Coverage chart / ChatGPT
How to update ChatGPT on your Mac
ChatGPT is published as the Homebrew cask chatgpt, and the app can also update itself. Below is how to run that update yourself, then how Floodtide does it for you, alongside every other app on the Mac. Homebrew describes ChatGPT as "OpenAI's official ChatGPT desktop app".
Update ChatGPT by hand
- Let ChatGPT update itself. Open ChatGPT. It checks for new versions on its own, and if it has not offered one yet, look in the ChatGPT menu, or under Help or its preferences, for Check for Updates, then let it download and relaunch.
- Upgrade the Homebrew cask. If you installed ChatGPT with Homebrew, open Terminal and run
brew upgrade --cask chatgpt. Homebrew downloads the current build, checks it against the checksum it publishes and replaces the app in your Applications folder. - Or download it from chatgpt.com. Otherwise get the current build from chatgpt.com, which is the same download Homebrew points at. Quit ChatGPT, open the download and put the new ChatGPT in Applications in place of the old one: a disk image is dragged across, an installer package runs its own steps. Your settings and documents live outside the app and are kept.
brew upgrade --cask chatgptThat is one app. The same walk, through a different menu or page each time, is what every other app on the Mac asks of you, which is where Floodtide comes in.
The shorter route: one click in Floodtide
Floodtide reads the same Homebrew record for ChatGPT that the brew command above does, without needing Homebrew installed, to learn which version is current. When yours is behind, the row appears under Updates with the version it will move to and the download size. Pressing Update, or Update All, does the rest:
- The vendor's own build is downloaded, several apps at a time, with real progress.
- The download is verified against the checksum the catalogue publishes.
- ChatGPT is asked to quit politely if it is open, and never forced.
- The bundle is swapped and the old version kept for seven days, so Undo Last Update always works.
- The replacement's code signature is checked; a build signed worse than the one you had is rolled back automatically.
Every download of ChatGPT is checked against the checksum Homebrew publishes before anything is replaced.
If ChatGPT lives in a folder macOS protects, the swap asks for your administrator password once for the whole batch, exactly as the Finder does when you install anything by hand.
What Floodtide knows about ChatGPT
- Floodtide reads
- the Homebrew cask chatgpt
- Developer
- chatgpt.com
- Version the source named on 18 October 2026
- 26.1013.40934
- Bundle ID
- com.openai.codex
- Downloads come from
- persistent.oaistatic.com
- Installed by Floodtide
- Yes, in one click, with the rest of your apps.
- Updates itself
- Yes, when you open it. Floodtide covers it anyway, so the Mac is checked whether or not you do.
- Each download is checked against
- the checksum Homebrew publishes
Read from the source on 18 October 2026. The app reads it live.
Questions about ChatGPT
Does Floodtide update ChatGPT?
Yes. ChatGPT also ships its own updater, so it can keep itself current when you launch it. Floodtide covers it anyway, because a self-updating app only updates when you happen to open it, and it tells you nothing about the other apps on the Mac. Floodtide shows ChatGPT beside everything else and updates the whole set in one pass.
How does Floodtide install a new version of ChatGPT?
It downloads the vendor's official build, verifies it against the checksum the catalogue publishes, quits ChatGPT if it is running, swaps the bundle, and keeps the previous version for seven days so the update can be undone.
Will updating ChatGPT lose my settings?
No. Floodtide replaces the application only. Preferences, licences and documents live outside it and are untouched.
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