How to Remove the Grey Background from ChatGPT: A Comprehensive Guide

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s powerful language model, has become an indispensable tool for many users. Whether you’re brainstorming ideas, drafting content, or simply engaging in conversation, ChatGPT offers a versatile platform. However, some users find the default grey background to be visually unappealing or straining on the eyes, especially during prolonged use. Fortunately, there are several methods to customize ChatGPT’s appearance, allowing you to get rid of the grey background and create a more comfortable and personalized experience. This comprehensive guide explores various techniques to achieve this, catering to different browsers, operating systems, and user preferences.

## Why Remove the Grey Background?

Before diving into the how-to, let’s consider why you might want to change the background color in the first place:

* **Eye Strain:** The default grey background can contribute to eye strain, particularly in low-light conditions. A brighter or darker background might be more comfortable for extended use.
* **Aesthetics:** Personal preferences play a significant role. Some users simply find the grey background unappealing and prefer a different color scheme.
* **Accessibility:** Certain users with visual impairments may find it easier to read text against a specific background color.
* **Branding:** If you’re using ChatGPT for professional purposes (e.g., generating content for your website), aligning the appearance with your brand’s colors can create a more cohesive experience.

## Methods to Remove the Grey Background

There are several approaches to customize ChatGPT’s background. These methods range from simple browser extensions to more advanced custom CSS solutions. Here’s a detailed look at each:

### 1. Using Browser Extensions (Recommended for Ease of Use)

Browser extensions offer the most straightforward way to modify ChatGPT’s appearance without requiring coding knowledge. Several extensions are specifically designed for this purpose or offer general CSS customization features.

**a. Stylus (Highly Recommended)**

Stylus is a user-friendly browser extension that allows you to apply custom CSS styles to websites. It’s available for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and other Chromium-based browsers.

**Installation:**

1. **Install the Stylus extension:** Search for “Stylus” in your browser’s extension store (e.g., Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons) and install it.
2. **Find a ChatGPT Style:** Once Stylus is installed, you can either create your own CSS style or find one that’s already created by the community. A great place to find these is userstyles.org. Search for “ChatGPT” on UserStyles.org ([https://userstyles.world/](https://userstyles.world/)) to see if anyone has already created a style you like. If you find one, you can simply click the “Install Style” button to apply it.

**Creating your own Style (if needed):**

If you can’t find a pre-made style that you like, follow these instructions to create your own.

1. **Navigate to ChatGPT:** Open ChatGPT ([https://chat.openai.com/](https://chat.openai.com/)).
2. **Open Stylus:** Click the Stylus icon in your browser’s toolbar.
3. **Create a New Style:** Select “Write new style” or “Create new style for: chat.openai.com”.
4. **Write the CSS:** In the Stylus editor, add the following CSS code to change the background color. You can customize the colors to your preference. This CSS targets the main background and also alters the input bar colors.

css
/* Change the main background color */
body {
background-color: #f0f0f0 !important; /* Light grey, adjust as needed */
}

/* Change the chat container background */
.dark {
background-color: #f0f0f0 !important;
}

/* For new interface */
.text-gray-800 {
color: #000000 !important; /* Makes text black */
}

.bg-gray-50 {
background-color: #ffffff !important; /* Makes Message bubbles white */
}

.bg-token-surface-primary {
background-color: #FFFFFF !important; /* Makes message bubble white */
}

/* Change input bar background */
.bg-gray-700 {
background-color: #ffffff !important; /* Input bar white */
}

/* Change input box text color */
.text-gray-100 {
color: #000000 !important; /* Input text black */
}

/* Change the color of the sidebar */
.bg-gray-900 {
background-color: #222222 !important; /* Dark gray sidebar */
}

/* Change the color of the icons in the sidebar */
.text-gray-500 {
color: #aaaaaa !important; /* Lighter gray icons */
}

/* Make the selected item in the sidebar stand out */
.bg-gray-800 {
background-color: #333333 !important; /* Slightly lighter background for selected items */
}

