Does ChatGPT keep your data?

Whatever you type into ChatGPT is stored on OpenAI's servers. How long it stays there depends on three things: what you do with the chat, whether Memory is on, and which plan you use. Most of the confusion comes from treating these as one setting. They are separate controls, and each one keeps or removes a different copy of your data.

Does ChatGPT save your chats?

Yes. On a personal account, regular and archived chats stay saved to your account until you delete them. OpenAI's help center says archiving a chat removes it from the sidebar and does not change how long it is kept. In a Business, Enterprise, or Edu workspace, an administrator's retention policy can also remove chats on a schedule.

Turning off Improve the model for everyone is a training choice. It stops new conversations from being used to train OpenAI's models, and it leaves your saved chats exactly where they are. To remove a conversation, you delete it.

How long does ChatGPT keep conversations?

What is ChatGPT memory, and what does it store?

Memory is how ChatGPT carries details from one conversation into the next. It has two parts. Saved memories are specific facts you asked ChatGPT to remember, or that it saved as useful context. Reference chat history lets ChatGPT draw on past conversations to personalize new answers. Depending on plan and region, Memory can also draw on custom instructions, files in your Library, and connected apps such as Gmail.

The detail that catches people out: saved memories are stored separately from chat history. OpenAI's help center says deleting the original chat does not automatically delete a saved memory created from it. To remove something you told ChatGPT, delete the saved memory and the chat where you first shared it, then check Library files and connected apps. Turning Memory off also leaves your past chats in place.

Does ChatGPT share or sell your data?

OpenAI's US privacy policy says it does not sell personal data. The same policy says that, depending on your choices, OpenAI shares limited data with select marketing partners to promote its own products on other websites, which some state laws classify as targeted advertising. You can opt out with the marketing privacy control in your account settings, or with Global Privacy Control in your browser.

Ads began testing in ChatGPT in the United States on February 9, 2026, for Free and Go users. OpenAI says advertisers receive only aggregated figures such as views and clicks, and never your chats, memories, name, or email. Ads are chosen from the topic of your current chat. With personalized ads on, past chats and memory can shape them too. You can turn that off under Settings > Ad controls. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts show no ads, and neither does Temporary Chat.

Two kinds of sharing remain. OpenAI discloses personal data to its vendors and service providers, such as hosting and cloud providers, to run the service. And you share data yourself when you create a shared link: anyone who has a link from a personal account can view that conversation, including uploaded files and any names typed into it. Shared links have no expiry date, so delete them under Settings > Data controls > Shared links when you are done.

What does "allow ChatGPT to store data in persistent storage" mean?

That message comes from your web browser, most often Firefox, and it concerns files kept on your own computer. A site that asks for persistent storage wants the browser to keep its local data until you clear it yourself. Chrome, Edge, and Safari decide these requests automatically without asking. Saying yes or no changes nothing about what OpenAI keeps on its servers. Your chat history lives in your OpenAI account either way.

Does the New York Times lawsuit mean ChatGPT keeps deleted chats?

For new chats, no longer. In 2025, during the New York Times copyright case against OpenAI, a federal court ordered OpenAI to preserve ChatGPT output it would normally delete. According to OpenAI, the order covered Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users and API customers without a Zero Data Retention agreement. It excluded ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu.

OpenAI says that obligation ended on September 26, 2025, and that it returned to deleting chats and Temporary Chats within 30 days. Two things carry over. OpenAI still stores limited April to September 2025 user data under legal hold, and Engadget reported that data tied to accounts the Times flagged must also be kept. Separately, in January 2026 Judge Sidney Stein upheld an order requiring OpenAI to hand the plaintiffs 20 million de-identified ChatGPT logs, according to the ABA Journal. The practical lesson for any business: a court can override a provider's normal deletion schedule, so treat anything typed into an AI tool as something that can outlive the delete button.

How does this differ on Business, Enterprise, and the API?

On work plans, the organization holds the controls. OpenAI's enterprise privacy page says Business admins can control how long data is retained, and Enterprise, Edu, and ChatGPT for Healthcare admins set retention for the workspace. Deleted conversations leave OpenAI's systems within 30 days unless the law requires longer. Content from these plans is excluded from training by default. Shared links stay inside the workspace, and individual members cannot export or delete their own data; the workspace owner handles that. For a side-by-side view of the plans, see Is ChatGPT safe to use at work?.

What feature of ChatGPT puts sensitive data at risk?

The biggest exposure is the prompt itself. Once a client file, a card number, or a patient detail is pasted in, OpenAI holds a copy for at least as long as the rules above allow, and Memory, shared links, and connected apps each create another place it can surface. Five habits cut that down:

• Keep identifiers out of prompts. Replace names, account numbers, and IDs with placeholders before you paste.
• Use Temporary Chat for one-off questions you have no reason to keep.
• Review Memory monthly under Settings > Personalization, and delete both the memory and its source chat.
• Delete shared links you no longer need, since they never expire on their own.
• Use a company workspace for company work, so retention, sharing, and training follow your organization's settings.

For the wider picture of where a prompt travels after you press enter, read Where does your data go when people use AI?.