The short answer
Most big chatbots keep your conversations until you delete them or until an automatic timer runs out. When you delete one, it disappears from your list at once, and the company says it is erased from its systems within a set window, usually 30 days. Every policy below has exceptions: copies kept for safety reviews, for legal obligations, or because they were already de-identified or used to train a model. Exporting gives you a copy of your chat history; it does not tell you what else the company keeps.
| Service | Kept by default | When you delete a chat | Trains on chats by default? | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (Free, Go, Plus, Pro) | Until you delete them | Gone from view at once; deleted within 30 days, with exceptions | Yes, unless you turn it off | Settings, Data controls, Export: a ZIP link by email or SMS, up to 7 days, link valid 24 hours |
| Claude (Free, Pro, Max) | Until you delete them | Gone from history at once; from back-end storage within 30 days | Only if you allow it in Privacy settings | Settings, Privacy, Export data; link valid 24 hours |
| Gemini Apps | Auto-deleted after 18 months (3 or 36 months, or never) | Removal starts at once; chats a human reviewed stay up to 3 years | Yes while Keep Activity is on | Google Takeout; email link active 7 days |
| Microsoft Copilot | 18 months | You can delete one chat or all; back-end timing not stated | Yes; you can opt out at any time | Not described on the pages we read |
| Perplexity | While the account is active | Threads deletable one by one or all; account data removed within 30 days of deleting the account | Memory may be used; a setting turns it off | Not described on the pages we read |
| Grok | Not stated as a number | Deleted within 30 days, unless needed for legal, compliance or safety reasons | Training is listed among the uses of your content | Requests through x.ai's privacy portal |
| DeepSeek | As long as necessary to provide the service | You can delete or copy chat history in settings; no timeline given | Yes; the policy gives a right to opt out | A right to a portable copy, no button described |
| Vibe by Mistral (ex Le Chat) | Until you delete them | Removed on deletion; account deletion after a short grace period | Yes, users are not opted out by default | Not described on the pages we read |
| Meta AI | Not stated on the help page we read | Delete all chats and media in Settings; public vibes are not deleted | Meta says it uses your interactions with its AIs to improve AI at Meta | Export your information in Accounts Center |
From each company's privacy policy and help centre, read on 20 October 2026. Links and dates of each page are in the sources at the end. Where a cell says “not described”, we looked and did not find it; it does not mean the feature does not exist.
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
OpenAI's retention page, updated the day before we read it, says regular and archived chats “remain saved to your account until you delete them”. When you delete one, ChatGPT removes it from view immediately and OpenAI “schedules it for permanent deletion from its systems within 30 days”, unless the chat was already de-identified and disassociated from your account, or OpenAI must keep it longer for security or legal obligations. A deleted chat cannot be restored, not even by support. A temporary chat is not shown in your history, but OpenAI may keep a copy for up to 30 days for safety purposes. One detail people miss: deleting a chat does not delete a file saved in your Library.
On training, OpenAI says that for Free, Plus and Pro it “may use your content to train our models”. You turn that off with Improve the model for everyone in Settings, Data controls, or with Do not train on my content in its Privacy Portal. Even after you opt out, if you press thumbs up or thumbs down on a reply, “the entire conversation associated with that feedback may be used to train our models”.
To export: Settings, Data controls, Export, then Confirm export. The link arrives by email or SMS, “can take up to 7 days”, and expires 24 hours after you receive it. The ZIP holds your chat history and other account data; it cannot bring back chats you already deleted. The Privacy Portal is the other route (Make a Privacy Request, Download my data).
Court orders can override all of this. In 2025 a US court ordered OpenAI to preserve chats users had deleted, in the New York Times copyright case; that order was later lifted for new chats. The full timeline is in our earlier article.
Claude (Anthropic)
Anthropic's retention page (dated 1 July 2026) covers Free, Pro and Max. A deleted conversation is “removed from your chat history immediately” and “deleted from our back-end storage systems within 30 days”. The exceptions are spelled out with numbers:
- If you allow your chats to be used to improve Claude, they are kept “in a de-identified format for up to 5 years” in training pipelines.
- Conversations flagged by its safety systems: inputs and outputs up to 2 years, and the classification scores up to 7 years.
- Feedback you send (thumbs up or down): 5 years.
Training only happens if you choose to allow it, with the model improvement switch in Settings, Privacy. Turning it off stops future use; data already in a finished training run stays in that model. Incognito chats are not used for training even if the setting is on. To export: Settings, Privacy, Export data; the download link expires 24 hours after delivery.
Gemini (Google)
Google's Gemini Apps privacy hub (updated 19 October 2026) says your activity is auto-deleted after 18 months by default, and you can change that to 3 or 36 months, or turn auto-delete off. With Keep Activity off, and for temporary chats, conversations are still kept with your account for 72 hours and are not used to train Google's models.
The exception that matters most: “a subset of chats are reviewed by human reviewers”, and those reviewed chats “are not deleted when you delete your activity”; they are kept for up to three years, disconnected from your account. To export, use Google Takeout and select Gemini and My Activity, Gemini Apps; the email download link stays active for 7 days.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's consumer Copilot FAQ says: “By default, we store conversation activity for 18 months.” You can delete single conversations or the whole history at any time; the pages do not say how long deletion takes on Microsoft's side. Some conversations go through automated and human review. Microsoft lists training its models among the uses of your conversations and says you can opt out at any time, in Privacy, with separate switches for text and voice conversations.
Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral and Meta AI
- Perplexity keeps personal information “as long as your account is active”. If you delete the account, it is removed from its servers within 30 days, and signing back in before then cancels the deletion. You can delete threads one by one or all at once; uploaded files are kept for 30 days by default. Content from Memory may be used to improve its models; Perplexity says you can turn that off.
- Grok (xAI, now SpaceXSI; policy of 11 October 2026): Private Chat conversations, deleted conversations and deleted accounts are erased “within 30 days unless it is necessary to retain the data for legal, compliance, or safety purposes”. Training the models is one of the listed uses of your content. Privacy requests go through x.ai's privacy portal.
- DeepSeek (policy of 10 February 2026) keeps personal data “for as long as necessary to provide our Services”, uses it to train its technology, and says it stores data in the People's Republic of China. You can copy or delete your chat history in settings; deleting the account cannot be undone, and no deletion timeline is given.
- Vibe by Mistral (formerly Le Chat): conversations “are removed from our systems upon manual deletion”, with possible retention for monitoring and legal purposes. Users “are not opted out by default” of training; the switch is Enable data sharing in the app's data settings.
- Meta AI: the help centre explains how to delete all chats and media (Settings, Data & privacy, Manage your information); public vibes are not deleted with them. The same page says Meta uses your interactions with its AIs “to improve AI at Meta”, and that when its AIs cannot answer, Meta shares your messages and general information such as your region with select partners. Your information can be exported from Accounts Center. We did not find a retention period for chats.
Chatbots popular in Russian and Chinese
- Alice (Yandex): without the paid option, chat history is kept for 14 days; with Alice Plus, without a time limit. You delete a chat from the history, and data by category from Yandex ID's data management page, which warns that some data is kept longer “because the law requires it”. Yandex ID also lets you order an archive of your data.
- GigaChat (Sber): the user agreement for individuals (6 February 2026) does not give a retention period for conversations.
- Doubao (ByteDance): keeps personal information only for the period necessary to provide the service and stores data collected in China inside China. You can delete single conversations and the account. The policy says it uses your inputs and replies to improve its models, and a switch in privacy settings turns that off. It lists rights to view, copy and delete, without an export button.
- Kimi (Moonshot AI): stores personal information in China. You can delete conversations and the account. There is no training switch: you contact support, and after verifying your identity they stop using your content for training.
What a formal request got me
On 15 April 2026 I sent OpenAI and Anthropic a formal GDPR request from my own consumer accounts, asking under Article 15 for everything they held, including safety flags and data derived from my chats, and under Article 17 for erasure, with written confirmation of what was deleted and the legal basis for anything kept. Anthropic acknowledged it automatically the same day. OpenAI replied on 17 April; Anthropic's human reply arrived on 16 May, one month and one day later. The GDPR gives one month to respond (Article 12(3)).
Both replies were polite and pointed to self-service tools. Neither confirmed in writing what had been deleted, neither gave a legal basis for what was kept, and neither answered the access request with the data itself. I did not take it to a data protection authority, so nothing has been decided about it. The full exchange, quoted, is in I sent OpenAI and Anthropic a GDPR erasure request.
How to keep a conversation out of all of this
- Before typing, turn off training (ChatGPT, Copilot, Mistral, Doubao) or leave it off (Claude). Do not press thumbs up or down on chats you care about: on ChatGPT, Claude and Mistral, feedback has its own rules.
- Use temporary or incognito chats for sensitive questions, and remember they are still kept for a while: up to 30 days on ChatGPT and Grok, 72 hours on Gemini.
- Delete what you do not need, and export first if you want a copy: an export cannot bring back deleted chats.
- For conversations that should never reach a server, use a model that runs on your own device. On a computer that means tools such as Ollama or LM Studio; on an iPhone or Mac, apps such as Locally AI, PocketPal AI, Private LLM or Pinku. Pinku keeps chats on the device: they never leave it. Apple's privacy label for Pinku lists only purchase history and an anonymous ID, used for Pinku Pro. We tested what these apps actually send over the network on a Mac: the results are here.
Questions people ask
When I delete a ChatGPT chat, is it really deleted?
It disappears from your account at once, and OpenAI says it schedules it for permanent deletion within 30 days, unless the chat was already de-identified and disassociated from your account or OpenAI must keep it longer for security or legal obligations. It cannot be restored.
How long does Claude keep my chats after I delete them?
Anthropic says a deleted chat leaves your history immediately and its back-end storage within 30 days. Chats flagged by safety systems are kept up to 2 years (scores up to 7 years), and chats used for training with your permission up to 5 years, de-identified.
Does deleting Gemini activity delete chats that a human reviewed?
No. Google says reviewed chats are not deleted when you delete your activity; they are kept for up to three years, disconnected from your account.
How do I download my ChatGPT history?
Settings, Data controls, Export, then Confirm export. OpenAI emails or texts a link, which can take up to 7 days to arrive and expires 24 hours after you receive it.
Is a temporary or incognito chat stored anywhere?
Yes, for a while. OpenAI may keep temporary chats up to 30 days for safety, Google keeps Gemini chats 72 hours with Keep Activity off, and Grok deletes Private Chat within 30 days unless it must keep it.
Which AI chat does not store my conversations at all?
None of the cloud chatbots in this list promise that. A model that runs on your own device, such as Ollama or LM Studio on a computer, or Locally AI, PocketPal AI, Private LLM or Pinku on iPhone or Mac, keeps the conversation on the device.