/* Change the background color of the model selection dropdown */
.bg-gray-800 {
background-color: #333333 !important; /* Darker background */
}

/* Change the text color of the model selection dropdown */
.text-white {
color: #ffffff !important; /* White text */
}

/* Make the borders of the textarea less prominent */
.border-gray-700 {
border-color: #555555 !important; /* Darker border */
}

/* Improve the contrast of the scrollbar (Chrome/Edge) */
::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
background-color: #666666 !important; /* Darker scrollbar thumb */
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
background-color: #444444 !important; /* Darker scrollbar track */
}

/* For the buttons */
.btn-neutral {
background-color: #e0e0e0 !important; /* Light grey */
color: #222222 !important; /* Dark grey text */
}

.btn-primary {
background-color: #007bff !important; /* Example: Blue */
color: #ffffff !important; /* White text */
}

/* For the modal backgrounds */
.modal-background {
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) !important; /* Semi-transparent black */
}

.modal-content {
background-color: #ffffff !important; /* White background */
}

/* To change the text color */
.text-token-text-primary {
color: #000000 !important; /* Changes text to black */
}

/* Change text color of code */
.hljs {
color: #000000 !important;
}

/* Changes block of code background color */
.bg-token-surface-secondary {
background-color: #FFFFFF !important;
}

/* For the prompt box */
.textarea {
background-color: #FFFFFF !important;
}

5. **Save the Style:** Click the “Save” button in the Stylus editor. The style will automatically be applied to ChatGPT.

**Explanation of the CSS Code:**

* `body`: Targets the entire body of the webpage and changes its background color.
* `.dark`: Targets the div with the class `dark` which is responsible for the main area of the page, this is only required for the old interface of Chat GPT. This sets its background color.
* `.text-gray-800`:Targets the normal text color in chatgpt. It changes it from gray to black.
* `.bg-gray-50`:Targets the background color of the text bubbles that are generated by chatgpt. It changes it from gray to white.
* `.bg-token-surface-primary`: Targets the background color of text bubbles. It changes it to white.
* `.bg-gray-700`: Targets the background color of the text input bar. It changes it to white.
* `.text-gray-100`:Targets the text within the input bar. It changes the text color to black.
* `.bg-gray-900`: Target the background color of the sidebar. It changes the background color to a custom color value (dark gray in the example above).
* `.text-gray-500`: Target the icon colors in the sidebar to a custom color value (light gray in the example above).
* `.bg-gray-800`: Target the background color of the selected item in the sidebar.
* `.bg-gray-800`: Changes the background color of the model selection dropdown to darker background color.
* `.text-white`: Changes the text color of the model selection dropdown to white.
* `.border-gray-700`: Make the borders of the textarea less prominent by changing the color.
* `::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb` and `::-webkit-scrollbar-track`: Improve the contrast of the scrollbar by changing its color.
* `.btn-neutral`: Target the standard buttons that are present on the page and set a light grey background and darker text on them
* `.btn-primary`: Target primary buttons, like ones that trigger an action or are important to click. Sets a blue background and white text on them
* `.modal-background`: Target modal backgrounds and apply a semi transparent black color.
* `.modal-content`: Target the area with content, like when clicking the dark mode setting and apply a white background.
* `.text-token-text-primary`: Changes the text to black color.
* `.hljs`: Changes the code color block.
* `.bg-token-surface-secondary`: Changes background color of block of code.
* `.textarea`: Changes the prompt box background to white.

**Customization:**

* Modify the hex color codes (`#f0f0f0`, `#ffffff`, `#222222`, etc.) to your desired colors.
* Adjust the CSS selectors if ChatGPT updates its HTML structure. Use your browser’s developer tools (right-click on the element you want to change and select “Inspect”) to find the correct CSS classes or IDs.

