Make ChatGPT Run Your Browser and Your Apps For You (Chrome Extension + Computer Use Setup)
I gave ChatGPT and Claude the same job: open Chrome and create 15 meetings on my Google Calendar. ChatGPT finished all 15. Claude stalled at 12. This is the 2 minute setup for ChatGPT's Chrome extension, the Computer Use feature that takes it past the browser, and the exact prompts I run with it.
What happened when I raced them
I gave ChatGPT and Claude the same prompt: using your Chrome extension, create 15 meetings on my Google Calendar. Two browsers side by side. ChatGPT was slow on the first meeting, then it figured out the pattern and blazed through the rest. Claude kept hitting page errors, got stuck around meeting 8, and had 12 of 15 on the calendar when ChatGPT was already done.
The part that matters for you: the extension works inside the Chrome you're already logged into. No API keys. No connectors to wire up. It opens the tab, clicks the buttons, and asks you before it touches a new site. Now here's the setup.
Step 1. Get the ChatGPT desktop app
The Chrome plugin is switched on from the desktop app, so you need that first. Download it from openai.com/chatgpt/download for Mac or Windows and sign in with your normal ChatGPT account.
If you already have it, update it first. The Plugins tab only shows on the current version.
Step 2. Turn on the Chrome plugin
Open the desktop app and look at the left sidebar. Click Plugins. Search for Chrome. The card says Control Chrome with ChatGPT. Open it and scroll to the bottom, there's a setup link that takes you to the ChatGPT extension on the Chrome Web Store. Add it to Chrome, approve the permission prompts, and pin it next to your address bar.
One catch. It has to be real Google Chrome. Chromium browsers like Brave or Edge won't work with the plugin yet.
Boom, that's the whole install. Back in the desktop app the Chrome plugin shows as connected, and in Chrome you get a ChatGPT side chat on any tab.
Step 3. Give it the first job
In the desktop app, start a new chat and type @Chrome before the task. That tells ChatGPT to use the extension instead of its own cloud browser. The first time it opens a site it asks for permission, click Allow and stay at your computer, it pauses for you on anything sensitive.
This is the exact prompt from my race. Change the date and it's yours.
@Chrome Create 15 meetings on my Google Calendar for [date]. Each one is 30 minutes, back to back starting at 8:00 AM, titled Meeting 1 through Meeting 15, no guests. Use the calendar tab that's already open. Tell me when all 15 are saved.Step 4. Turn on Computer Use (it runs your other apps too)
The Chrome plugin only drives the browser. Computer Use is the bigger switch: ChatGPT sees your screen and clicks and types inside any desktop app on Mac or Windows. Finder, Excel, CapCut, your DAW, whatever is open.
Turn it on the same way. In the desktop app switch to Work mode (or Codex), open Plugins, find Computer Use and click Install plugin. Flip on both toggles, the server and the skill, then hit Try now. Then go to Settings, Computer use and review which apps it's allowed to touch.
On a Mac it asks for Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions, say yes to both or it can't see the app. On Windows it runs in the foreground, so keep the app visible and let it have the mouse while it works.
Now you can type @Computer and name the app. It asks before it uses an app for the first time and before anything sensitive. It won't run your terminal, it won't touch admin prompts, and it can't drive ChatGPT itself. This is my favorite use of it, Computer Use and the Chrome plugin in one prompt:
@Computer Open the folder [path] and find the 5 newest videos. Then in the Chrome tab with Meta Business Suite Planner open, upload them one at a time and schedule each one for 9:00 AM on the next 5 days, oldest video first. Ask me before you save each post.Apply to 500 jobs with it
This is the one everybody asks for. Open LinkedIn in Chrome, make sure you're logged in with your resume uploaded, then paste this. It runs through the Easy Apply listings and answers the screening questions from the details you give it. Do it in batches of 50 so LinkedIn doesn't flag the account. The resume side of this, the one that gets past the ATS filters, is in the 500 jobs guide.
