I opened OpenAI Support Case 15474043 to clarify what happens to existing Cloud Work content when a personal account downgrades from Plus to Go or Free.
Support confirmed that:
- saved data is not documented as deleted by downgrade;
- Free and Go have Limited ChatGPT Work access on desktop;
- OpenAI cannot confirm whether existing Plus-created Cloud Work conversations can still be opened/read after downgrade;
- access to Work-generated artifacts is not guaranteed unless separately saved to Library;
- restoring access after upgrading back to Plus is not guaranteed;
- inclusion of all Work conversations/artifacts in Data Export is not guaranteed;
- Support has no product-team inquiry path to obtain a case-specific answer for this undocumented behavior.
This creates a serious lifecycle problem for paid Work content.
A user can create substantial work while subscribed to Plus, downgrade later, and currently has no documented guarantee that the previously created content remains readable without resubscribing.
At minimum, the product needs a documented contract for:
- read-only access after downgrade;
- artifact accessibility;
- restoration after re-upgrade;
- Data Export coverage;
- a warning before downgrade if content will become inaccessible.
Has anyone actually tested Plus → Free/Go with existing Cloud Work conversations and can confirm the real behavior?