How thorough is delete?
The same two questions for every product: after you delete a chat, and after you delete your account. Answers come from the companies’ own pages.
| Product | After you delete a chat | After you delete your account | Sources and check date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Leaves your account at once; scheduled for permanent deletion within 30 days, unless held for legal or security reasons. | Not stated separately on the pages we read. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Claude | Leaves your history at once; leaves backend storage within 30 days. | Not stated separately on the pages we read. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Copilot | Older app: you can delete history at any time; kept 18 months by default. New app: not stated. | Not stated on the pages we read. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| DeepSeek | Chat history can be managed, copied or deleted in settings; no period is stated. | Account-related data is kept for as long as the account exists, and may be kept longer to handle violations of the terms. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Gemini | Keep Activity on: auto-deleted after 18 months by default. Keep Activity off or a Temporary chat: kept for 72 hours. Reviewed chats are kept up to 3 years and survive deleting your activity. | Not stated separately on the pages we read. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Grok | Deleted within 30 days, unless kept for legal, compliance or safety reasons. Private Chat: deleted within 30 days. | Deleted within 30 days, unless kept for legal, compliance or safety reasons. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Meta AI | Deleting a message or a conversation does not necessarily delete Meta’s copy; the Privacy Center describes how to delete it. In Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, /reset-ai and /reset-all-ais delete the AI’s copy of messages and saved details. | Deleting your account does not necessarily delete Meta’s copy; the Privacy Center describes how to delete it. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Mistral Vibe | Kept until you delete the conversation. | Kept until you delete your account. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
| Perplexity | Kept only as long as necessary; no fixed period is stated. | No fixed period is stated. | Vendor page · 24 Oct 2026 |
“Not stated” means the pages we read are silent on the point. It is not a statement that the practice does not exist. Each row links to the product page, which lists the company’s own pages and the check date.