What categories of user data does OpenAI store after an account deletion request?
Executive summary
OpenAI’s published user-facing deletion path promises that account data is “deleted within 30 days,” but multiple help pages and company posts also note exceptions: legal holds, security needs, and specific preservation orders can extend retention — including a 2025 U.S. court order preserving certain April–September 2025 data (OpenAI FAQ and blog) [1] [2]. Help-center and policy pages enumerate routine categories (chats, files, temporary chats) removed within 30 days unless de‑identified, subject to legal/security exceptions, or otherwise preserved by court order [3] [1] [2].
1. What OpenAI says will be deleted after you request account deletion
OpenAI’s How to delete your account article states plainly that deleting an account will remove access and that “we will delete your data within 30 days,” while acknowledging lawful or permitted exceptions to longer retention [1]. The Chat and File Retention Policies page breaks this down further: when you delete a chat or account, the chat is removed from your account immediately and scheduled for permanent deletion from OpenAI systems within 30 days, and files tied to projects follow a similar 30‑day schedule unless exceptions apply [3].
2. Categories the docs explicitly discuss (conversations, files, temporary chats, Operator)
OpenAI documentation specifically lists conversational chat history and uploaded files as items removed on the 30‑day timetable — temporary chats are described as being deleted after 30 days too [3] [4]. Separately, reporting and help pages for a newer “Operator” agent say Operator-related deleted content (screenshots, browsing activity) is retained longer — Mashable reports deleted Operator data may persist up to 90 days [5], and other analyses repeat that Operator content can have longer post‑deletion retention [6] [5].
3. Legal and security exceptions that override standard deletion
OpenAI’s help pages and privacy policy repeatedly state that deletion timelines are subject to legal obligations and security considerations: data “may be retained a limited set of data for longer where required or permitted by law,” and retention for legal holds or security investigations is explicitly noted [1] [3] [7]. Reporting from 2025 documents a federal court preservation order that required OpenAI to retain certain user data (e.g., April–September 2025 records) and that OpenAI said it would securely store limited historical data tied to that period [2] [8].
4. How retention differs by product and customer tier
OpenAI’s enterprise and business commitments differ: OpenAI states it does not train on business customer data by default and offers data residency/ZDR options for enterprise customers, which affect retention and usage [9] [10]. Coverage of Zero Data Retention (ZDR) indicates this is available primarily for business/enterprise customers and is not the default for consumer accounts [11]. Independent reporting and summaries emphasize a “dual reality” in which free/consumer accounts face different applied policies than enterprise clients [12] [13].
5. Practical artifacts and de‑identification caveats
The Chat and File Retention Policies note that some chats “have already been de‑identified and disassociated from you,” and such de‑identified copies may follow different handling — deletion of the user‑visible chat is not the same as purging every de‑identified artifact in backend systems [3]. Community posts and third‑party analyses also flag that system logs, backups, and artifacts created at multiple infrastructure layers could remain subject to preservation or different deletion treatments [8] [14].
6. Conflicting or amplifying reporting and what it means for users
Several news and analysis pieces say the judicial preservation order has led to indefinite retention of many consumer conversations despite the company’s 30‑day policy, though OpenAI’s public help pages still cite the 30‑day deletion timetable with caveats [3] [13] [2]. Some security vendors and commentators warn that retained data could persist even after user deletion for discovery or abuse monitoring [6] [15]. OpenAI’s blog posts counter that they limit access, segregate preserved records, and apply encryption, but the presence of a court order means “deleted” in the UI may not equal fully purged for all accounts in all circumstances [2] [16].
7. What the available sources do not say
Available sources do not provide a definitive, itemized list of every low‑level artifact (e.g., logging layers, backups, de‑identified training snapshots) that will or will not be retained after an account deletion for every scenario; they instead describe categories (chats, files, temporary chats) and caveats about legal or security exceptions [3] [1] [2]. Sources do not show a universal statement that all deleted data for all users is or is not currently being retained indefinitely — reporting and company pages present competing facts and situational exceptions [2] [3] [13].
Conclusion: For consumer users, OpenAI’s official help pages and policies define chats, files, and temporary chats as deleted within about 30 days after account deletion, but multiple exceptions (legal holds, security investigations, product‑specific rules like Operator, and a 2025 court preservation order that affected April–September 2025 data) can extend retention; enterprise/ZDR customers have different, more privacy‑oriented options [1] [3] [5] [2] [9].