What is OpenAI's current data retention policy after account cancellation as of 2025?

1. What changed: the court order and its end date

A U.S. magistrate’s preservation order in mid‑2025 required OpenAI to retain and segregate output log data that otherwise would have been deleted, creating an irregular period of indefinite preservation for many consumer interactions, but OpenAI reports that those obligations concluded on September 26, 2025 and that it has "returned to our standard data retention practices" ^{[5] [1]}.

2. The baseline: OpenAI’s standard deletion timeline after account or chat deletion

OpenAI’s public enterprise privacy statements and help pages state that deleted conversations are removed from their systems within 30 days unless the company is legally required to retain them, which functions as the practical baseline for account cancellation or chat deletion once exceptional legal holds lapse ^{[2] [6]}.

3. Exceptions and enterprise carve‑outs

Enterprise, education, and other contractually negotiated customers can get different terms; OpenAI advertises that enterprise customers can have data isolation and “zero use of customer inputs for training” by default and that eligible customers may be excluded from abuse‑monitoring logs via ZDR or modified abuse monitoring—controls that require prior approval ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

4. Why some observers say data can persist despite deletions

Security vendors and commentators warned that, in practice, artifacts of logs and multilayered infrastructure can create persistent copies and that a court order earlier in 2025 forced preservation of deleted and historical logs—points that fed claims that sensitive API data might be stored beyond a user’s deletion action ^{[5] [7]}. Those warnings reflect real technical complexity and the actual period when OpenAI was under a preservation mandate ^{[5] [1]}.

5. What Zero Data Retention (ZDR) means and who can use it

OpenAI’s ZDR option, described in technical commentary and OpenAI materials, means inputs and outputs aren’t stored beyond immediate processing and that human review is disabled for ZDR traffic; however, ZDR is not the default and is a feature primarily available to approved API and enterprise customers rather than ordinary consumer accounts ^{[4] [3]}.

6. The policy in practice after account cancellation as of 2025

Putting the threads together, as of late 2025 OpenAI’s stated regime is: once the exceptional preservation order ended, deleted chats and account‑deleted content follow standard deletion policies (about a 30‑day removal window) unless legal obligations require retention, while enterprise customers can negotiate shorter or zero retention through ZDR and similar contractual controls ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

7. Limitations, competing narratives, and stakeholders’ incentives

Coverage from OpenAI is authoritative about its contractual offerings and the court timeline but reflects the company’s institutional interest in reassuring users; independent vendors and commentators emphasize technical persistence of logs and prior court mandates to press for stronger guarantees—both perspectives are supported by the record ^{[1] [7] [5]}. Reporting and vendor posts differ on how often ZDR is granted and on the practical difficulty of removing all artifacts from complex infrastructures; those operational details are not fully disclosed in the cited sources ^{[3] [4] [5]}.

8. Bottom line for someone who cancels an account in 2025

After the court‑ordered preservation ended on September 26, 2025, OpenAI’s stated policy is that account deletions and deleted conversations are removed within roughly 30 days unless legal holds apply; users or organizations seeking absolute non‑retention should pursue enterprise ZDR or contractual terms because consumer accounts do not default to zero retention ^{[1] [2] [4]}. The sources used here do not provide independent technical verification of complete removal of all low‑level artifacts across all infrastructure layers.