Optional Setting to Toggle “Enter to Send” off

ChatGPT Feature requests
1

Hi everyone,

I know this has been requested multiple times before, but I’d like to raise it again with an additional perspective not just UX, but also efficiency and resource usage.

Current behavior:

  • Enter = Send message

  • Shift + Enter = New line

The issue:
When writing longer or structured prompts, it’s very easy to accidentally press Enter and send the message prematurely. This leads to:

  • Interrupted workflows

  • Fragmented prompts

  • Immediate follow-up edits or corrections

Proposed solution:
Introduce an optional toggle in settings that allows users to choose how messages are sent:

Option A (current default):

  • Enter = Send

  • Shift + Enter = New line

Option B (writing-focused mode):

  • Enter = New line

  • Shift + Enter = Send

Option C (common industry standard, including among competitors as standard…):

  • Enter = New line

  • Ctrl + Enter = Send

The Ctrl + Enter option is especially aligned with behavior in many other platforms (including competitors), making it more intuitive for a large group of users.

Why this matters (User Experience):

  • Prevents accidental message sending

  • Improves workflows for longer prompts

  • Supports both casual and advanced users

Why this matters (OpenAI / Efficiency):
Accidental sends often result in:

  1. A full response being generated

  2. The user immediately correcting or resending the prompt

  3. The initial response becoming completely unused

This means unnecessary tokens are processed and generated for responses that provide zero value.

OpenAI has previously highlighted that even small, unnecessary interactions (like very short prompts of including “Hello”) can be wasteful at scale. Accidental submissions likely represent a similar inefficiency just less visible.

Reducing these cases could:

  • Lower unnecessary compute usage

  • Improve overall system efficiency

  • Reduce redundant generations at scale

Summary:
This is a small, optional setting that:

  • Improves UX significantly

  • Aligns with common platform standards

  • Potentially reduces wasted compute and cost

A rare case where both user experience and system efficiency greatly benefit from the same change.

Thanks for considering!