refresh their web browser.
The Broader Context: Year-End Recaps as Digital Tradition
The launch of “Your Year with ChatGPT” reflects a broader trend in the digital ecosystem where annual recaps have become an expected feature across platforms. What began with Spotify Wrapped in 2016 has evolved into a widespread phenomenon, with companies across industries recognizing the engagement and viral marketing potential of personalized year-end summaries.
In 2025 alone, users have been inundated with recaps from Apple Music, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Photos, Steam, and numerous other platforms. These features serve multiple purposes: they provide users with interesting insights into their own behavior, create shareable content that generates organic social media buzz, and reinforce user engagement with the platform as the year draws to a close.
For OpenAI, the introduction of this feature represents more than just following a trend. It signals the company’s recognition that ChatGPT has become deeply integrated into users’ daily lives—not just as a tool, but as a consistent presence that warrants reflection and acknowledgment. The recap transforms what might be viewed as transactional interactions into a narrative of personal growth, learning, and exploration.
Privacy Considerations and User Control
The “Your Year with ChatGPT” feature raises important questions about data privacy and user control over personal information. The fact that the feature requires users to have “Reference Saved Memories” and “Reference Chat History” enabled means that OpenAI is storing and analyzing conversation data over extended periods.
For privacy-conscious users, this presents a trade-off: access to the personalized recap comes at the cost of allowing OpenAI to maintain and analyze their conversation history. Users who have disabled these settings—either for privacy reasons or personal preference—will not receive a year-end summary, regardless of how actively they’ve used the platform.
This approach respects user autonomy while also acknowledging that personalized features inherently require access to personal data. OpenAI’s decision to make the feature opt-in through these existing settings, rather than creating a separate opt-in mechanism, streamlines the process while maintaining consistency with the platform’s existing privacy framework.
Competitive Landscape and Timing
The launch of “Your Year with ChatGPT” comes at a particularly interesting moment in the AI industry. Recent reports have indicated that ChatGPT may be facing increased competition from Google’s Gemini platform, with some analysts suggesting that ChatGPT has experienced a decline in traffic. CEO Sam Altman reportedly declared “code red” in response to competitive threats, though he has since indicated that such declarations are routine when facing new challenges.
In this context, the year-end recap feature serves multiple strategic purposes. It reinforces user engagement at a critical time, reminds users of the value they’ve derived from the platform throughout the year, and generates social media buzz through shareable content. The timing of the rollout—just before the end of the calendar year—maximizes its impact as users are already in a reflective mindset about the past twelve months.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI Recaps
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, annual recaps like “Your Year with ChatGPT” may become more sophisticated and revealing. Future iterations could potentially include insights into how users’ questions and interests have evolved over time, comparisons with aggregate user trends, or even predictions about future interests based on past behavior.
The feature also raises intriguing questions about the nature of human-AI interaction. As people spend more time conversing with AI systems, these annual summaries provide a unique form of documentation—a record not just of what we asked, but of what we were thinking about, struggling with, and curious about throughout the year.
For OpenAI, the success of this inaugural year-end recap will likely influence whether the feature becomes an annual tradition and how it might evolve in subsequent years. The company has not yet announced whether the feature will be expanded to additional markets or account types, but user response will undoubtedly play a role in shaping these decisions.
Conclusion
“Your Year with ChatGPT” represents OpenAI’s entry into the now-established tradition of digital year-end recaps, offering users a personalized, visually engaging summary of their interactions with the AI chatbot throughout 2025. With its combination of data insights, creative visualizations, personalized archetypes, and even AI-generated poetry, the feature transforms months of conversations into a cohesive narrative about how users have integrated artificial intelligence into their lives.
As the feature rolls out to eligible users in select markets, it serves as both a reflection on the past year and a reminder of how deeply AI tools like ChatGPT have become embedded in daily routines. Whether users are seeking creative inspiration, technical assistance, or simply someone—or something—to talk to, the annual recap acknowledges and celebrates these diverse forms of engagement.
In an era where the line between human and artificial intelligence interaction continues to blur, “Your Year with ChatGPT” offers a moment of reflection on this evolving relationship. As we move forward into 2026 and beyond, such recaps may become increasingly important touchstones for understanding not just how we use technology, but how technology shapes our thinking, learning, and daily experiences.
Sources
- The Verge – ChatGPT’s yearly recap sums up your conversations with the chatbot
- Published: December 22, 2025
- Author: Emma Roth
- Redmond Pie – OpenAI Shares Your Year With ChatGPT Recap
- Published: December 23, 2025
- Author: Oliver Haslam
- Windows Central – OpenAI launches “Your Year with ChatGPT” — a Spotify Wrapped-style recap
- Published: December 23, 2025
- Author: Kevin Okemwa
Additional References
- TechCrunch – Referenced in multiple source articles for original reporting on feature details and OpenAI spokesperson statements
- OpenAI Official Twitter/X – @OpenAI – Official announcement posted December 22, 2025
