What specific retention periods does Google publish for consumer search query logs and Web & App Activity?
Executive summary
Google publishes limited, user-controllable retention windows for consumer Web & App Activity—by default the company keeps that activity for 18 months but offers auto-delete choices that shorten or extend that period (3, 18, 36 months, or never) according to Google’s user-facing documentation [1] [2]. Separately, Google’s broader retention and anonymisation practices (for logs and advertising data) report other time frames—such as anonymising parts of IPs after nine months and cookie information after 18 months—which apply to technical server logs and advertising pipelines rather than the consumer-facing “My Activity” controls [3].
1. What Google explicitly says about Web & App Activity retention
Google’s consumer-facing controls for Web & App Activity include an auto-delete feature and a stated default: by default the company deletes saved Web & App Activity after 18 months, and users can change the deletion period to 3, 18, or 36 months or choose to never delete the data via their account settings [1]. Google’s Search Help pages also describe auto-delete options for search history, mentioning choices such as “3 months or 18 months” as examples of the available automatic deletion windows [2]. Tech coverage of Google’s auto-delete rollout described the same user options (initially reported as 3 months or 18 months in 2019), while also noting that without an auto-delete setting Google would retain activity by default [4].
2. What Google publishes about search query logs specifically
Public Google help pages about Search and Web & App Activity tie search queries into the same Web & App Activity retention controls—meaning that saved search queries are governed by the user’s auto-delete setting (3, 18, 36 months, or never) and the stated default of 18 months when users do not change settings [2] [1]. Google’s retention policy page further clarifies that some data is pseudonymised or anonymised on set schedules — for example, advertising-related server logs have IP-based anonymisation after nine months and cookie information removal after 18 months — but it does not publish a single fixed “consumer search query log” lifespan separate from the account-level activity controls [3].
3. Technical and enterprise logging timelines that are different from consumer controls
Separate from consumer account settings, Google’s cloud and enterprise products document distinct retention windows: Cloud Audit Admin Activity logs are retained for 400 days, Data Access logs for 30 days, and other platform-specific defaults exist for Cloud Logging and Workspace reports [5] [6]. Workspace admin documentation also notes a general retention “6 months” guideline for some reports and log event data not otherwise specified [7]. These enterprise and cloud retention windows are separate technical policies and do not directly change the consumer-facing Web & App Activity auto-delete options [5] [7].
4. Where the record is incomplete and what that implies
Google’s published materials make clear the consumer-facing retention options (3, 18, 36 months or never, default 18 months) and some anonymisation timelines for server logs (nine and 18 months), but they do not publish a single definitive retention schedule labeled “search query logs” outside the context of account-level Web & App Activity settings; nor do the available documents fully enumerate every internal pseudonymisation or aggregated retention timeline for all backend systems [1] [3]. Therefore, any precise claim about how long an individual raw query remains in every internal Google system cannot be confirmed from the provided sources alone and would require disclosure beyond these public help and policy pages [3] [2].