Here's How To Delete Your Personal Data From ChatGPT (And Why You Should)

OpenAI has a Privacy Portal that lets you freely remove your personal data, download a copy, and even request permanent account deletion. So if you're privacy-conscious, you'll want to visit the Privacy Portal page regularly, even if you plan to leave the platform or severely limit your usage. It's also the best way to get any of your personal data removed. Otherwise, if you don't submit a formal privacy request to OpenAI, the company has the right to retain your personal details and chat history, and to use your prompts to train AI models (unless you opted out).

Thankfully, this can be done on any ChatGPT account via a web browser, so it doesn't matter if you're just a free user or an active ChatGPT Plus subscriber; the Privacy Portal is open to everyone. The reason you should take advantage of these privacy control tools is that it is easy to accidentally slip up a few details that could reveal your email address, location, or more. And unfortunately, given how open the internet is and how scary the dark web can be, you'd rather avoid giving out too much information that could let others access and track your info without your knowledge or consent.

Finally, depending on what you've unknowingly shared, the last thing you want is for all your data to be at someone else's mercy (security breaches do happen; OpenAI had its first one with Mixpanel in November 2025).

OpenAI provides a dedicated privacy space for managing, downloading, and deleting personal data via the Privacy Portal at privacy.openai.com. This is where you can delete your account, your custom GPTs, opt out of using your content for training, and more. You'll want to make a pit stop here if you already have an account and have used it to converse with ChatGPT. You can also use it to send privacy requests to stop tracking or have your stored personal data completely removed.

Plus, if you're unsure or just morbidly curious about exactly what the platform has on you, you can use the Privacy Portal to request a download of your personal data, including account details, conversation history, and uploaded files. You can also submit a request on behalf of someone else if you contact OpenAI by email (privacy@openai.com). Submitting a request is a straightforward process.

Once you're on the Privacy Portal web page, click "Make a Privacy Request" in the top-right corner, or at the bottom of the screen if you're on mobile. The next step involves verifying your account and identity, typically with a government-issued ID or multi-factor authentication. After that, you'll need to select one of the following options: "Download my data," "Do not train on my content," "Delete my ChatGPT," "Delete my GPTs," or "Remove personal data from ChatGPT responses." The next page usually lets you choose your country/residence, and then there's the final "Submit Request" button.

Even if you decide not to completely nuke your account, you can still proactively protect your privacy. For example, you can enable settings to prevent ChatGPT from saving your conversations for training and from remembering your details. You do this in your ChatGPT app settings by turning off the "Improve the model for everyone" toggle. Moreover, if you wish to prevent ChatGPT from retaining specific chat details for future conversations, you can do so by turning off the Memory feature (managed in the personalization settings).

Another option to help safeguard sensitive chats is to use the built-in temporary chat feature. Anything put in the temporary chat feature shouldn't be saved or used for training, but be aware that details can be retained for other chats for 30 days. Otherwise, you can go back to some of your previous chats and then try to delete your chat logs using the trashcan icon. Deleted messages should be wiped from the system after 30 days, though it never hurts to set a reminder with ChatGPT to check.