@Chrome Go to LinkedIn Jobs, search for [job title] in [city or Remote] with the Easy Apply filter on, sorted by most recent. Apply to every Easy Apply job on the first 2 pages using my saved resume. Answer screening questions from these details: [years of experience], [work authorization], [salary range]. If a question needs something I didn't give you, skip that job and note it. Skip any job that requires a cover letter or sends you to an external site. When you're done, give me a list of every job you applied to with links.Schedule a month of content in one prompt
Put your 30 videos in one folder with a captions.txt next to them, one caption per line in the same order. Because it runs through the desktop app, the extension can reach the files on your computer, so it uploads from your folder and pastes the matching caption. I did my next month in under 2 minutes. Open Meta Business Suite in a tab first and pick the Instagram account.
@Chrome Open Meta Business Suite, Planner, for my Instagram account. Schedule one post per day for the next 30 days at 9:00 AM, using the videos in [folder path] in filename order and the matching line from captions.txt in that folder as the caption. Check each caption matches its video before you save it. Tell me the count when all 30 are scheduled.Repost your reels to Facebook (this doubled my views)
Your best reels are sitting on Instagram doing nothing for your Facebook page. I took my top 100, dripped them onto the page 3 a day, and my views doubled this month. Two things before you upload. Give each video a quiet ambient audio bed so the audio isn't a straight duplicate of the Instagram upload, and write a fresh caption for a cold audience that has never seen you.
The audio bed is one ffmpeg command per video. The video track is copied, nothing gets re-encoded:
ffmpeg -i reel.mp4 -i ambient.mp3 -filter_complex "[1:a]volume=0.15[bed];[0:a][bed]amix=inputs=2:duration=first:dropout_transition=0[a]" -map 0:v -map "[a]" -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 128k reel_fb.mp4The Facebook scheduling prompt
Now let the extension do the scheduling through Bulk upload reels on your page's content calendar. Facebook's bulk tool takes about 35 videos at a time, so split a big batch in two.
@Chrome Open my Facebook Page's Professional Dashboard, Content calendar, Create a post, Bulk upload reels. Upload the videos in [folder path] in filename order and paste the matching line from captions.txt as each caption. Schedule 3 per day at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM starting tomorrow. Wait for each video preview to render before moving on. Before you save, check every caption and time against the list. Tell me the count when they're all scheduled.Keep it on a leash
It acts as you, inside your logged-in accounts, so a few rules. It asks before every new site and every new app, keep that on. In the desktop app, Settings, Computer Use, you can allowlist the sites and apps it's allowed to touch and block the rest. Never hand it a payment form or a password reset. Watch the first run of any new task, then let it go. And go in batches on LinkedIn and Facebook, fast repeated clicking gets rate limited the same way bots do.
For educational purposes. Automating a site you don't own can break its terms, so keep it to your own accounts.
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Frequently asked questions
The extension and the desktop app are free downloads. Browser control is rolling out by plan and region, so if the Plugins tab doesn't show Chrome yet, update the app and check again in a few days. It's listed on the Chrome Web Store as ChatGPT, publisher OpenAI. Computer Use is the one that needs ChatGPT Work or Codex.
Yes. The extension on its own gives you the side chat. Controlling the browser is switched on from the desktop app's Plugins tab, Computer Use lives there too, and that's also how it reaches files on your computer for uploads.
The Chrome plugin drives tabs inside Chrome, @Chrome in your prompt. Computer Use sees your whole screen and works inside any desktop app, @Computer plus the app name. Use the plugin for anything that lives on a website, Computer Use for the apps around it.
No. The plugin only drives real Google Chrome right now. Chromium browsers are not supported. Computer Use can still click around any app, including those browsers, it just won't have the plugin's tab access.
It asks before each new site and app, and you can allowlist or block them in Settings, Computer Use. Keep payments and passwords away from it, stay at the computer on the first run, and work in batches so you don't trip the platform's spam limits. If you'd rather run the job hunt with Claude, this guide uses the Indeed connector.
In my run ChatGPT recovered from page errors and batched the repetitive part. Claude kept tripping on the same errors and stalled. Same prompt, same day, same machine. It could go differently on another task, the point is you can hand ChatGPT a long repetitive browser job and walk away.