ChatGPT Computer History vs DejaVu

OpenAI’s Computer History is often described as “Rewind inside ChatGPT”. It isn’t quite that, and the difference matters if you care about where your activity goes.

What Computer History does

According to OpenAI’s documentation, Computer History is an opt-in feature of the ChatGPT app for Mac. It replaced Chronicle, an April 2026 research preview in Codex that took screenshots; OpenAI calls Computer History “a rebuilt system rather than a rename”.

• What it collects: interaction events from the apps and sites you allow — clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, app switches — plus text and context those apps expose through macOS Accessibility. It does not include screenshots in your history, doesn’t record the microphone or system sound, and never includes private-browsing activity.
• Where it goes: events are collected on your Mac in temporary files, which are deleted after 48 hours. An ephemeral session on OpenAI’s servers processes those files to generate memories. OpenAI says it doesn’t keep the files after processing, unless legally required, and doesn’t train on them.
• What stays on your Mac: the generated memories, as Markdown files that are not encrypted by Computer History. OpenAI notes that other programs running as the same macOS user may be able to read them.
• Who can use it: ChatGPT Pro, Business and Enterprise. It is off by default; on Business and Enterprise an admin must approve it first.

Side by side

	ChatGPT Computer History	DejaVu
What it keeps	Interaction events (clicks, typing, shortcuts, app switches) and on-screen text from allowed apps	Compressed pictures of your screen when it changes, and their text
Screenshots	No	Yes, compressed, on your Mac
What you type	Logged (“typing”)	Never kept
Audio	No	No
Processing	On OpenAI’s servers, from temporary event files	On your Mac, with Apple’s text recognition
Stored on your Mac as	Markdown memory files, not encrypted by Computer History	An encrypted memory; the key is protected by the Secure Enclave
To look back	Through ChatGPT	Touch ID, or your password, depending on the level you choose
What it is for	Context for ChatGPT conversations	Finding the exact moment you saw something
Price	Included in ChatGPT Pro, Business, Enterprise	Free with 3 days of memory; Pro $79 once, $9/month or $59/year

Two different ideas of memory

Computer History is a memory for ChatGPT: it helps the assistant know what you were doing, so you can ask it to pick up where you left off. That requires sending your activity to OpenAI for processing, and it keeps what you typed, because typing is part of what you did.

DejaVu is a memory for you: it keeps what you saw, exactly, so you can find it again — the tracking number, the error message, the paragraph in a document. It doesn’t need to understand your day on a server to do that, so it doesn’t send it anywhere. And because it remembers your screen rather than your keyboard, a password you type in an ordinary field, or a message you wrote and deleted, isn’t kept.

Neither approach is “right” for everyone. If you want ChatGPT to know your context and you are comfortable with OpenAI processing your activity, Computer History does that well. If you want a private record that never leaves your Mac, a local screen memory fits better.

Choosing, in one question

Ask yourself: who is this memory for? If the answer is “my AI assistant”, Computer History is built for it. If the answer is “me”, choose an app that keeps it on your Mac, locks it, and never logs what you type. Our privacy checklist works for both.