ChatGPT's new Writing Style feature, announced on 7 September 2026, lets ChatGPT Work learn how you write from your connected Gmail, Google Drive, Slack and SharePoint, then match your tone in new drafts. It is on the paid business tier, and you switch it on by connecting each app yourself.
What it actually does
Instead of you describing how you write, ChatGPT reads how you already write. Connect your everyday apps and it looks at your real emails, messages and files, picks up your habits, your usual phrases, your sign-off, the way you capitalise things, and carries them into whatever it drafts for you next (OpenAI's announcement). The apps it can read are Gmail, Google Drive, Slack and SharePoint. The idea is that the writing it hands back sounds like you wrote it.
The catch most headlines skip
This is on ChatGPT Work, the paid business version, set up on the web. It is not confirmed for the Free or Plus versions that most people use, so for a lot of readers this feature simply is not available yet. It is also opt-in: you connect Gmail, Drive, Slack and SharePoint yourself, one at a time. So it is real, but it is narrower than the headlines make it sound.
Not sure whether you have it? A quick rule: if you pay for ChatGPT yourself, you are on Free or Plus, and this is a look-ahead for you rather than a switch you can flip today. Work seats are the ones your employer sets up and pays for, so if your access came through your company, you may have it, and whether you can connect an app at all may still be your admin's call.
Should you connect your inbox?
Worth a pause before you switch it on. Connecting these apps gives an AI reading access to real emails and files, and on a work account that is your employer's data as well as yours, so it is a workspace and admin question as much as a personal one. If your ChatGPT Work seat is managed by your company, whether you can connect an app at all may be your admin's call, so check before you assume it is yours to switch on. And if you handle anything confidential, client emails, HR or salary threads, unreleased plans, that is the bit to think about first. Connect only the apps you are genuinely comfortable letting it read.
The free way to get the same result
Here is the useful part for everyone still on Free or Plus, or anyone who would rather not wire their inbox to an AI. Underneath, this feature is just gathering samples of your writing automatically, and you can hand it those samples yourself. The prompt below does the same job: paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, give it a few real things you have written, and it reads your style and writes you a short reusable note, with nothing connected.
You are the friend who can do a spot-on impression of how I write. A good impression copies the move, the rhythm and the habits, not a handful of my favourite words. Learn my writing style from samples I give you, then save it as a short note I can reuse. Do this in three steps and stop where I tell you. STEP 1, ASK FIRST. Before anything, ask me for three to five short things I have actually written: a work email, a message to a friend, and something longer if I have it. If I only have one or two, tell me that is fine and work with those. Then wait for me to paste them. Do not analyse writing I have not given you. STEP 2, READ AND REPORT. Read my samples and tell me back, in plain terms, what is true of how I write: - Sentence length and rhythm (short and clipped, long and flowing, or a mix). - Words and phrases I actually use, and ones I clearly avoid. - How formal or casual I am, and whether that shifts between work and friends. - My openings and my sign-offs. - Anything distinctive: how I use humour, punctuation, capitals. Quote a real line from my samples for each point, so I can see you are reading me rather than guessing. STEP 3, WRITE THE NOTE. Turn that into a short reusable note in this shape: - WHO I AM: one line, from what I have told you. Ask me if you do not know. - WHO I WRITE FOR: ask me if the samples do not make it obvious. - HOW I WRITE: five to eight plain rules drawn from the samples, each one specific enough to hand to any AI. - WORDS I DO NOT USE: the tells and phrases I avoid. - A TEST LINE: write one new sentence in my voice on a topic I pick, so I can check the note works. RULES: - Build the note only from my samples and what I tell you. Never invent a fact about me, a job, or a detail I did not give you. Leave a clear [gap] instead. - Keep every rule plain enough to follow. "Be professional" is useless. "Keep emails under five sentences and skip the greeting" is a rule. - When you finish, ask me whether the test line sounds like me. If I say no, ask what is off and fix the note. Do not start over. Once I am happy, tell me to paste this note into my custom instructions, or save it as an about.md file, so every future chat writes in my voice without connecting anything.
If the note comes back with vague rules like "clear and professional", your samples were probably too few or too polished. Feed it messier, real writing, a quick email you actually sent rather than one you tidied up first, and tell it the test line still sounds like a chatbot. It will tighten the rules.
The note on its own does nothing until you point it at a draft. Here is the second half: paste this with your note underneath whenever you want something written in your voice.
Write the thing below in my writing style. My style note is underneath it. Follow the note exactly: match my rhythm and sentence length, use the words I use, avoid the ones I do not, and keep to my rules. Do not smooth it into a neutral, polished voice, that is the thing I am trying to avoid. If you are missing a fact you need, leave a clear [gap] for me rather than inventing one. When you finish, name the single line you are least sure sounds like me. WHAT TO WRITE: [paste the email, message, caption or topic here] MY STYLE NOTE: [paste the note the first prompt wrote for you]
Two more places to put your writing samples, once you have the note:
- Keep one about.md file with a couple of your real writing samples, and paste or attach it at the start of a chat.
- Or set it once in your Claude custom instructions so it applies to every chat.
- For the voice side specifically, the write in my voice guide has the paste-in method.
One difference to know: the connected feature works in the background, while a file only helps when the AI can actually see it. Save it in your custom instructions if you want it on every chat, rather than only when you remember to paste it.
The honest take
It is a genuinely useful idea and clearly where things are heading. If you have ChatGPT Work and you are happy connecting your apps, it saves you the job of gathering samples. If you are on Free or Plus, or you would rather keep your inbox to yourself, the do-it-yourself file gets you most of the way there without handing anything over.
A few quick questions
Can I use this on free ChatGPT?
Not as things stand. OpenAI announced Writing Style for ChatGPT Work, the paid business tier, and there is no confirmation it has reached the Free or Plus versions most people use.
Does it read my personal email?
It reads whichever apps you choose to connect, and it is set up on a work account, so that usually means your work Gmail, Drive, Slack and SharePoint. You connect each one yourself, so only connect what you are comfortable letting an AI read.
What is the free way to make AI sound like me?
Give it your own writing samples instead of connecting your inbox. Paste a few real things you have written and a short note on your voice into an about.md file or your custom instructions. It works on Free or Plus, in Claude or ChatGPT, and nothing gets connected.