The 5 places you need to delete your ChatGPT data

• Check you're in the right account. Got a personal login and a work one? Do this in each.
• Want a copy? Export first. Go to Settings → Data controls → Export data. OpenAI emails you a download link, and that link expires after 24 hours, so grab it when it lands. Nothing you delete can be brought back, by you or by OpenAI Support.
• On a work or school plan? Your admin controls how long data is kept, and some settings might be locked. Export isn't available on Business or Enterprise workspaces.

Archive

Hides a chat from your sidebar. It's still saved and still searchable. Archiving is tidying, not deleting.

Delete

Removes the chat from your account straight away and schedules it for permanent deletion.

Saved memory

A detail ChatGPT has noted about you (your business, your kids' names, how you like replies) and reuses in future chats.

Reference chat history

A separate setting that lets ChatGPT draw on your past conversations, even ones it never saved as a memory.

Library

Where ChatGPT automatically saves files you upload or create, including ones you dropped into a chat.

Connected app

Anything you've let ChatGPT reach into, like Gmail, Google Drive or a calendar. Settings now calls these Plugins.

This is what ChatGPT carries from one chat to the next. Deleting a chat doesn't automatically delete a memory it created. You clear these separately.

Where to find it

1. Settings
2. Personalization
3. Memory
4. Manage

1. Want the full picture first? Paste the prompt below into a new chat. OpenAI confirms you can ask ChatGPT what it remembers about you.
2. Open Manage and go through your saved memories. Delete any you don't want ChatGPT reusing.
3. Want to wipe it all and switch memory off? Open the ••• menu on your memory summary and choose Delete and turn off memory.
4. Decide on Reference chat history. Turning it off schedules what it learned from your past chats for deletion within 30 days.
5. While you're in Personalization, open Custom Instructions. Delete anything personal from the fields and turn off Enable customization if you don't want it used.

What do you remember about me? List everything, grouped by topic (business, clients, family, health, money, anything else), so I can decide what to delete.

Every conversation stays in your history until you delete it, archived ones included. And if you ever hit Share on a chat, that link never expires. Anyone with the URL can still open it.

Where to find it

1. Settings
2. Data controls

1. One chat: on the web, click the ••• next to it, then Delete. On your phone, press and hold the chat title, then Delete. Choose Delete, not Archive.
2. Everything: use Delete all chats in Data controls. This includes chats inside projects, and it can't be undone.
3. Archived chats: open Archived chats in Data controls and delete anything in there you don't want kept.
4. Shared links: open Shared links → Manage. Delete them one by one, or use More actions → Delete all shared links.
5. Projects: open a project's ••• menu and choose Delete project. That removes its chats, instructions and the files stored only in that project.

Uploaded a client contract, a pricing sheet or a screenshot of your bank balance for a second opinion? ChatGPT saved a copy to your Library automatically. Deleting the chat doesn't delete the file.

Where to find it

1. Left sidebar
2. Library

1. Open Library on the web version of ChatGPT.
2. Select a file and click Delete or the bin icon.
3. Deleted files sit in Recently deleted, where they can still be restored. Use Delete forever or Delete all there if you want them gone sooner.
4. Made custom GPTs? Files you gave a GPT stay until you delete that GPT.

Connected your Gmail, Google Drive or calendar to try something once? That access stays switched on until you disconnect it.

Where to find it

1. Settings
2. Plugins

1. Open Plugins. Some versions still call it Apps.
2. Choose an app, click the ••• next to your account, then Disconnect.
3. Disconnect anything you don't use every week. You can reconnect later.

This decides whether your new conversations can be used to improve OpenAI's models. Switch it off if you'd rather they weren't.

Where to find it

1. Settings
2. Data controls
3. Improve the model for everyone

Temporary Chat

Temporary chats stay out of your history, never create memories, aren't used for training and don't save your files to Library. OpenAI may keep a copy for up to 30 days for safety. Save one and it becomes a normal chat.

Work and school accounts

If your ChatGPT comes through work, your admin sets the retention rules and can access, keep or delete your data. You won't be able to export or delete the account yourself.

• Menu names changed? OpenAI says labels vary by plan, region and app version. Its Privacy Center links to every setting in this guide: on the web it's under your account menu → Help, and on your phone it's in Settings.
• Can't see Library? Try the web version. It may not be on your plan or in your region yet.
• A setting is greyed out? Your workspace admin controls it. Ask them.
• Want to close the account completely? That's Settings → Account → Delete, and it can't be reversed. Export first, and cancel any App Store or Google Play subscription yourself, because deleting the account doesn't cancel it.

All five places are ticked off in the right account, and you can say which buttons delete, which only hide, and which only change what happens next.

Sources, all from OpenAI's help centre: Memory · Deleting chats · Shared links · Library · Projects · Connected apps · Data controls · Custom Instructions · Deleting your account