How to opt out of AI training: ChatGPT

Verified working August 24, 2026. Not working? Let us know

Easy · 4 steps · about 2 to 10 minutes

Direct links to your ChatGPT AI opt-out

ChatGPT has no address for its settings; they open in a panel over the chat. Sign in, then it is three clicks.

ChatGPTOn for every personal account - Profile button at the bottom left, then Settings, then Data controls. The first row is Improve the model for everyone.

Every chat you have with ChatGPT on a Free, Plus or Pro account is training material until you say otherwise. OpenAI's own wording is that ChatGPT "improves by further training on the conversations people have with it, unless you opt out". The switch is one row in a panel most people open once, to change the theme.

How to find your ChatGPT AI opt-out manually

1. Open your account menu

Your name and plan, bottom left of the sidebar. Choose Settings.

Step 1: the ChatGPT sidebar, with the account button at the bottom left

2. Choose Data controls

Settings opens on General. Data controls is seventh down the left list, under Billing.

Step 2: the Settings panel, opened on General, with Data controls in the left hand list

3. Turn off Improve the model for everyone

First row of the panel, and it reads On. Click it and switch it off.

Step 3: the Data controls panel, with Improve the model for everyone at the top, reading On

Your chats stay in your history. OpenAI says the choice applies to your whole account, so the phone app follows without a second visit.

4. Work through the rest of Data controls

The training switch is the first row of a panel that holds most of ChatGPT's real privacy controls, and it is worth staying in.

Step 4: the lower half of Data controls, from Location to Ads controls

Location. Off unless you press Turn on. Leave it.
Information shared with apps. What connected apps can see.
Shared links. Every chat you ever made a public link for, still public. Manage lets you revoke them.
Archived chats and Archive all chats. Out of the sidebar, still on the account.
Delete all chats. The red button. Gone from your account, and OpenAI keeps its copy of a deleted chat for up to 30 days before removing it.
Export data. A copy of everything. OpenAI sends a download link by email or text, which can take up to seven days and expires a day after it lands.
Marketing privacy and Ads controls. ChatGPT now carries ads. Both open a page of their own.

What the switch does not cover

Signed out. Anyone using ChatGPT without an account is trained on by default, and the page says so in its footer: "Chats may be reviewed and used to improve our AI models." There is a Settings entry at the foot of the sidebar with the same switch, but it only holds for that browser.
Temporary Chat. The button at the top right of a chat. OpenAI says those are never used for training, never create memories, and are deleted after 30 days. The nearest thing to a private mode, and useful for anything you would not want kept.
Codex. Its own training settings, and OpenAI notes this switch does not reach them.
Team, Enterprise and Edu accounts are not trained on by default, so there is nothing to switch.

Like every one of these switches, it starts counting when you flip it. What has already been trained on stays trained on.