**b. Dark Reader**

While Dark Reader is primarily designed to enable dark mode on websites, it can also be used to customize background colors. It’s available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

**Installation:**

1. **Install Dark Reader:** Search for “Dark Reader” in your browser’s extension store and install it.
2. **Configure Dark Reader:**
* Open ChatGPT.
* Click the Dark Reader icon in your browser’s toolbar.
* Adjust the settings to your preference. You can change the brightness, contrast, and even choose specific color filters.
* To effectively remove the grey background, you might need to disable the dark mode effect and then manually adjust the brightness and contrast to achieve a lighter background color.

**c. Other CSS Modification Extensions**

Several other extensions function similarly to Stylus and Dark Reader. Examples include:

* **User CSS:** A simple extension for applying custom CSS rules to websites.
* **Stylish:** Another popular style manager, though it has had some privacy concerns in the past. Stylus is generally considered a more privacy-respecting alternative.

### 2. Using Browser Developer Tools (For Temporary Changes and Experimentation)

Browser developer tools allow you to directly modify the CSS of a webpage. This method is useful for testing different styles before applying them permanently with an extension. However, changes made through developer tools are temporary and will be lost when you refresh the page.

**Steps:**

1. **Open ChatGPT:** Navigate to ChatGPT in your browser.
2. **Open Developer Tools:** Right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect” or “Inspect Element”. Alternatively, press F12 (or Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows/Linux, or Cmd+Option+I on macOS).
3. **Find the Relevant Element:** Use the “Elements” or “Inspector” tab to locate the HTML element that controls the background color. You can use the element selection tool (usually an icon of a mouse cursor over a rectangle) to click on the background area directly.
4. **Modify the CSS:** Once you’ve found the element, look for the `background-color` property in the “Styles” pane. Click on the color value to edit it. You can enter a new color value (e.g., `#ffffff` for white, `#f0f0f0` for light grey) or use the color picker.
5. **Apply the Changes:** The changes will be applied immediately. Experiment with different colors until you find one you like.

**Example:**

To change the background color to white, you might find a CSS rule like this:

css
body {
background-color: #343541;
}

Click on `#343541` and change it to `#ffffff`. The background should turn white instantly.

**Important Considerations:**

* This method only changes the background color for your current session. When you refresh the page, the changes will be lost.
* Finding the correct element to modify might require some experimentation. Use the element selection tool and explore the HTML structure to identify the relevant CSS rules.

### 3. Creating a Custom Browser Extension (Advanced)

For a more permanent and customized solution, you can create your own browser extension. This requires some basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

**Steps:**

1. **Create a Manifest File (manifest.json):** This file describes your extension to the browser. Create a file named `manifest.json` with the following content:

{
“manifest_version”: 3,
“name”: “ChatGPT Background Changer”,
“version”: “1.0”,
“description”: “Changes the background color of ChatGPT”,
“permissions”: [
“storage”,
“activeTab”,
“scripting”
],
“host_permissions”: [
“https://chat.openai.com/*”
],
“background”: {
“service_worker”: “background.js”
},
“action”: {
“default_popup”: “popup.html”
}
}

2. **Create a Background Script (background.js):** This script runs in the background and injects the CSS into ChatGPT. Create a file named `background.js` with the following content:

javascript
chrome.action.onClicked.addListener((tab) => {
chrome.scripting.executeScript({
target: { tabId: tab.id },
function: setBackgroundColor,
});
});

function setBackgroundColor() {
chrome.storage.sync.get([‘backgroundColor’], (result) => {
const color = result.backgroundColor || ‘#f0f0f0’; // Default to light grey
document.body.style.backgroundColor = color;

// Apply the style to the chat area
const chatArea = document.querySelector(‘.dark’);
if (chatArea) {
chatArea.style.backgroundColor = color;
}

// Apply the style to the textarea
const textarea = document.querySelector(‘.textarea’);
if (textarea) {
textarea.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

// Apply the style to the gray text
const textgray = document.querySelector(‘.text-gray-800’);
if (textgray) {
textgray.style.color = ‘#000000’;
}

