Understand how chats and files are retained and what happens when you archive or delete them.

Overview

Retention depends on the type of chat or file, the action you take, and any workspace retention policy that applies.

Regular and archived chats remain saved to your account. Temporary chats follow different retention rules.

Chats

Regular and archived chats remain saved to your account until you delete them or an applicable workspace retention policy removes them.

Archiving a chat does not change its retention period.

When you delete a saved chat:

ChatGPT removes it from your account view immediately.
OpenAI schedules it for permanent deletion from its systems within 30 days, unless the chat was already de-identified and disassociated from your account or OpenAI must retain it longer for security or legal obligations.
You cannot restore a deleted chat in ChatGPT or through OpenAI Support.

For instructions to delete or archive chats, see: Deleting and archiving chats in ChatGPT.

Temporary chat

Temporary chats don’t appear in your chat history unless you save them. OpenAI may keep a copy for up to 30 days for safety purposes.

If you save a temporary chat, it becomes a regular chat and follows the retention rules for saved chats.

For more information about temporary chat, see: Temporary chat in ChatGPT.

Files saved to Library or Space

Files uploaded to or created in ChatGPT can be saved separately from the conversation that used them. Depending on your account, you can find saved files in Library or Space.

Deleting a chat does not delete a separately saved file. Delete the file from Library or Space if you also want to remove that saved copy.

For Enterprise, Edu, and Healthcare workspaces, these saved files follow the workspace retention policy.

For more information about saved files, see: Using Library to manage files in ChatGPT. For help finding saved files in Space, see: Getting started with Space in ChatGPT.

Files in GPTs and projects

Files uploaded as knowledge to a custom GPT are retained until the GPT is deleted.

Files added to a project, including a shared project, are retained until the project or file is deleted or an applicable workspace retention policy removes them.

After the GPT, project, or file is deleted, OpenAI schedules the associated data for permanent deletion within 30 days, unless security or legal obligations require longer retention.

Enterprise compliance considerations

Library files are available through Library-specific Compliance API endpoints while they are active.

Files that are not saved to Library can expire separately from chat-retention settings. For Enterprise workspaces, some transient files can expire after 48 hours unless another retention period applies.

After a Library file is deleted, expires under the workspace retention policy, or otherwise becomes inactive, it is no longer available through the active Compliance API endpoint. OpenAI backups may retain it for up to 30 additional days unless OpenAI must retain it longer for security or legal obligations.

A request for an inactive file may return an error such as:

{
  "error": 
    {
     "message": "File not found in workspace.",
     "type": "invalid_request_error"
    }
}

Chat and file retention in ChatGPT