Claude and ChatGPT can both do work on a schedule now, completely on their own. You tell them once what you want and when, and from then on your inbox gets cleaned every morning, your week gets planned every Sunday and your numbers land every Friday, while you do nothing. Here's how to set it up in either app, the settings people miss, and five ready-made routines you can paste in today.
What Scheduled Tasks Actually Are
The plan · 5 steps
- 1Paste the setup prompt and let the AI build your first task with you.
- 2Make sure it runs in the cloud, on the right schedule.
- 3Connect only the apps it needs.
- 4Turn on notifications so you actually see the results.
- 5Add the five ready-made routines one at a time.
Before you start
Claude
A paid plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise). Free doesn't include scheduled tasks or routines.
ChatGPT
Any plan works. Free and Go get 3 active tasks, and paid plans get more, plus exact times and hourly runs.
Your apps
Your email and calendar, connected in Claude (Customize > Connectors) or ChatGPT (Plugins).
Your first job: One boring, safe task, like a morning summary of your inbox.
Most people use AI the same way every time: open it, ask, close it. Scheduled tasks flip that around. A scheduled task is a saved job: your instructions, a schedule and the apps it's allowed to use. It runs on its own at the time you set and sends you the result, whether your laptop is open, asleep or in your bag.
That's the unlock. You're not automating with your own machine anymore. You're handing the AI a standing order it carries out by itself, and a real chunk of your weekly busywork just handles itself.
| Claude | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| What it's called | Scheduled tasks (in any chat) and routines (in the Code tab) | Scheduled tasks |
| Plans | Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise | Every plan, including Free |
| What it can use | Your connectors | Your memory and connected plugins |
| Where you manage them | Scheduled in the sidebar, or claude.ai/code/routines | Scheduled in the sidebar |
Maverick's tip
Don't let the "Code" label on Claude's routines scare you off. Either way, it's just the AI following your plain instructions on a timer. No coding required.
The Autopilot Setup Prompt
Paste this into a new chat in Claude or ChatGPT. It interviews you, figures out what's worth automating and sets up your first task with you.
I want to put my week on autopilot with scheduled tasks. Ask me these questions one at a time and wait for each answer: 1. What do I do every day or every week that eats my time (email, planning, reports, follow-ups, research)? 2. Which apps do those jobs live in (email, calendar, Slack, a spreadsheet)? 3. When do I want the results, and how (in this chat, by email or as a notification)? Then, using my answers and anything you already know about me, suggest the 3 scheduled tasks that would save me the most time each week. For each one, give me a clear name, the exact instructions you'd run, how often and at what time, and which connected apps it needs. Keep every task read-and-summarize or draft-only. Nothing gets sent, deleted, posted or bought without my approval. When I pick one, set it up as a scheduled task and show me the name, schedule and instructions to confirm. If an app it needs isn't connected yet, tell me exactly what to connect first.
In Claude: when it shows you the task, check it and click Schedule. In ChatGPT: it confirms the task, the schedule and your time zone, and it's live.
Heads up: Start with boring, safe jobs like summaries, briefings and reports. A task that sends emails, posts or changes your data runs with nobody watching, and Claude routines can use every tool in the connectors you include without stopping to ask. Have those draft or flag for your approval until you fully trust them.
Create Your First Task
The setup prompt does this for you. Here's where everything lives so you can make more by hand.
In Claude
- The easy way: in any chat, describe the job and how often it should run, like "every weekday at 8am, summarize my unread email." Claude asks a couple of questions, shows you the name, schedule and instructions, and you click Schedule. You can also start from Scheduled in the left sidebar or type /schedule.
- Still see separate Chat and Cowork options? Your account hasn't moved to the new experience yet. Open Cowork, click Scheduled in the left sidebar, then New task, and choose Create with Claude (or Set up manually).
- The Code tab way (routines): open the Claude desktop app, choose Code, click Routines in the sidebar (or under More), then New routine. You can also manage them at claude.ai/code/routines. Routines are still in research preview and the form asks about code projects, so for everyday jobs the scheduled task is simpler.
In ChatGPT
- Open Scheduled in the left sidebar and ask for what you want, the way you'd ask a person: "Every weekday at 7am, give me a three-line summary of AI news I would actually care about." Or "Tomorrow at 9, remind me to send the invoice and draft it for me." ChatGPT confirms the task, the schedule and the time zone, and it's live.