// Apply the style to the text bubbles
const textbubble = document.querySelector(‘.bg-gray-50’);
if (textbubble) {
textbubble.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const surfaceprimary = document.querySelector(‘.bg-token-surface-primary’);
if (surfaceprimary) {
surfaceprimary.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const inputbar = document.querySelector(‘.bg-gray-700’);
if (inputbar) {
inputbar.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const inputtext = document.querySelector(‘.text-gray-100’);
if (inputtext) {
inputtext.style.color = ‘#000000’;
}

});
}

3. **Create a Popup HTML (popup.html):** This allows the user to set the color from a popup window. Create a file named `popup.html` with the following content:

html

ChatGPT Background Color

Choose a background color:

4. **Create Popup Javascript (popup.js):** Handle the popup interactions. Create a file named `popup.js` with the following content:

javascript
document.addEventListener(‘DOMContentLoaded’, () => {
const colorPicker = document.getElementById(‘colorPicker’);
const saveColorButton = document.getElementById(‘saveColor’);

chrome.storage.sync.get([‘backgroundColor’], (result) => {
colorPicker.value = result.backgroundColor || ‘#f0f0f0’;
});

saveColorButton.addEventListener(‘click’, () => {
const color = colorPicker.value;
chrome.storage.sync.set({ backgroundColor: color }, () => {
chrome.scripting.executeScript({
target: { tabId: chrome.tabs.getCurrent().then((tab) => tab.id) },
function: setBackgroundColor,
});
});
});

// Apply the style to the chat area
const chatArea = document.querySelector(‘.dark’);
if (chatArea) {
chatArea.style.backgroundColor = color;
}

// Apply the style to the textarea
const textarea = document.querySelector(‘.textarea’);
if (textarea) {
textarea.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

// Apply the style to the gray text
const textgray = document.querySelector(‘.text-gray-800’);
if (textgray) {
textgray.style.color = ‘#000000’;
}

// Apply the style to the text bubbles
const textbubble = document.querySelector(‘.bg-gray-50’);
if (textbubble) {
textbubble.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const surfaceprimary = document.querySelector(‘.bg-token-surface-primary’);
if (surfaceprimary) {
surfaceprimary.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const inputbar = document.querySelector(‘.bg-gray-700’);
if (inputbar) {
inputbar.style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFFFFF’;
}

const inputtext = document.querySelector(‘.text-gray-100’);
if (inputtext) {
inputtext.style.color = ‘#000000’;
}

});
}
});

5. **Load the Extension in Your Browser:**
* In Chrome, go to `chrome://extensions/`.
* Enable “Developer mode” in the top right corner.
* Click “Load unpacked” and select the directory containing your `manifest.json`, `background.js`, `popup.html`, and `popup.js` files.

Now, your extension should be installed. You can click the extension icon in your browser toolbar to open the popup and select a background color. The color will be applied to ChatGPT and saved for future sessions.

**Explanation:**

* The `manifest.json` file tells the browser about your extension, its permissions, and which scripts to run.
* The `background.js` script listens for clicks on the extension icon and then injects the CSS code into the ChatGPT page.
* The injected CSS code changes the `background-color` property of the `body` element.
* The `popup.html` and `popup.js` files create a simple popup with a color picker, allowing you to choose a background color and save it to the extension’s storage.

### 4. Using User Scripts (Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey)

User scripts are small JavaScript programs that can modify the behavior of websites. You can use a user script manager like Tampermonkey (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) or Greasemonkey (Firefox) to inject custom CSS into ChatGPT.

**Steps:**

1. **Install Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey:** Install the appropriate extension for your browser.
2. **Create a New User Script:**
* Click the Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey icon in your browser toolbar.
* Select “Create a new script…”
3. **Write the User Script:** Replace the default code with the following:

javascript
// ==UserScript==
// @name ChatGPT Background Changer
// @namespace http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version 1.0
// @description Changes the background color of ChatGPT
// @author You
// @match https://chat.openai.com/*
// @grant GM_addStyle
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
‘use strict’;

GM_addStyle(`
body {
background-color: #f0f0f0 !important; /* Light grey, adjust as needed */
}