If you keep account context in a saved container — a ChatGPT project, a Claude project, a Gemini Gem — one question you probably cannot answer is who can see your ChatGPT or Claude project, and who decides. Here is the answer, read from each vendor's current documentation on 15 October 2026, plus two prompts for auditing what you already have.
This is not a guide to what belongs inside the container. The persistent account workspace covers what to put in and how to keep it current, and Claude vs ChatGPT for sales covers which model suits which task. This post is about the container: what it holds, who can read it, what your admin can switch off, and what happens when the vendor retires it.
What each container actually persists
Claude projects are described as self-contained workspaces "with their own chat histories and knowledge bases", with instructions set per project. Free accounts can create five. On paid plans, when project knowledge approaches context limits, Claude switches to a retrieval mode the documentation says can "expand capacity by up to 10x".
ChatGPT projects keep "related chats, files, and instructions together", and project instructions "apply only within that project and override your global custom instructions". You can create an unlimited number, but file counts are capped per project by plan: five on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, 40 on Edu, Pro, Business and Enterprise, with only ten uploadable at once.
ChatGPT projects also carry a memory setting the others do not advertise. A project set to project-only memory cannot reference conversations outside itself, and a shared project always uses it. If a project stopped knowing something you told it elsewhere, look there first.
Who else can see it
On Claude, project sharing exists on Team and Enterprise plans. A project is created public or private: public means "Everyone in your organization can view and use the project", private means "Only invited members can view and use the project". A member with view access sees project contents, knowledge and instructions. Your chats inside the project are the exception — they stay private to you unless you share them deliberately.
On ChatGPT, sharing reaches further down the plan ladder, across Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. Collaborators get Edit or Chat access, capped at five on Free, ten on Plus and Go, 100 on Pro and in Business workspaces. Members see the project's chats, files and member list — a wider default than Claude's, which excludes chats.
Gemini Gems can be shared too, and the detail worth knowing is where they live: shared Gems are stored in Google Drive, so your organisation's Drive sharing settings apply.
What your admin can switch off
Claude lets owners turn off project sharing for the organisation, and turn off public projects separately. Turn public projects off and they become private, so anyone whose only route in was the public listing loses access. Existing individual shares stay in place.
ChatGPT projects "inherit all toggles and restrictions" from a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace, and owners set role-based permissions for who may create or share a project at all. Enterprise admins can disable sharing for the whole workspace or for specific roles.
Google has an admin setting labelled "Allow users to share Gems". Turn it off and "Gems will no longer be shareable from the Gemini app", though previously shared Gems remain reachable in Drive. The newer container is a different story: Google's 13 October 2026 post states that "There are no admin controls for skills in the Gemini app." If your employer expects IT to govern where customer context lands, that is the sentence to carry into the conversation.
What happens when the vendor retires the container
This is what a feature table misses, and Gemini is the live example. Google's help documentation gives the Gems-to-skills transition as November 2026 for personal Google accounts, March 2027 for Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts, and June 2027 for Workspace education accounts, with Gems transitioned automatically and knowledge files carried across. GitHub files are not supported in skills.
Those removal dates still stand. What moved is the replacement. Skills began a gradual rollout in the Gemini app on 13 October 2026, with completion expected by mid-November 2026, while skills in Google Workspace are "Delayed until further notice" and Google says it will share an updated timeline once confirmed. Workspace skills are also limited to users over 18, where app skills reach users of all ages. Our news item on the skills rollout tracks it, and Gemini Gems and skills for sales covers building one.
Read that as a pattern, not a Google story: the container holding your account context can be renamed, rescheduled or restricted mid-deal, and nobody asks you first.
Prompt one: audit the containers you already have
Run this against your own list first.
I keep AI context for my accounts in saved containers. Here is my list, one per line, with the tool, the name, and what is in it: [PASTE LIST] For each one, ask me the questions you need to fill this table, one at a time. Do not guess: 1. Tool and plan I am on 2. Who besides me can open it today 3. Whether my admin can switch that sharing off 4. Which customer names, pricing or contract terms are inside it 5. Whether I could rebuild it from notes I hold elsewhere if it vanished tomorrow When the table is complete, list two groups separately: containers holding information I could not reconstruct, and containers holding customer detail more people can see than I intended. Do not recommend a tool.
Prompt two: write a brief you can move
The answer to retirement risk is a brief that lives outside the container.
Act as a sales operations reviewer. I am going to describe one account I run out of a saved AI container. [DESCRIBE THE ACCOUNT AND WHAT IS IN THE CONTAINER] Write a plain-text brief I can paste into any AI tool to rebuild this container. Structure it as: - Standing instructions: role, tone, what to never assume - Reference facts: the account facts that do not change - Open questions: what is still unknown about this deal - Sources: where each fact came from, and which ones I inferred rather than verified Mark each line stated or inferred. Add no facts I did not provide. Keep it under 400 words so it fits any file limit.
Common mistakes
Treating sharing as a one-time decision. A private project can be made organisation-wide later, and a workspace toggle moves the boundary without touching your project.
Assuming your chats are as private as your files. On Claude they are, by default. In a ChatGPT project, members can see the project's chats. Two different defaults, easy to confuse.
Pasting contract terms and named pricing into a container whose permissions you cannot describe. Audit first.
Keeping the only copy of your account thinking inside one vendor's container. If you would have to start over, that is not a workspace, it is a single point of failure. The guide to Claude projects for sales reps covers the build; the portable brief above is what survives it.
Frequently asked questions
Can my manager see my ChatGPT project?
Only if you shared it, or it sits in a workspace that grants access. ChatGPT project members can see the project's chats, files and member list, and projects inherit the toggles and restrictions of a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace. Check the member list rather than assuming.
Are Claude projects private by default?
Claude asks you to choose at creation. Public means everyone in your organisation can view and use it; private means only invited members can. Your own chats stay private unless you share them. Project sharing is a Team and Enterprise feature.
What happens to my Gemini Gems when Google retires them?
Google's documentation says Gems transition to skills automatically, with knowledge files carried across: November 2026 for personal accounts, March 2027 for Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts, June 2027 for Workspace education. GitHub files are not supported in skills, and skills in Google Workspace are delayed until further notice.
Before you load another container, run the audit prompt above against what you have. For a prompt built for your role in ten seconds, try the free prompt builder.