- Build tasks at chatgpt.com. The Scheduled page doesn't always show in the desktop app.
- To see everything running, open Scheduled, or the three dots menu in any chat and See scheduled tasks, or Settings > Notifications > Manage tasks. Click a task's title inside its chat to edit, pause or delete it.
Maverick's tip
Not sure how to word the instructions? Open a normal chat, describe what you want, and ask it to "write me routine instructions for this." Then paste those in.
Set the Schedule and Keep It in the Cloud
In Claude
Cloud is the important one. Cloud means it runs on Anthropic's servers, so it happens on schedule even when your computer is closed. Scheduled tasks run in the cloud by default, unless the job needs files or apps on your computer. For a routine, choose Cloud when you create it. Local makes it a desktop task that only runs when your machine is awake and the app is open, and a closed laptop means a skipped run.
Then pick how often it runs (hourly, daily, weekdays or weekly) and the time.
In ChatGPT
There are four kinds of schedule, and knowing which one you want is most of the skill.
- Once. A one-off at a set time, like a reminder with the work already done.
- Recurring. Daily, weekly or monthly. This is where briefings, reports and check-ins live.
- Event-triggered (Plus and above, runs in Work). The task fires when something happens: a new email in Gmail, a message in a Slack channel, activity on a GitHub pull request. Connect the app first, then switch to Work and describe the event and what ChatGPT should do. It shows you the trigger, the condition and the prompt to confirm before it goes live. More in my ChatGPT Work guide.
- Monitor. "Watch this page and tell me if the price changes." A recurring check with a condition attached, and it can stop on its own once the condition is met.
The limits worth knowing: Free tasks run at most once a day, in a rough window like morning or afternoon rather than at an exact minute. Exact times and hourly runs need a paid plan. Every plan has a cap on active tasks (3 on Free and Go), and when you hit it you pause or delete one to make room.
Connect Your Apps and Turn On Notifications
A task is only as useful as the apps it can reach, so connect what the job needs and nothing more. Then turn on notifications, or your tasks run in silence and you never quite know when they're done.
Connect apps in Claude
Connect apps in Customize > Connectors. Routines include all your connectors by default, so remove any the job doesn't need before you save. My Claude connectors guide walks through the popular ones, and my Claude email autopilot guide goes deep on inbox automation.
Connect apps in ChatGPT
Install apps from Plugins in the left sidebar, then connect your account (installing and connecting are two separate steps). Manage them at Settings > Plugins. Inside a task, type @ to pull in a connected app. That's the line between a scheduled reminder and a scheduled action. More in my ChatGPT plugins guide.
A ChatGPT task gets your memory and your connected apps, and it can even use ChatGPT Finances or Health if you've set them up. It can't read files you uploaded to a project or run in a voice chat, so put everything the task needs to know inside the task itself.
Heads up: If a task isn't running when you expect, nine times out of ten it's one of two things. In Claude, it's set to Local instead of Cloud. In either app, the app it needs isn't connected. Check both and you're set.
Turn on notifications
- In Claude: go to Settings > Notifications and switch on alerts for when a task finishes. Claude can email you or send a push notification the second it's done, and you can open any task to see its past runs.
- In ChatGPT: go to Settings > Notifications and choose Push, Email or both for tasks.
Maverick's tip
This is what makes it feel like magic. A routine that cleans your inbox at 9am and then pings you "done, here's what I found" feels completely different from one that runs in silence.
5 Ready-Made Routines
Five to set up today. Each one works in Claude and ChatGPT, the schedule is already in the prompt, and all five need your email and calendar connected. Change the times to fit your life.
In Claude: paste it into any chat and click Schedule (for a Code tab routine, paste it into the instructions and set the same schedule). In ChatGPT: paste it into the Scheduled page or any chat. "Email me" arrives as the task's email notification.
1. Morning inbox cleanup
Every day at 9am, go through my inbox: archive newsletters and promos I haven't opened, flag anything that actually needs a reply, and send me a 5-line summary of what matters most today. Don't delete anything.
2. Sunday week planner
Every Sunday at 6pm, look at my calendar and my open tasks for the week ahead, and email me a clear, prioritized list of exactly what I need to get done, most important first, with anything time-sensitive flagged.
3. Daily morning brief
Every weekday at 7am, pull my calendar for today, any emails I was tagged on or that look urgent, and the top news in [MY INDUSTRY], and send me a one-page morning brief.
