Does grok keep permanently deleted videos
Executive summary
Public reporting indicates Grok/AIs from xAI keep deleted conversations available for a limited window — roughly 30 days — during which users can restore them, and the platform has been rolling out more explicit delete controls for generated videos; however, there is no sourced evidence that Grok retains so-called "permanently deleted" videos beyond that retention window, and the company’s documentation on long-term deletion of media remains incomplete in the cited reporting [1] [2] [3].
1. What the reporting actually says about deleted chats and a 30‑day window
Investigations and user-facing guides state that Grok gives users control to delete individual chats and that the service stores deleted conversations for 30 days, during which they can be restored — language repeated across platform notes and community write‑ups that describe a “Deleted Conversations” feature and a 30‑day retention policy for deleted items [1] [2].
2. The practical meaning for "permanent" deletion right now
If “permanently deleted” is defined by the ability of a user to remove content so it cannot be restored from a platform’s visible interface, current reporting suggests Grok does not immediately make deletion irreversible; instead deletions enter a recoverable state for about 30 days, which means a user‑initiated delete during that period is reversible via the platform’s restore function [1] [2].
3. Video-specific controls: a developing feature, not settled policy
Coverage of product updates indicates Grok planned to add an explicit delete button for AI‑generated videos in an Android release (v1.0.71), improving users’ ability to remove unwanted clips and remove previous preview limits in the UI [3]. That report frames the change as a UX improvement rather than a definitive change to underlying retention or forensic copies, and the article does not document whether server logs, backups, or legal retention mechanisms would still hold copies after a user removes a video [3].
4. Gaps in the reporting and what cannot be asserted from these sources
None of the provided sources publish Grok’s full data‑retention or backup policy for multimedia, nor do they show internal retention timelines for video files, logs, or law‑enforcement/legal holds; therefore it cannot be claimed from these sources that Grok either purges all copies of a video immediately upon user deletion or that it retains them indefinitely beyond the 30‑day conversation retention window documented for chats [1] [2] [3].
5. Motives, transparency and why users should read the policy
Product teams often balance user expectations of immediate deletion with operational needs like backups, abuse investigation, and legal compliance; the reporting points to a UX move to give users clearer delete/restore controls but also shows limited transparency around backend retention, which can reflect an implicit agenda to reduce user complaints while preserving capacity for abuse mitigation and legal requests [1] [3]. Users seeking certainty are therefore directed to consult Grok/xAI’s formal privacy and data‑retention notices, since the articles summarize behavior rather than publish the platform’s full retention rules [1] [2].
6. Bottom line: the best reading of the available evidence
The best-supported conclusion in the cited reporting is that Grok treats deletions as reversible for roughly 30 days and has been adding explicit UI controls for deleting videos, but the sources do not prove that “permanently deleted” videos are retained forever nor do they prove immediate irrevocable erasure on user command — the precise post‑delete handling of video files beyond the 30‑day window remains undocumented in the provided reporting [1] [2] [3].