4. Weekly numbers report
Every Friday at 4pm, pull this week's activity from my connected apps, build a short report of what happened and what's still open, compare it to last week, and email it to me.
5. Follow-up catcher
Every day at 5pm, check my sent email for anyone I said I'd follow up with and haven't, and send me a short list of who I owe a reply or a next step, so nothing slips.
Bonus: Find and Share More Automations
The automation audit
Don't sit there trying to think of automations. The AI already knows what you ask it over and over, so ask it to find them. This works in both apps.
THE AUTOMATION AUDIT Based on your memory of me and the things I ask you again and again, give me a list of tasks I should schedule so you can just do them automatically. Be as specific as possible. For each one: the exact prompt I should schedule, how often it should run, and which connected apps it needs. Rank them by how much time they would save me per month, and tell me which three to set up today.
Take the top three, create them, and live with them for a week before you add more.
Publish a weekly report with Sites (ChatGPT Plus and Pro)
Sites turns a task's output into something people actually open. It builds and publishes a real web page with a live link, no hosting and no code. It's a public beta on Plus and Pro (not Free or Go, and not in the EEA, UK or Switzerland at launch). Have a scheduled Work task pull the numbers each week and publish them as a page at a link that updates itself. Full walkthrough: ChatGPT Sites guide.
Every Friday at 4pm, in Work: gather this week's numbers from [CONNECTED TOOL], write a short summary with the three things that changed and why, and publish it with Sites as a clean one-page report at the same URL as last week, replacing the old version. Design: plain, lots of white space, one chart if the numbers support it, no stock images. Send me the link when it is live.
Share a task (ChatGPT)
On the Scheduled page, open the three dots next to a task, choose Share and copy the link. Whoever opens it gets a copy they can schedule on their own account, with their own apps and none of your data. I share these with my team instead of explaining the same automation four times.
Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes
| If this happens | Try this |
|---|---|
| It didn't run while your laptop was closed | In Claude, it's set to Local. Make it a scheduled task or set the routine to Cloud. |
| It ran but couldn't reach your email or calendar | The app isn't connected. Claude: Customize > Connectors. ChatGPT: Plugins, then connect your account. |
| It summarized but didn't archive anything | Some connections can only read. Check what the connector or plugin is allowed to do, or have the task flag instead of archive. |
| You never see the results | Turn on notifications at Settings > Notifications in either app. |
| There's no scheduling option in Claude | Scheduled tasks and routines need a paid plan. Still see Chat and Cowork? Use Cowork > Scheduled > New task. |
| You can't find Scheduled in the ChatGPT desktop app | Build and manage tasks at chatgpt.com. |
| ChatGPT ran at a rough time, not the exact minute | Free tasks run once a day in a time window. Exact times and hourly runs need a paid plan. |
| ChatGPT won't let you add another task | You've hit your plan's cap. Pause or delete one to make room. |
| A ChatGPT task stopped running | It paused for your approval, or you deleted its chat. Check the Scheduled page. |
| The result is vague every single day | Rewrite the instructions with the exact output you want: length, order and what to flag. |
| You're burning through your Claude limit | Tasks share your normal usage. Cut overlapping ones and keep the ones that save the most time. |
Quick Reference: The One-Page Cheat Sheet
The whole setup in both apps. Screenshot this.
| Step | In Claude | In ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Create | Describe the job and how often in any chat, then click Schedule. Routines: desktop app, Code, Routines, New routine | Scheduled in the left sidebar, then ask for the task. Use chatgpt.com |
| Schedule | Hourly, daily, weekdays or weekly. Routines: choose Cloud, not Local | Once, recurring, event-triggered (Plus and up) or monitor |
| Connect apps | Customize > Connectors. Remove ones it doesn't need | Plugins in the sidebar, then type @ in the task |
| Get notified | Settings > Notifications | Settings > Notifications, then Push, Email or both |
| Manage | Scheduled in the sidebar, or claude.ai/code/routines | Scheduled, or Settings > Notifications > Manage tasks |
| Plans | Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise | Every plan. Free and Go get 3 active tasks |
DO THIS TODAY
Open Claude or ChatGPT and type: "Every day at 9am, go through my inbox, flag anything that needs a reply and send me a 5-line summary. Don't delete anything." Check what it sets up, confirm it, and turn on notifications. Tomorrow morning, the work is already done.
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